Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
PAIGE
“Paige? Hey, I didn’t expect you to be here so quickly.” Joseph Banks, the lawyer friend Trevor made in college, meets me in the waiting room, a look of concern etched across his ridiculously attractive features.
“It’s really important and time-sensitive.” I stand with my manila folder. Inside is everything I need to take this next, massive step.
I dropped Becky off at work, then ran back to my house and got ready for my day.
Today, I’m taking the wheel and doing what I want to do.
Not what I think others believe I should do.
Not what society thinks I should do, and definitely not what Dick Shitaker thinks I should do.
I’m doing what I want to do, and everyone else is going to have to adjust. The fear that coursed through me when Bobby put his hands on me reset my system.
A series of incidents over the years. The confusion I felt when my doctor told me I couldn’t have another baby.
The fear of watching the doctors take me away from my husband.
The pain of watching my child cry from want of love from his grandparents.
The hopelessness, pain, fear, confusion.
I’m sick of it. I’m done with it. I’m not letting things happen to me anymore.
I want our family out from under Dick’s thumb. I want to kick my husband’s ass. I want to pull Krista around by her hair and throw her into a puddle of mud.
Mostly, I want my family back. I want my babies to be in a safe, happy, and full home with their father in their lives to watch them grow. I’m going to get what I want, now. I’m not hoping. I’m not watching. I’m not asking. I’m done waiting.
“Yes, of course. Come on.” Joseph ushers me toward the door, but stops and calls to the receptionist. “Hey, Charlotte, could you reschedule my ten o’clock?
” Joseph meets my expression, and he must see something significant there because he adds, “Maybe postpone the next one if you don’t hear from me in twenty, and keep doing that until I come back out. ”
“Can do, boss.”
He nods, then directs me to his office. He holds the door open to a clean space—generic successful lawyer stuff.
Big windows, heavy wooden furniture, and a ton of important-looking books.
“Please, sit. Tell me what I can do to help, Paige.” Instead of rounding the desk, he sits in the seat next to mine.
Picking up a pen, he selects a notepad and turns to me, clicking once before raising a brow and poising it above the paper.
“You are aware that I can’t represent both of you—”
I slap my thick folder against the desk. “I need you to tell me about predatory loans. In particular, personal loans that exceed one million dollars without any safeguards or paperwork to track them.”
The concern on his face melts away into one of confusion. “You—I’m sorry. What did you say?”
Isn’t he supposed to be good at this stuff?
“Is it legal to require someone to fill an NDA that prohibits them from speaking to even a lawyer as part of a loan?” I pull out the papers I brought, one by one—bank statements, copies of Trevor’s paychecks over the last five years since he started at the bank, the hospital bill.
In my pocket is a copy of his father’s shackles. That will come out later.
“I—” He clears his throat and straightens up in his seat.
“I’m sorry. I have to admit that I had some assumptions about why you’re here, and I need to think about your question for a second.
” He looks genuinely perplexed, and I have no idea why he’s expecting me to show up.
He must read my confusion. “Uh, yeah. So, Trevor has talked to me a few times, making sure to update and ensure the …” He begins to fidget. “Ahem. The post-nup—”
“Oh. Oh!” Wow. “Did he ask you to draft a—”
“No! Not that. Hell, I’m botching this all to shit. The only reason I’m telling you this is because he expressly told me that the Lawyer-client confidentiality between us extends to you.”
“I want you to maintain it with me, please. I request confidentiality unless I state otherwise.”
He dips his head. “Of course. Yes, now I would like to understand what’s happening here.
” His fidgeting stops abruptly. “An NDA, you say? No. It’s not something that will hold up in court.
It’s in the damn constitution. A citizen has the right to counsel.
That would be pretty damn hard to do if the counsel can’t even see the document, don’t you think? ”
I release the air I was holding and feel the restless energy slowly release from my body.
Gathering my courage, I drop the papers back onto the desk and give it to him straight.
The thwap of the papers hitting the desk makes him flinch, but then lean forward in clear, lawyer interest. I clear my throat and begin.
“I have a bunch of questions for you, a phone call we need to make, then a document you need to see.”
“Sounds great. Let’s get started.”
“No! You’re not listening, you straightlaced-upity sonuvabitch!” My finger is in his chest, and Joseph useless-piece-of-shit Banks is standing there with his hands raised in front of him, which seems hard to do when he’s got his thumb up his ass.
