Chapter 9 Mia
Mia
“Get out.” Edith points to the door.
I ignore her.
I glance around the room—all of them frozen in a perfect tableau of shock and outrage. Eyes like knives. Mouths half-open. Like they can’t believe the quiet little kindergarten teacher just burned their carefully curated Winter Wonderland to ash.
“Oh, I’ll leave, Edith,” I say laconically. “But let’s get a few facts straight first.”
I hadn’t planned on this. But the way they’re all looking at me right now, holier than thou, like I’m at fault, is burning a hole through my gut.
“I’ve kept my mouth shut for six years,” I say. “But I’m about to fix that.”
Diana starts to speak, but I raise my hand. “Don’t. You have a habit of sleeping with married men, don’t you?”
“What?” Her face is grotesque in its shock.
This is the crap my husband left me for?
“Baby, Mia,” Aiden starts, but I silence him by flipping him off for the first time ever. Shock makes him freeze.
“Do you know that Diana’s husband kicked her out of their house because she was sleeping with his cousin, who’s married, and his wife was eight months pregnant then?”
Oh, the silence that went through the room was delicious. And the way they all looked at Diana? Priceless.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Diana hisses.
I grin. “I do. See, your ex’s sister has a kid in kindergarten, and she sort of spilled the beans. People talk to their kids’ teachers, what can I say!”
“This is disgusting.” Gianna shakes her head. “You were always low class; you don’t have to show it.”
“At least I have a job.” I turn on her, furious. “You got fired for incompetence.”
Her mouth drops open. My God, that felt good.
Patrick looks at his wife. “You got fired?”
“Three months ago,” I add, because this is more fun than I thought it could be.
“Aiden,” Nelson roars, “get your wife to shut the—”
“Oh, Nelson, give it a rest. You’re the one who taught your sons about infidelity. Oh, and by the way, Gianna, you know what’s really low class? How your father’s mistress in Montreal is younger than you are.”
Nelson takes a step toward me, but Aiden inserts himself like I need his protection. Asshole!
“Her name is Kitty Anderson. She’s Swedish. Ex model. Current mistress.”
Nelson is fuming.
“Saw her with you six months ago when I was in Montreal with friends. And then, won’t you know it? She and I were on the flight back to Burlington. She told me everything about her Sugar Daddy.”
His face purples. “You self-righteous little—”
“Nelson?” Edith’s voice is squeaky.
“Cut it out, Mia,” Tristan barks.
“And you shouldn’t be talking at all, dear brother-in-law.” I turn my attention to Betty, who has always gone out of her way to talk about my infertility. “He’s fucking Lulu.”
And then I turn to Aiden. “That’s why he doesn’t come to work. The kids are out at school. Betty is medicating her anxiety with champagne and Vicodin with her ladies who lunch group, and he’s banging the French nanny. Can he be more of a cliché?”
Betty starts crying. Tristan is yelling at Aiden to get his bitch wife to shut up.
Edith is screaming at Nelson.
Diana is saying something that no one can hear. She’s not loud enough, and she’s whimpering a whole hell of a lot.
I let my eyes land on Aiden last.
He’s watching me, face pale, lips tight. This isn’t the controlled man who owns boardrooms and builds empires. This is a man watching the ground split beneath him.
“You divorce him, you won’t get a dime.” Nelson’s eyes are like Sauron’s, bitter, filled with fire.
I glance around the room. “First, I never cared about your money. I cared about family. I cared about my husband.”
I don’t look at said husband because I’m losing steam. I’m about to crack open. It's a good thing Cristiano is outside in his SUV. I texted him right before we started doing presents.
“Second, after suffering through your company for so many years, I think I’ve earned my cut of the business, don’t you?”
Nelson laughs. “I know your prenup and—"
I hold up my hand. “Remember that little clause you insisted on? The one about infidelity?”
I know it by heart.
Both Parties agree to uphold marital trust, discretion, and mutual respect. If either engages in conduct that reasonably compromises the marriage, the other may pursue equitable remedies, including up to 50% of the offending party’s assets, as allowed by law.
He snorts. “You have no foot to stand on, missy.”
Katya is certain that the photograph of Diana and Aiden kissing will hold up in court.
If Aiden protests too much, she’ll subpoena every email they sent to one another, every dinner they shared and where, every piece of communication between them.
She’ll depose his colleagues and everyone else who was privy to their relationship. She has promised to ‘fuck his life up.’
Well, someone obviously didn’t read the fine print, but this missy did. How utterly delicious!
I shrug. “Then it’ll all be fine, right?”
Aiden shakes his head. His eyes are wet, his demeanor that of someone who got battered.
Welcome to my world!
“Mia, we should—”
“Talk? About what? How you are just like your father and your brother? Then you should have married someone like them…like Diana.”
“No,” Aiden says, his eyes on me despite the drama around us. “I made a mistake. No way around that, Mia. But—”
“I’m the one who made the mistake.” My eyes fill with tears. I can no longer stop them. “I should never have married someone as emotionally and morally bankrupt as you.”
I glance down at the divorce papers still scattered on the floor, then I leave.
I get to the foyer and wrap myself back in my coat.
Pick up my purse, and walk out.
It takes less than sixty seconds to leave the family I spent years trying to win over.