Victoria laughed. “You mean the guy who lied and said he loved you so he could score an inheritance? Honestly, the fact that at the end of the article you stated that you still weren’t going to take him to the cleaners makes you a better woman than me! But,” she added, “that’s also why people love you—people feel like you’re trustworthy and a fundamentally just person.”
I stared out the window. Chris’s tower was visible in the distance.
“Look,” the chief editor said, “the memoir can be whatever you want. It’s just centered around weddings. Bring Chris in, don’t—we can work that out once we start planning. The article though—that alone is chef’s kiss! I already have several producers from Netflix and ABC who want to produce a TV show about it!”
She pressed her hands together and smiled at me happily.
“But first.” She handed me a pen. “You on board?”
I read through the contract, noting all the elements that I wanted to include based off of the quick phone call with Elsie’s lawyer friend who I’d emailed the contract to. He had given me his notes of things to ask for on the long train ride over because my apartment was in the furthest corner of Brooklyn.
I concentrated on marking the changes so I wouldn’t act giddy over the huge advance number.
Shoot, if you invest the advance, you can maybe afford a place to live in five years! Surely I could survive living in the apartment for that long, right?
I signed on the dotted line.
“Addison doesn’t need to sign?” I asked.
Victoria made a face. “Apparently she has some personal issues she’s dealing with. Based on your article, her fiancé learned that she still has the hots for Chris.”
“Wowza.”
“Yeah…” Victoria signed the forms and initialed by my changes. “But I would guess you’re pretty much immune to Chris now, no?”
“Yeah,” I said faintly. “Totally over him.”
She handed me my copy of the revised, signed contract.
“I hear you have your last Marriage in a Minute event tonight! We have a run-up of interviews for you scheduled for the season finale airing in a couple weeks. Though I guess we all know you’re going to be divorcing Chris.”
“Yep,” I said forcefully, trying to crush the stupid little teenager inside of me that still wanted Chris to love her. “I never want to see him again.”
Except, a small part of me was looking forward to it.
No, I told myself as I rode the elevator down to the lobby. Chris has screwed you over. He never cared about you; it was a lie.
But what if his father had orchestrated the whole thing? the rational side of me argued. It could be a big misunderstanding.
“Doesn’t matter,” I whispered to myself. “Chris didn’t care enough to trust me. You can’t be involved with someone like that; it won’t work. It was never going to work.”
Even though I desperately wanted it to.
59
Chris
I stayed out all night, trying to forget, trying to talk myself out of believing the truth. But I couldn’t. My father had tried to ruin me. And it wasn’t even about the money. Grace was the best thing that had ever happened to me, and my father had made me throw it all away.
I took a breath of the cold morning air.
But that wasn’t exactly right. Dad didn’t make me do anything. I was a billionaire, for God’s sake. My father hadn’t held a gun up to my head. I chose to believe the lies about Grace, and then I had chosen to act on them. All this? It was my fault.
“I ruined the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“There he is!” A big black SUV pulled up alongside of me. The Svensson brothers stuck their heads out.
“Dude, we’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Josh said. “We thought you were kidnapped.”
I shook my head. “I fucked up.”
“We’re working on the divorce,” Eric assured me.
“Just let her have half the money,” I said, dejectedly climbing into the car. “She deserves it. This was my fault.”
“Dude, she screwed you over,” Eric said in disbelief.
I clenched my jaw. “No. My father did. He made it all up. Him and Addison, I’m sure. He wanted the inheritance. Had a prospective wife lined up and everything.”
“Oh shit!” Josh said.
“I was so fucking stupid.”
“We can still try to hold the divorce papers,” Eric said in concern.
“No,” I said, “just go ahead and file them. Even if I take the inheritance, everyone already knows what I did to Grace. No one is