To read Part 1 of The Silver and the Divorce, click HERE.
To read Part 2 of The Silver and the Divorce, click HERE.
Now, here is Part 3 of The Silver and the Divorce!
Ana woke early the next morning to call her lawyer and make an appointment. She wanted to show Jack the property settlement that she and Walter had put together. She was lucky enough to get an appointment within just a couple of hours. As she got ready to go, she was nervous. She knew Jack, her attorney, would never approve.
“Good luck, sis,” Marcia said as Ana left to go to Jack’s office.
“I’ll need it, ” Ana replied. “Jack will never go for this.”
“I hope he doesn’t.”
Ana drove downtown toward Jack’s office and parked in the parking structure nearby. As she was locking her car, suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder. She jumped a foot and turned around. It was Walter, very dressed up.
“Ana,” he said, “Why are you so dressed up just to come to Jack’s office?”
As Ana stood and stared at Walter, the old Elvis Presley song, Suspicious Minds, ran through her head. Here was Walter, even when they were getting a divorce, acting jealous and being sneaky just like when they were married. This was one of the things she couldn’t stand about him.
“Walter, what did you do? Follow me?”
Walter smiled that smarmy grin of his. “Well, Ana, I have to keep tabs on my wife. After all, you’ve proven you aren’t trustworthy. Anyway, I want to come with you to Jack’s office.”
Ana blew up. She told Walter that this is one of the reasons she was divorcing him. That she could not tolerate his sneakiness, following her, watching her, and that she would not live this way the rest of her life. Furthermore, Jack wasn’t his lawyer, only hers.
She said, “Walter, do you remember that old Elvis Presley song, Suspicious Minds, and what it says? That a couple can’t go on together if they are suspicious of one another. That it’s impossible to build a marriage on suspicion?”
“Oh, dammit, Ana, you always were some weird romantic.” Then, Walter grabbed her arm and tried to steer her out of the parking structure. Fortunately, Ana had her phone in her hand. She wrenched her arm away from Walter and told him to get out of her face or she would dial 911. He laughed at her and tried to grab her arm again. She raised the phone and pretended to dial 911 and Walter started running toward the exit. Ana got some good photos of him running away.
Ana had to lean up against her car and catch her breath. Walter was a tall, powerful man and that was not the first time he had tried to manhandle her. Her heart was pounding, she was breathing fast, and she was shaking all over.
After she straightened her clothes a bit, Ana started for Jack’s office, keeping an eye on her surroundings, watching for Walter. She made it to Jack’s office without seeing Walter again. After she and Jack exchanged greetings, she handed him the roughly written property settlement she and Walter had cobbled together.
“What’s this?” Jack asked.
“Jack, Walter and I talked and put together a rough property settlement.”
“Ana, you didn’t sign this damn thing, did you?”
“No.”
“That’s fortunate,” Jack said. “You should never have done this. I won’t have a client putting their own property settlement together. You can, of course, make suggestions. But, you are too emotionally involved. Keep this. We can use certain elements of it, but certainly not the whole thing.”
Ana asked Jack to please at least read the handwritten document. Jack paged through it and looked up at Ana in astonishment. “You are kidding me, Ana,” he said. “No way is this going to be even close to your property settlement.”
“Why not, Jack? Because I’m giving Walter the house?”
Jack started to describe to Ana all the things wrong with the property settlement, including the fact that she was going to let her soon-to-be ex-husband just have her home. He was right in the middle of his explanation when the door flew open and in walked Walter.
“Walter, get out of my office,” Jack said.
“Why the hell should I leave? I know you’re discussing the property settlement.”
Jack responded, “Even if we are, I’m not your attorney and our discussions are private. Now get out.” Jack stood up.
Walter stepped forward toward Jack but then apparently thought better of a certain assault charge. “You better tell my wife to sign that property settlement or I’m going to beat the shit out of the two of you in court,” Jack said and walked out.
Ana had as much as she could take and tears started running down her face. “Oh, Jack. Do you see what I mean? If I don’t do what he wants, he’s going to leave me with nothing.”
Jack tried to reassure Ana that Walter was just being a bully and trying to scare her. The divorce laws of their state would not allow that to happen. He tried to tell her that the property would be split up approximately 50/50 although she might have to pay alimony for a time since her salary was much higher than Walter’s. But, Ana felt like she was going to lose her mind if this divorce was not over soon. Walter was so hard to deal with. The restraining order she had against him wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.
Before Ana left, Jack assured her he would set up a meeting with Walter’s attorney and start hammering out a reasonable property settlement.
Ana was upset as she left her attorney’s office. She was thinking about Ben, her former lover, the man with whom she had an affair before she and Walter split up. Her marriage to Walter would have ended anyway. Her affair probably just caused it to end a little sooner. The turmoil caused she and Ben to agree not to see each other but Ana misses him so much. They had been in each other’s lives for years. Ana decided to take a chance and give Ben a call at his office. Maybe they could get together, even for just a little while, and talk.
Ana pulled out her phone and dialed. Ben answered on the first ring. “Ana?” he says.
“Yes, Ben, it’s me. Are you busy?”
“No, I’m so glad to hear from you. How are you?”
“Oh, Ben. It’s so good to hear your voice. I miss you so much,” Ana says as tears streamed down her face. “Do you think we could get together for a late lunch?”
“Ana, Millie is at my house today. I’m sure she would be glad to put something together for lunch for us. That would give us some privacy to talk. Would that be OK?”
“Yes, Ben. That would be wonderful. What time?”
“Let’s make it 1 p.m. Ana, I can’t wait to see you,” Ben says.
Ana hung up with a smile breaking through her tears. She walked with a spring in her step back to her car. #amwriting #amblogging #writing #romance #fiction
The Write Scribe 