13. Liana
— ? —
Liana
The hallway outside his office was quiet except for the sound of my own breathing.
I stood with my back against the wall and the envelope pressed flat against my chest.
A capo walked past me without stopping, his eyes sliding away from mine the moment they made contact.
He nodded once and kept moving. Two more men came around the corner and did the same thing, their conversation cutting off mid-sentence when they saw me standing there, their gazes dropping to the floor as they passed.
They knew. Everyone knew. The photo was still circulating, Posy Wetherell’s post still racking up comments, and every man in this compound had seen it by now.
I closed my eyes and let my head fall back against the wall.
***
Marguerite Hale was known for being cutthroat and that’s exactly what I needed.
She had come out from behind her desk to shake my hand when I walked in.
“Mrs. Costa.” She gestured to the chair across from her desk and waited until I sat before settling back into her own seat.
“I have to admit, I was surprised to get your call. I’ve handled matters for several of the Newport families over the years, but your husband has always used his bunch of lawyers for his personal affairs. ”
“I’m not here for my husband’s affairs.” I set my purse on the floor beside my chair and folded my hands in my lap to keep them from shaking. “I’m here for mine.”
“I see.” She didn’t reach for a pen or a notepad, just sat there with her hands folded on the desk and her eyes on my face. “And what affairs would those be?”
“I need divorce papers drawn up.”
“A divorce from Dominic Costa is not going to be straightforward.”
“I don’t care about straightforward.” I met her gaze and held it. “I care about fair. I’m not trying to take his money or his business or anything that belongs to him. I just want out.”
“May I ask what prompted this decision?”
“Does it matter?”
“It might, depending on how he responds to being served.” She leaned back in her chair. “If there are circumstances that would affect custody arrangements or asset division, I need to know about them now rather than discovering them later in a courtroom.”
“He hasn’t hit me, if that’s what you’re asking.” I heard my voice go flat. “He hasn’t cheated on me, at least not that I can prove. He’s just… stopped seeing me. Stopped being my husband. Stopped being a father to our daughter in any way that counts.”
“And there’s another woman involved. I saw the photograph.” Marguerite’s voice was neutral, giving nothing away. “It’s been making the rounds this morning.”
Marguerite was quiet for a moment, her face unreadable.
“What do you want from the divorce?”
“I want our daughter.” I said it without hesitation. “Primary custody, with reasonable visitation for him, because whatever else he’s done wrong, Bianca loves her father and I won’t take that away from her.”
“And financially?”
“I don’t want his money.” I shook my head. “I don’t want the houses or the cars or the accounts. I just want enough to start over somewhere, to build a life for myself and Bianca without depending on him for anything.”
“That’s very generous of you, given the circumstances.” Marguerite made a note on her pad. “Most wives in your position would be looking to take him for everything they could get.”
“I’m not most wives.” I stood up and reached for my purse. “And I don’t want anything from him except my freedom and my daughter. Can you draw up the papers or not?”
“I can have them ready by tomorrow morning.” She stood as well, extending her hand. “I’ll call you when they’re done and you can come pick them up.”
“I’ll call you. My husband has access to my phone records and I don’t want him knowing about this until I’m ready to tell him myself.”
“Very well.” She walked me to the door of her office. “Mrs. Costa, one more thing.”
I stopped with my hand on the doorknob. “Yes?”
“I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I’ve seen a lot of marriages fall apart for a lot of different reasons.” She looked at me with something that might have been respect. “It takes a certain kind of strength to walk away from a man like your husband. Most women wouldn’t have the courage.”
“I don’t have courage.” I opened the door and stepped through it. “I just ran out of reasons to stay.”
***
I opened my eyes and pushed off the wall, walking into his office.
“Liana.” Dominic stood up so fast his chair scraped against the floor. “I’ve been trying to call you all morning, you haven’t been answering your phone.”
I walked into the room and stopped in front of his desk, my eyes moving briefly to Stefan. “I need to speak with my husband alone.”
Stefan looked at Dominic, who nodded once, and then he gathered up his papers and left the room without a word. The door clicked shut behind him and the office went quiet.
I set the envelope down in the center of the desk, right on top of whatever he and Stefan had been working on.
“Marguerite Hale drew these up.” I kept my voice steady. “Everything’s fair.”
Dominic looked down at the envelope but didn’t touch it. His jaw was tight, his hands flat on the desk on either side of the papers.
“No.”
“Dominic.”
“I said no.” He looked up at me and his eyes were hard, his face set in that stubborn expression I knew better than my own reflection. “I’m not signing those papers, Liana. I’m not signing them today, I’m not signing them tomorrow, I’m never signing them.”
“You don’t have a choice.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I don’t need your permission to end this marriage, I just need to file the paperwork and wait out the process.”
“Then I’ll fight it.” He came around the desk toward me. “I’ll drag it out for years if I have to. I’ll tie it up in so much legal bullshit that you’ll be collecting social security before it’s finalized.”
“Why would you do that?” I stood my ground as he approached. “Why would you keep me trapped in a marriage you don’t even want to be in?”
“I do want to be in this marriage.” He stopped in front of me, close enough that I could smell his cologne. “I want you, Liana. I want our family. I’ve made mistakes, I know that, but I’m not going to let you throw away ten years because I fucked up.”
“I gave you chances.” I heard my voice crack and hated it. “I gave you chance after chance, and every time you promised to do better, and every time you didn’t.”
“This time is different.”
“I’m not furniture, Dominic. I’m not a possession. I’m a person who has spent ten years loving you and getting nothing in return except loneliness and empty promises.”
“That’s not true-”
“It is true.” I cut him off. “Every word of it is true, and you know it, and you can’t just charm me.”
His face changed then. I watched the mask slip. Months of a war he was losing. Months of pressure and stress and things falling apart. Months of me pulling away from him, and now this, the final blow, the papers on his desk that meant it was really over.
“Did you forget what you are?” His voice came out different, colder, a voice I hadn’t heard him use since the early days when I was still collateral and he was still deciding what to do with me.
“You came to me as a debt, Liana. You’re a payment I collected.
You don’t get to just decide you’re leaving. ”
The room went silent.
I heard my own blood rushing in my ears. Heard everything except the apology that should have come next, the quick backtrack, the I didn’t mean that.
He just stood there, breathing hard, his jaw set, his eyes cold.
I slapped him.
“There he is.” My voice shook but I didn’t care anymore. “There’s the man you really are, under all of it. Under the charm and the promises and the I love yous that never meant anything.”
“Liana-”
“Thank you.” I stepped back from him, my palm still stinging. “You just made this so much easier.”