“You need to calm down—”
“Oh. My. God! I could rip your eyebrows from your face. Stop waving them around like that!”
“Seriously, Paige. I’m worried.”
“Well, don’t be!”
A slamming door in the hallway is followed by my name being called out by a familiar, panicked voice.
“Paige? Paige!”
I whip my head back to the suit in front of me. “You—”
His hands go higher. “I didn’t say anything.”
“Sir, Trevor. No, you can’t go in there. Joseph has a client—”
“Excuse me, Lettie, but try to stop me.” The door crashes open behind me, and there stands Trevor—chest heaving and eyes wild.
“I’m not ready. Don’t do this, Paige. I swear to you, I know I—”
A harried-looking Charlotte shows up at the door, interrupting him. “Trevor William Whitaker. I told you.” He doesn’t even give her a glance as his eyes narrow at where I stand. Just like in the car last night, our eyes are locked, and everything else around us disappears.
“… call security?’
“… not necessary.”
The door shuts, but we remain in our silent standoff.
“Why are you crying?” His voice is low and raspy. I reach up and pat my cheeks. Sure enough, my hands come away wet. Stupid pregnancy hormones.
“Trevor.” Joseph speaks up from behind me, pulling Trevor’s singular attention his way. If I thought he went stock still before, it’s nothing to the preternatural stillness that overcomes him now. It’s intense and distracting.
“What the fuck did you do to my wife, Banks?” He growls, low and menacing, and I feel it down to my bones.
He takes a slow step in our direction, followed directly by another and another until he’s pressed against me.
The red lining his knuckles stands out in stark relief against the tightening of his fist. Is he bleeding? What is happening?
I push back against Trevor, realizing this version of my husband might skip the discussion part of things.
“He didn’t do anything.” I shoot him a glare.
“That’s part of the problem.” Trevor looks down at me again, his burning blue eyes taking in the tears on my face, then dragging down my torso, pausing on my stomach.
He blinks, and his throat moves in a hard swallow.
“Paige—” He reaches his hand up as if to brush my tears with his fingers, but curls his fingers into a fist before he can make contact. He lowers his hand slowly back down to his side. “I don’t know what to do.”
I nod to the chair. “Sit.” I nudge him toward the open seat, and he sucks in a quick breath.
“We all need to—” Mr. Useless speaks up.
“You too, Banks.” You’re still on my shit list. “This apparently is great timing for once, Trevor. I was going to call you soon anyway, but this works even better. I need to sue your father, but this idiotic excuse for a lawyer—” He scoffs, and I shoot daggers at him.
“He seems to have forgotten that I’m your wife and therefore thinks I have no right to litigation. ”
“Well, yeah.” Trevor settles into a seat and nods approvingly at Joseph, who sits across from him.
“You see? Like I kept telling you. From what you’ve told me, it does not affect you. I helped Trevor check over that stupid post-nuptial agreement countless times over the years. It’s because of a biannual check-in that you were ’still safe,’ as he put it.”
Safe.
“Trevor, show him the agreement. Show him what that monster made you sign.”
“Paige! No, What—”
“Dick couldn’t do a thing about your lawyer seeing it. Nothing.” Trevor looks at me before he drops his head to his hands. “You have to know it’s true.”
He lets out a slow breath, dropping his shoulders when he responds, his voice muffled. “I know it.”
“You always knew.”
He shakes his head. “Not always, but it was while I was in college that it started to sink in. By the time I had enough money to consider hiring a lawyer—” He sighs and takes my hand. “He’s going to do everything in his power to keep us in court and wrapped up in legal shit.”
“So what?”
“So what …” He skims over the papers I have scattered on the desk in front of us, and the paper folded and gripped in my hands. “What do you want?”
I don’t hesitate. “I want him to pay for the damage he’s done.”
He lifts my hand and grazes my knuckles with his lips, making the hairs on my arms stand straight up. He pulls away and drops my hand, taking the paper instead. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
He nods and hands the paper to Joseph, not dropping my gaze. “I have a plan, and we need to discuss everything happening in the bank right now. We could get him served tomorrow if you want to—”
I bounce in my seat. “Yes!”
“But, I have something in the works that will be a more thorough dismantling of everything he finds precious.”
“Oh.” I think it over before I shake my head. “I’m done waiting. I want him buried, and soon.”