3
W hile sitting in the waiting area, Knox couldn’t stop his leg from bouncing. He wasn’t nervous, but anxious. He hadn’t realized how long he’d been mentally counting down the days to now since he’d separated from Mia. Counting them more openly once he’d decided to take the next step, the final step.
It’d been two weeks since he’d filled out the questionnaire on the website. Two weeks of him gathering information for incidents he remembered, as well as recording any incident that happened over the past two weeks. The amount of evidence was almost shocking. Most of it was Mia sending him belligerent text messages or leaving voicemails; but there was another time Mia denied him the opportunity to spend the weekend with Yasmine, stating she wanted to. Instead, she left her with the babysitter again.
He’d brought everything with him. Even printing copies of the text messages to leave with the lawyer. Knox had no desire to draw this out. He’d given it a year, though his marriage had been over before then, and nothing had changed. So, now, he wanted it done as soon as possible. Though he was sure it wouldn’t be that easy.
Knox showed up to his scheduled appointment twenty minutes early. He was always one to show up a little early for anything, but he hadn’t realized exactly how early he was. Knox turned down the drinks offered to him, and he killed the time by flipping through a magazine and glancing at the television on the wall.
“Mr. Chandler, Ms. Neel is ready for you. If you’ll follow me.”
Knox stood, following behind the other man down the hall. They came to an open door, and he was gestured in. He walked into the office, and the woman who stood from behind the desk had him pausing momentarily.
Knox had done and seen a lot of things over his life and football career. But he had never seen a woman who could make a suit look sexier than any lingerie he’d ever seen. The soft lavender two-piece pantsuit fit her every curve; but it wasn’t in a way that made it seem as if she was trying to sexualize it.
The color complimented the penny hue of her skin. Skin that looked as smooth as silk. He’d bet it was as soft as pillows. Her face was soft, almost innocent, if Knox didn’t know any better. However, it was her eyes that pulled him in, held him captive. They were deep brown, so deep that if he hadn’t seen the barely lighter fleck of brown, he would have thought they were black. Gorgeous felt like an inadequate word to describe her.
Knox shook himself mentally. He was there to proceed with a divorce filing. Not to appreciate the lawyer that would help him do so.
“Mr. Chandler, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Aiva Neel,” she greeted, holding her hand out.
Knox took her hand, shaking it. “Ms. Neel, it’s a pleasure.” He recalled the assistant referring to her as Ms. Unmarried.
“Please, call me Aiva,” she requested, gesturing to a chair.
Knox took a seat. “Then I insist you call me Knox.”
He watched as she retook her seat and leaned forward, intertwining her hands on top of the desk. Knox placed the folder he’d brought with him on it.
“I understand that you’re looking to file for divorce,” Aiva spoke, and Knox nodded. “Can you tell me about your marriage, how things have been going, and what you’re wanting out of the separation?”
“My wife and I separated a year ago. We’d been having problems for several years. It started shortly after our daughter was born. We’re on different paths and have been for a while. She’s never going to give up the house, and that’s fine. She can have it. I had her sign a prenup before we were married. I have no issue paying her what’s agreed upon in the document. But I want full custody of our daughter.”
Knox hadn’t had to think about it. When he decided to proceed, the first thing that came to his mind was that he wanted full custody of Yasmine. He also wanted to have Mia under supervised visitation. Knox knew better than to think the first time she had Yasmine over that she wouldn’t try to take her somewhere just to spite him. He was sure the only reason she hadn’t already was because he was paying all the bills. Once she had her settlement, he couldn’t be 100 percent sure what she would do.
“I’d also like supervised visitation with Mia, my wife, if that’s possible.”
Knox watched Aiva sit back in her seat. “I don’t see why it wouldn’t be if there was a legitimate reason to place her under supervised visitations.” She gestured towards the folder. “Can I look at that?”
“Sure,” Knox responded, picking the folder up and handing it to her. “You can keep that. I took the suggestion given when I submitted my questionnaire. There are documented text messages, voicemails, and other incidents. There’s also a copy of the prenup inside.”
“I’ll look over everything inside. It’ll build a good case if we can’t settle this out of court.” Aiva placed the folder aside. “I want to verify that I get everything down that you’re wanting. So, stop me if I say something incorrect, or forget something.”
Knox nodded, watching as she picked up the pen that had been sitting neatly beside her on top of a tablet. She wrote something on the screen before she began speaking again.
“She can keep the house. You’re willing to pay her the agreed amount in the prenup that she signed.” She paused, looking up at him. “Can you tell me what that figure is?”
“Two million,” Knox responded, and Aiva nodded, going back to writing.
Knox knew well that Mia would argue that she deserved more. Especially since the prenup was signed when he was still in the first few years of his career. When his contracts increased, and he got into more investments, they never revisited the terms.
“Are there any joint assets? Bank accounts, vehicles, vacation homes?”
“No,” Knox responded. “We have separate bank accounts. I bought her car, but it’s in her name. I don’t want it. We don’t have any vacation homes.”
