loneliness stemming from a lack of a romantic life.”
Lila sighed forlornly. “Yeah, that’s the perfect recipe for him.”
“That explains why you acted like that in the café,” remarked Rhys.
Olivia ignored him and focused on her client. “During that first meeting, he made a few subtle flirtations, but nothing substantial.”
“He moves fast, but not that fast,” Lila confirmed. It was exactly what Olivia assumed, so she was glad that she read Drake correctly.
“I figured,” she responded. “I also did one stakeout at his office, but I either missed him or he wasn’t in the office when I was there.”
Lila glanced at Rhys. “Yeah, Rhys said he saw you that night.”
“Mm-hmm. I had my first full therapy session with him yesterday morning,” Olivia said. “While we haven’t gotten anything we can use yet, I think we made good progress. Adeline will play some clips of the recording from that session, but it includes some suggestive dialogue that might be hard to hear. Please just know that it was all an act. I have no interest in your husband other than to get what we need to see you free and clear of this marriage.” The Iron Ladies waited for Lila to nod her understanding, and then Olivia said, “Adeline, please feel free to play the audio.”
Adeline pressed a key on her laptop, and the sound of Olivia’s and Dr. Bannon’s voice filled the conference room. Olivia watched both Lila and Rhys react to the sound of him urging her to come closer, followed by his taunting words about how weak women like her needed strong men like him. Lila looked disgusted but not surprised. Of course, she already knew what her husband thought of women. She already knew just how skillfully he could twist a situation to fit his needs.
Rhys, on the other hand, looked physically pained. His knuckles were white as he clenched his hands into fists on top of the table.
When the recording ended, Lila let out a quiet breath and nodded.
“Yes, I think you’re right,” she said, clearing her throat and trying to appear more unbothered than she actually was. “You are making good progress. Thank you. I really do appreciate you putting yourself through this on my behalf.”
Before Olivia could wave off her thanks and insist that she was just doing her job, Rhys scoffed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“I want to pummel his face in,” he grumbled.
“Well, that won’t do much good, will it?” Olivia replied, fixing him with a cool stare. She had not taken Rhys as the kind of man who would resort to a reaction like that so easily. “So, how about you leave it to the professionals?”
Olivia assumed that Rhys would bite back, but, not for the first time, Rhys proved that he had different impulses than his twin.
Rhys only took a deep breath and relaxed slightly.
“Are you usually this authoritative?” he asked her.
Adeline snorted. Melanie and Sunday nodded.
Olivia smirked, rolled her eyes at her friends, and then glanced back at Rhys. She liked the way he was looking at her. The respect in his gaze was apparent.
“Yes,” she replied. “Is that a problem?”
He mirrored her smirk, slipping back into the mischievous personality that Olivia recognized.
“Not at all,” he murmured. “It suits you.”
Olivia
“Did you see this email from Lila?” asked Sunday.
Olivia went over to where Sunday was sitting at the table, scrolling through the general inbox that contained communications from current clients and inquiries from future ones.
Lila emailed them at six that morning, which couldn’t mean anything good.
Olivia took a sip of her coffee and leaned closer to read over Sunday’s shoulder. The first few sentences of the email were about how Dr. Bannon had suggested that Lila be put on depression medication. Abuse and infidelity aside, Olivia could only imagine how annoying it must be to be married to a psychiatrist. They would probably attempt to psychoanalyze their partner at every turn.
“Well, of course, she’s depressed. She’s married to him,” scoffed Sunday. “And of course he wants to try to convince her she’s so depressed that she needs to be loaded up with drugs.”
“Yeah, this doesn’t sound great.” Olivia sighed. “I don’t know from experience, but don’t drugs like that tend to mess with your emotions?”
Sunday pursed her lips. “The side effects can be very damaging, yes, especially if provided in the wrong dosage. My guess is that Dr. Bannon is just using it as another way to control her. He wants her to think that she’s the problem and