CHAPTER THIRTY
ZANDER
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I’m rarely wrong, but in this case it took until Wednesday afternoon the following week to settle the divorce between Adam and Courtney Blackmore.
After attending all the meetings I couldn’t shift on Monday morning, I headed to Tiffany’s on Fifth Avenue and purchased the biggest fucking diamond I could find.
I know the mother of my child doesn’t think my proposal was genuine, but Courtney is about to learn otherwise. The number of carats should communicate that loud and clear, and that I won’t let her take it off the minute it slides onto her finger.
When I returned with sushi and a smile, Jason and Sean asked to see me urgently.
I’ll be honest, I was concerned.
But I had no reason to be.
“Lucas has sent through a thorough report, and there are two points,” Jason said, referring to our private investigator, as I hung up my jacket.
“Let’s hear them.”
“Blackmore has actively hidden and dissipated marital assets through offshore accounts, shell companies, and fraudulent transfers, concealing assets from his wife.”
“Not sure he ever revealed them, as she never had access, but this is important and he never stated them on his disclosure.”
“It’s fraud,” Sean said, telling us what we already know.
I almost smiled with joy. This was good news. Not for Courtney, but it meant we had the ability to force his hand now.
“What is the second point?”
“Lucas found he’d been illegally surveilling Courtney, and he said he was sending you a file with information you might want.”
Fuck.
I’d seen an email earlier today but figured it was the same file my team was reviewing and paid no attention to it. At least not urgently, knowing Sean and Jason were onto it.
“Nice work, guys.” I nod, thanking them as they left. “Kathy, get Warren Vanguard on the phone for me. Tell him he’ll want to speak to me urgently.”
Or there would be consequences. He’d heard the unspoken threat in my PA’s request. Adam Blackmore played dirty first, so I was just returning the favor.
The billionaire would fold like a napkin when he learned what we knew.
Turns out Warren was having a minor operation, so I had to wait until Tuesday afternoon to get a response. It gave me time to get all the paperwork in order and call Lucas.
“Mr. Sterling,” the former FBI agent answered.
“Thank you for the information,” I said tentatively.
“You have nothing to worry about. I have no desire to reveal your relationship with Mrs. Blackmore to the State Bar.”
Thank fuck.
“What do I owe you?” Nothing came for free in this town, and we both knew it.
“If I divorce my wife, I’ll let you know.” He chuckled darkly. “But I’d like permission to share my findings with someone discreetly. There is more I’ve found on Blackmore I haven’t revealed and...let’s just say he’s shady as fuck.”
Jesus.
“You have it. Let me get this divorce over with so Courtney is a free woman, and...yeah, if you can destroy the evidence you have, I’d appreciate it.”
He could’ve had me disbarred, but I believed he had no interest in doing so.
I’d used him as an investigator for years and as a divorce attorney I wasn’t of any value to a man like him.
Unless he was crooked and wanted money. But he didn’t.
He wanted to see Blackmore taken down almost as much as I did.
“Already destroyed,” Lucas said.
It was a risk, I knew that. But soon she wouldn’t be my client, and we weren’t the only people who’d met under similar circumstances.
I wasn’t worried. The stakes had changed now she was carrying my kid, so I would deal with it if someone reported us.
Later that night, I rang Courtney and updated her. “You can ask for more than fifty percent, sweetheart.”
“No, I just want what is legally mine.”
“An estimate Jason drew up puts your probable claim at sixty-three percent. We won’t know for sure unless you report him to the police or sue him.”
She went quiet. “I know you won’t agree, but Zander, it’s just money. Between us, we have more than enough. I’m worried about the stress on our child.”
Fuck, I fell in love with her even more in that moment. I can’t believe I questioned her morals for even a moment.
I love this woman.
I love our unborn child.
I love our life together now and how I see it unfolding in the future.
While I wanted to destroy Blackmore after what he did to Courtney, in one way I should be thanking him. If he hadn’t lifted a finger to her, she would have stayed. That’s the kind of woman she is.
But he did, and now she belongs to me.
She is perfect and fits me better than my favorite Tom Ford pants. Not that I’d repeat that to her. I’m already failing in the romance category, which is why I recruited my friends to help me out.
This proposal has to be highly confidential, after all, given our situation.
“I damn well knew it!” Sebastian put his hands on his head when I invited them all over for dinner on Tuesday night and told them Courtney was pregnant.
“Calm down,” I laughed, pouring the wine into Mason’s glass, then Colt’s.
“Calm down! You’re going to get disbarred.”
I sat down, the stupid smile I’d been walking around with for days still planted on my face.
