child’s rights, by not depriving him or her of a father. You’d be satisfied with that exchange, though, for your property in Sussex?”
“Yes, I would. Very much so. I’d rather lose the money I spent on it, and have him out of our lives.”
“When is the baby due?” he asked cautiously. The exchange they had unofficially agreed to, and come up with between them, was one he had never done before, but even he agreed it had its merits.
“I’m not sure,” Coco said in answer to his question. “Probably next summer, if I have it. I haven’t decided yet.” He understood the option she was referring to, and refrained from comment.
The following week, Nigel’s attorney communicated the rest of what he wanted from her, in light of her personal fortune. Nigel was trying to annul their prenuptial contract, claiming that he had not been represented by an attorney, which had been his choice at the time. He had simply signed it and handed it back to her. Now he was claiming that he hadn’t understood what he was signing and no one had explained it to him. He wanted a five-million-dollar settlement as consolation for the pain and suffering and trauma of the divorce, another million in damages, citing his being fired as her fault, because she had kept him so busy supervising the work on the houses and their demanding social life. He wanted spousal support of three million dollars a year for ten years, to help him get on his feet, and to live in the style to which she had accustomed him. And another million for his summer vacation, using the yacht they had chartered as the model for it. In addition to the Sussex property, as compensation for losing his home in the city, on the terms that they had agreed to. In its totality, he was asking for a thirty-seven-million-dollar divorce, plus Sussex, for eleven months of being married to her. It amounted roughly to a forty-million-dollar divorce for breaking her heart and eleven months of her time. Ed Easton had been an amateur compared to him.
“He has an ambitious attorney,” hers said in a cool tone. They had said that given the size of her fortune, it was a drop in the bucket to her, and a negligible amount in proportion to what she had. “He puts a high value on himself, doesn’t he?” He already couldn’t stand the guy, just reading his demands. He stayed neutral in the cases he handled as a rule, but Nigel’s proposals were so outrageous that her lawyer, Harold Humphreys, felt protective of her. Nigel’s intentions were plainly transparent. It was interesting that she had managed to hold down a job during the entire time, despite two house remodels, a full social life, and even a pregnancy, and he couldn’t, and had made no effort to find one after he was fired. “I think a judge will take a very dim view of this, Miss Martin.” She had called him using her maiden name, and not her married one. She wanted nothing more to do with anything of Nigel’s, not even his name. “Judges are human too, and work for a living. They have families to support, and the same expenses the rest of us do. For him to ask for support in these amounts, damages, and compensation, no matter what your parents left you, will infuriate any judge after an eleven-month marriage. You could even ask for an annulment on the basis of fraud, but it might take longer. I think you’ll be best served by being rid of him as quickly as possible, for the least amount of money.”
“Thank you, I’d like that.”
“I’ll get the ball rolling immediately.”
She hadn’t heard a word from Nigel since his email about the Sussex property, and she suspected she wouldn’t. She could just imagine Nigel and his lawyer going over the numbers and trying to figure out how much they could get away with. What they had come up with was shocking, and according to Harold Humphreys, offensive. He said that with luck, the marriage should be dissolved within six months. Their coming to an agreement would speed it along. The lawyer suspected that what Nigel wanted most on the list was the Sussex property. And as much money as he could get. The issue of parental rights could be more complicated, if he didn’t agree to the Sussex property, or reneged on the arrangement.
“I’d like that part