“So, nothing other than the house?”
“Correct. I have vacation homes, but they’re investment properties. They all fall under my LLC, and she has no connection with them.”
“Is that stated in the prenup?” Aiva inquired.
“It’s worded as, ‘no future assets, properties, etc. belonging to’ the name of my LLC.”
He watched as Aiva nodded. “The lawyer that drew this up for you was smart.”
They fell into silence for several moments as she wrote on her tablet. As she did, Knox studied her again. Her hair was pulled up into a bun on the top of her head, with slim tendrils on either side of her face. His attention was momentarily drawn down to full lips before his eyes returned to hers as she spoke.
“Alright. I’ll write up the petition once I’ve reviewed everything you’ve given me. That way, I can have a jumpstart if this has to go to court. Give me about a week, and I’ll call you back in to go over it before I file it.”
“Okay, and once it’s filed?”
“We hire a company to serve her with papers, and from there, it could go in a few different directions. She and her lawyer could read it over, agree, and sign. She may not agree with something, and we go into mediation, and if mediation doesn’t work, we may find ourselves in court.”
Knox nodded, aware that they would end up in mediation simply because Mia wouldn’t agree to giving him full custody. He was sure she’d also come up with whatever other reason she could.
“Do you have questions for me?” Aiva asked him.
“I think that’s all for now,” Knox stated, standing. “Thank you. I look forward to your call.” She held her hand out, and he grasped her soft hand in his once again. He almost didn’t want to let it go, but bid her farewell and exited the office.
A iva stared at the door Knox had just left through for a second or two longer than she knew she should have or needed to. The man was fine. He was tall, over six feet, with a build that told her he still worked out regularly. She knew he’d played football professionally in the past. His goatee was well manicured, pool-deep cerulean eyes, and she knew his cologne would linger in her office, reminding her of him until it dissipated. Yes, he was attractive. That was plain enough to see. However, that was all she would be doing. Looking, because she wasn’t one that mixed business with pleasure. At least, not when their firm was representing him.
Saving the notes that she wrote, she pushed her tablet aside. She could have taken them on her computer, but she’d always felt as if it were rude to type when someone was trying to speak. Even if you were doing it for a good reason. Aiva also liked to take notes after she’d heard from her client, not during. That way, she could repeat it back to them as she wrote it, and it solidified the information in her head.
Opening the folder, she took out the printed text messages placed on the left-hand side. If she had to guess, she would say there were at least thirty pages of them. Just from the first page she read, she could tell that Mia was a certain type of pest. Demanding, to say the least, and she didn’t even know the woman.
By the time Aiva finished reading page two, she found Mia was also entitled. If Knox did something, it wasn’t good enough from Mia’s own admission, and she wanted more.
When she’d gotten through the first five pages, she discovered that the woman was manipulative as well. She liked to use their daughter, Yasmine, as a tool to get Knox to do what she wanted. Aiva hated those types of parents. She always enjoyed knocking them down a notch. Male or female.
Aiva only got through the first seven pages before she was putting the printed text messages back. She was already sick of reading the other woman’s words. So, she put them aside and pulled out the prenup. It wasn’t very long, just three and a half pages. It was standard, and there were no loopholes that she could find in it, but that didn’t mean that the opposing counsel wouldn’t try to. She suspected they would go into mediation just from the text messages she’d read.
There was even a USB inside with a sticky note on it titled voicemails. Aiva looked at it, debating whether she wanted to put herself through that just yet. Especially if the nature was anything like the text messages.
Instead, she opted to read accounts that were typed up of incidents where Mia had purposely kept Yasmine from Knox, with witness statements. It seemed he’d definitely taken the advice into account. She was sure that the texts alone would be enough to get him full custody, though she wasn’t sure if they would be enough for supervised visitations.
Placing everything back into the folder, Aiva placed it in one of her drawers and locked it away. She would look at it more a bit later. There was an hour before she needed to be in a mediation meeting, and she hoped this would be the last one for this couple. They’d been going back and forth for almost four months now, and Aiva felt as if they were just dragging it out at this point.
Hopefully, they would reach an agreement, and she could be done with them because even her own client was giving her headaches.
A iva walked into her house, placed her bag by the door, went into the kitchen, and grabbed a bottle of wine from her wine refrigerator. She needed a drink. The mediation session had gone on longer than it should have, but in the end, they reached an agreement.
She poured herself a generous glass of wine and went to her bedroom. Taking her shoes off, she sat her wine down on the dresser. She placed the shoes in her walk-in closet, removed her suit jacket, undid the top button on her blouse, and pulled it out of her pants.
Grabbing her glass and leaving the room, Aiva went to the living room. She grabbed her phone from the side of her bag and sat down on the couch. She wasn’t in the mood to cook and decided to place an order for Italian food.
Turning on the television, she went to her DVR, and found the last episode she’d recorded. She watched the episode and got comfortable starting the relaxed weekend she had planned.