“He’s lost his mind. He’s gone mad. Look at him.” Seb pointed.
“Give him time to explain.” Drew watched me while Mason and Dereck looked confused.
Damon was unavailable, so we’d have to catch him up another day.
I lifted my wine and swirled it around in the glass. “So...wait...who killed someone?”
“What?” they all asked simultaneously, looking confused.
“Never mind. Drew offered to bury a body, and I figured it wasn’t the first time.”
“What is happening right now?” Mason asks, looking between me and Drew.
“I thought he’d committed a crime, so I asked him if I needed to change my shoes to bury a body.”
Everyone laughs...almost everyone.
“You knew?!” Sebastian exclaims. “And for the record, we’re not killing a pregnant woman or her ex-husband...or anyone.”
“Never say never.” Colt shoots me a grin.
“Much as I love this banter and letting Sebastian plan how he’s going to break us out of jail—”
“I wouldn’t—”
“You would. Anyway, I’m in love with Courtney.”
“Called it.” Dereck nods, looking proud of himself.
“When?” I frown, because no, he didn’t.
“Fine, I had an inkling.”
“We all had an inkling, Jesus.” Sebastian rubs his face, still not understanding.
“Not all of us.” Mason glances at Colt, who bunches his mouth. “You did, too?”
“He offered me one hundred and twenty million for my club. I figured some woman was fucking with his brain.”
My two friend's nod knowingly at one another.
“Okay, okay. I get the whole falling in love thing now.” I got everyone’s attention again. “I’ll admit, I thought you were all insane, and let’s face it, you were. Are.”
“Fair,” Drew chuckles.
“Now, I’m obviously, thank you Sebastian, in a pickle. I can’t publicly be seen to be in a relationship with Courtney right now for both our sakes. Mine more than hers,” I shared. “But I need her to know that I’m serious about marrying her.”
“Christ,” Seb curses.
“What? She’s having my child. I want my ring on her finger and a wedding planned so Courtney knows we’re a family. That’s important to her.”
Mason nodded at me.
Dereck ran a hand over his face.
“What?” I ask him.
“I ran into her friend the other night again,” he admitted.
“Kylie?”
“Yeah, that’s her name. The model.”
“God, remember the days when you couldn’t even remember their names.” Colt sipped his wine and swirled it. “We had no idea.”
Ignoring him, I turn my attention back to Dereck. “And?”
“And I didn’t know you were going to marry her fucking best friend!” Dereck exclaimed. “She was your client. Is your client.”
“Well aware, thanks, buddy.” I rolled my eyes. “Whatever you did, make it right.”
“Fine,” he muttered and tugged out his phone.
And that’s how I recruited my friends into my plan to propose to Courtney.
Then, the next day, Warren appeared on my screen, and we swapped pleasantries.
“How was the operation?” I asked.
“It was nothing serious,” Warren sipped his coffee.
“You know Botox isn’t considered surgery, right?” I grinned.
“Fuck off.” Warren tried to look annoyed but failed. “I thought we were meeting Friday. What’s so urgent that it couldn’t wait? I have ten minutes, Zander.”
I arranged my monitor so I could read out the details.
“You’re going to want to shift a few things after we’re done.” We might be competitors, but we were also peers who’d known each other for years. My confident and slightly concerned tone got his attention.
“Jesus. Tell me.”
“Your client has been moving money through offshore accounts that we have visibility of. Via four shell companies. Whatever his motive, these funds have not been declared as they should have. Which is fraud. At best...” I let the unspoken hang in the air, as Warren is smart enough to work it out.
If his client doesn’t give my client what she wants, we’ll go to the authorities, and Blackmore has a lot more to worry about than paying his wife her legally entitled share and settling his divorce.
A lot more.
“Fucking hell,” Warren groans. “I’ll get back to you by morning.”
With an offer is what he didn’t say.
I was right.
Adam Blackmore deleted all his offending social posts, agreed to the fifty percent split, and the dissolution of the marriage was confirmed as of three this afternoon. Wednesday.
As I knew it would. Still, it’s bittersweet for Courtney who had to come to grips with yet another chip in the trust she’d once had in her marriage.
Hopefully now she’ll never look back.
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COURTNEY
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MORNING SICKNESS KICKED in two days ago, and while I’d rather stay home tonight and eat potato chips, pickles and bananas—yes, in the same bowl—Zander has been pacing my living room for the past hour nervously.
“It’s probably better if I don’t join you, anyway, under the circumstances,” I say in regard to the party he’s invited me to attend with him tonight.
It’s Saturday, and it’s been an enormous week.