F O U R TW
T H R E E: Local Hacker.
Raven’s POV
Three days later, the day Matthew got served with divorce papers, he’d blown up my phone with texts, calls, DMs, and even emails.
Reading his messages, it seemed he had rushed home, saw that we, along with all of our things, were gone, minus most of the furniture.
The voice note I got after he read the note I had left, saying he was going to need to reimburse me for it all, since he’d ‘stained’ it during their time, was not kind .
I didn’t block him, though. As per Jefferson’s orders, that way we could continue to collect more evidence from him.
Anything we could use for a restraining order, also.
Jefferson was just looking for things now, having fun toying with Matthew like he did to me.
We would keep all the messages, just in case they might help in the divorce.
None of the messages were pretty.
The voicemail I got after he talked to Sullivan about what it meant that I filed first in the divorce, and he was most likely told that, since he’d lost ground on being the first to file, it was even worse.
He’d called me every name in the book, wished all but a peaceful death on me, and then realized he had to go with his third choice of lawyer; he was even more pissed.
Sullivan’s license to practice law was temporarily suspended while being investigated for breaking bar regulations.
It took a month before the divorce could actually start.
His lawyer was smart enough to suggest mediation.
Though when his girlfriend was served, he lost all civility.
He said he’d see us in court, which was where we were currently sitting.
Emily was sitting in the row behind my side with Ryder.
Matthew was sitting with his boss, mistress, girlfriend, whatever she was to him, behind him, and his lawyer.
His lawyer was currently shaking his head at his client’s outburst. I motioned to Mom to take Ryder out of here.
I didn’t want him to hear anything else.
This was getting ugly, and I needed to protect him as much as I could.
I needed that more than I needed her here with me.
“The next outburst in my courtroom will have you held in contempt of court, Mr. Owens.” I watched from the corner of my eye as he sat back in his seat, face angry and arms crossed over his chest, looking like a child who was just told no, an overgrown toddler throwing a tantrum. Honestly.
How was I ever attracted to this man?
Once Jefferson was done presenting evidence, of not only the affair, but of my husband and his Karen (pardon me while I barf real quick) posing as me to open up these other accounts, the judge was furious. He looked like he was going to have flames coming out of the top of his head.
“Is your lawyer here with you, Ms. Hannahan?” She nodded, a small woman standing up next to her introduced herself as the legal counsel.
“Alright. I’ve seen the evidence. Is there anything Ms. Hannahan would like to say in her defense?”
“No, your honor.”
“Good. Now then, Mr. Owens, you clearly had an affair. A very long-term affair with Ms. Hannahan. Mr. Owens, do you object to anything, including custody of your son, that your wife has proposed?” The judge asked, I think just trying to get this done and over with.
“Yeah! I’m not paying for falling in love with someone else! If she’d been a proper wife and shown me any support or affection, we wouldn’t be here! I’m the victim in this, your honor!” He shouted indignantly. The judge looked at him, like he’d lost his damn mind. Maybe he had.
“What is it you object to?” The judge looked at him, one eyebrow ticked up slightly.
“I won’t pay her a single penny!”
“Well, considering the post-nup you have, with the cheating clause written in, stating the offending party is to pay one hundred thousand dollars in a single lump sum, along with any child support to be calculated. You don’t have to worry about paying more than that.
” The judge stated, leafing through the paperwork in front of him.
Matthew froze at that, then looked confused.
“What post-nup? What is that? What are you talking about, Your Honor?” His voice rose in panic.
“You signed it here. It looks like the date it was filed was about six weeks ago.” Matthew’s face turned red in anger.
He turned to look at me while I was listening to Jefferson tell me that he’s only pretending to say something to me, but he’s going to bring up custody of Ryder in a moment, all while Matthew looked ready to kill me.
I had to work hard to focus on Jefferson.
He promised it would push Matthew, and he’d make another mistake.
Ignoring instead of engaging was the best way to deal with guys like him.
“Your Honor, if I may?” My lawyer interrupted.
The judge nodded, “We’d really like to discuss custody of the minor child.
We are hoping to keep him with his mother, as his father has proven to be an unstable party.
” Jefferson kept his eyes on the judge, ignoring my soon-to-be ex-husband like he wasn’t even there, while Matt’s lawyer tried to keep him in his seat.
It wasn’t working too well, and Matt stood up, outraged.
“Unstable?! I’m not unstable! I just don’t want to deal with a kid anymore! I want to be free from you and the shackles that come with being tied to you! I’ll pay the hundred thousand. I’ll pay a lump sum of child support. Fuck it. Anything to get me the fuck away from her faster .”
“Watch your language in my courtroom, Mr. Owens!” The judge demanded as Matthew shrugged, sitting back in his seat, looking incredibly mad.
Probably thinking about the accounts, the ones he thinks I supposedly don’t know about.
Lucky for me, Jefferson’s PI was the best in the business, and so was his tech guy.
There was some back and forth, mainly about the asset division, but in the end, I was awarded full custody, and Matthew was made to have supervised visits once a week until he either came to his senses or terminated his parental rights, which he seemed to think was some sort of honor.
Like he could just shrug his son off and wash his hands of the responsibility.
His girlfriend was ordered to pay me one hundred thousand dollars for getting involved with a married man, resulting in the ruin of the marriage and family.
After I left, Matthew picked up on the fact that I wasn’t coming back, and she stupidly started posting their love story on social media, flaunting it, proud of being together without a care.
I was just waiting until the money hit my account, the new one he didn’t know about.
Jefferson and I left the courthouse to meet Mom and Ryder for a quick lunch at the diner across the street, then we headed back to his office to meet this PI.
I wanted to thank him in person for all his help.
While we were waiting for the PI to show up, Jefferson got a call on his phone.
I pulled mine out, not waiting to eavesdrop on his call, I decided to check my texts and emails.
There were a few from Stormi wishing me luck, promising a signed copy of her book if I needed or wanted it, as well as a text from an unknown number.
Unknown : Your ex is really a worthless piece of trash. Happy to help you get rid of him. I’m the tech guy the PI uses. My name is Beckam, but everyone calls me Hacker. If you ever need help again, I’ll be here.
I saved the number before replying.
Raven: Thank you for all your help. I don’t know if things would have gone as smoothly as they did without you. Jefferson said that you had to do a lot of digging to find the accounts and footage of them posing as me. Thank you. So, so much. From both my son and me.
Hacker: Anytime. I’ll check in later.
I smiled, holding my phone close to my chest. There were good people out there. Granted, he was getting paid to do a job, but I didn’t think he was getting paid to check in later. Maybe he wouldn’t, maybe this was just him trying to be kind. Who knew.
We shall see, I guess .