Page 86 of Negotiating Tactics

“You paid my father to stay away from me?” I asked, blinking rapidly, as though that would change the truth.

He nodded, and if I wasn’t mistaken, looked proud of himself.

“I sure did. And it was a great investment,” he said.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I whispered.

I thought my heart would explode with how fast it was racing, but I wasn’t yelling.

Maybe I couldn’t yell because that energy was devoted to trying to keep myself sane.

“Yeah. I paid him, and it was a great investment. Worth every penny to keep him out of your fucking life. He doesn’t deserve to be involved in your life, and I’m not going to stand aside and watch him hurt you and shit all over you like you’re nothing and then walk away,” Noah said.

I’d seen him angry, but I had never seen him like this. Even in his anger, there had always been a flexibility, a softness.

Now, I saw only conviction.

There was no reasoning with him, no anything.

“Do you have any idea how big a boundary you just crossed?” I asked.

“A boundary?” He scoffed. “A boundary like abandoning you and coming in and out of your life whenever the fuck he wants to. A boundary like lying to you?” he said.

“Now, when you say lying to me, are you talking about my father, or are you talking about yourself?” I asked.

His face hardened. “I’ve never lied to you. And I’m not lying to you now.”

“You don’t think what you did was a lie?” I asked.

“You tell me. But first, are you sure your father told you the whole truth?” Noah asked.

I froze for a moment, not sure how to respond, and then I said, “What does that mean?”

“It means he told you I gave him twenty-one thousand dollars. Did he tell you how that happened?” Noah asked.

“No,” I whispered. “He didn’t.

He shrugged. “I’m not surprised. So let me tell you. I asked him how much he’d take to stay the fuck away from you,” Noah said.

“And?” I croaked, my voice weak.

He shrugged and went on. “To his credit, he looked like he struggled some. I wasn’t sure if he wanted to do it, but in the end, he named a price, and that price was fifteen thousand dollars.”

Noah huffed, the sound dark, disgusted.

“Fifteen fucking thousand dollars,” he repeated.

“And what did you do?” I asked. My voice was timid, and Noah didn’t respond immediately.

Instead, he walked to stand in front of me and met my eyes.

“I counted it out right there, but not before I showed him the hundred fifty thousand I’d brought with me and told him I’d planned on that as my starting point.”

Noah lifted one corner of his mouth in a grim smile. “He was so disappointed, and even tried to haggle for more, but I reminded him that a deal was a deal, and that I could walk out, give him nothing, and destroy whatever he had in his pathetic life without a second thought.”

“So, you threatened him?”

“No. I only reminded him that he was an idiot who should quit while he was ahead.”

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