Page 2 of Raven's Hacker
“Raven is going to call her lawyer. If he lies about meeting with Matthew tomorrow, there’s something fishy going on, and we need to figure it outfast. Our other potential outcome is that he tells her the truth about meeting with him and says that he has been given some bullshit excuse for meeting Matthew. Like he wanted to talk about something related to your marriage or finances and had gotten permission from her to talk to him.Thoseare the possibilities.” We looked at the man. He seemed so sure of himself. But he was right.
Those were the possibilities.
“If he lies, how do we catch him? How do we get proof?” I hated how small and unsure I sounded. I hated that I was in this position. How could he do this to me? To Ryder? Did he not care? We’d built a beautiful life, and this is what he does?
“I’ve already given my PI a heads up that I might have a case for him. First things first. Call your lawyer up. Put him on speaker when he answers.” He nodded at me. I pulled out my phone, scrolling through the contacts until I found Sullivan’s name. I clicked on the call icon, letting it ring, and ring and ring before he picked up at the last second.
“Hey, Sullivan! I was looking at our calendar here at home, and I saw that there’s a meeting scheduled for us tomorrow. Did I forget? Or did you and Matthew forget to tell me?” I ask in a light-hearted, teasing tone.
“Oh! Hello Raven! Let me check here real quick…No. I don’t see anything in the books for tomorrow.”
“Oh. Maybe it was a mix-up. Weird. Alright. Have a great night!” I said cheerily, as Emily and her lawyer looked mad enough to destroy something. He was pulling out his phone as soon as I hung up the call, the anger deepening on his face.
“ED! I need you on this yesterday. Yes. My woman’s little girl. Her cheating bastard husband and her lawyer are going behind her back. Tomorrow. Money’s no issue. Get whoever you can on it.” He hung up, grabbing Emily’s hand, stroking the back of it with his thumb in a calming manner, though I wasn’t sure if it was for him or her. She looked ready to destroy Matt as well.
“I’ll have the information by tomorrow morning. Eight at the latest.” Emily nodded like this was expected.
“Eight in the morning is late? And,your woman?” I raised an eyebrow, asking the man and my surrogate mother. Emily blushed, and Jefferson puffed his chest out, holding her hand proudly. He looked like he’d won the best prize, and maybe he had. My mother was amazing.
“Yes,” was all he said, looking like a proud peacock. I couldn’t blame him, though. I’d won her in the mother lotto, and I was convinced I had the best mother. I didn’t have her until after college, so I’d only had her a few years, but she’d never let me go once she took me in. I smiled at them, happy she had found a true, steady love.
A love that seems to make them both lose themselves in each other.
T W O: Men Sucked.
Raven’s POV
I ended up staying here for the weekend with Ryder, just telling Matt that he missed his Nana. I knew we couldn’t stay here indefinitely, but staying Thursday night through til Monday morning sounded like a little slice of heaven in a nightmare, hell, you call a dream. I didn’t think about him,much,over the whole weekend. I didn’t think about him fucking his boss. I didn’t wonder if he had brought her into our home. I didn’t ponder the possibility that my bed was ruined, and possibly every other piece of furniture in my home, the place that should have been my sanctuary. He was probably doing filthy things on our bed and in our shower, and in the whole house.
Ugh.
I would need professional cleaners to come in and disinfect all of the surfaces when I kicked his ass out. That wasdefinitelygoing to be a Monday morning phone call.
Thankfully, Jefferson would be representing me, as it appeared my lawyer had decided he no longer wanted to work for me. He had already reported Sullivan to the board about his conflict of interest, and all the money he needed to pay me back since he’d been working with my soon-to-be-ex-husband for the last two years to fuck me over in a divorce. Friday, I had a delivery sent to my husband at the office, which had a bug in it, so I’d know his next move. I also let him know we had to up our home security as it wasn’t up-to-date anymore. I called first and went to see him at lunch. I told him I need his signature on some stuff for the upgrades for the system and an update to the Wills and life insurance policies.
Which wasn’t a total lie.
I just took his name off of everything if something happened to me, and wrote Ryder as beneficiary and listed Mom as being the overseer until he came of age. Emily, or Mom as I call her most often, would be put in charge of caring for Ryder, as his most involved family member. I also had him sign a post-nuptial agreement that we each leave with what we came into the marriage with, and we take half of the total for all accounts held for each of our names, and all of the documentation with balances for those accounts were submitted to give a number, since he hadn’t moved any money around yet. Thank God Mom came with me to meet him for lunch, keeping him distracted while signing all those important documents in the short twenty minutes I know he got.
It was going to suck to be him in a day or two when he got served his papers.
Mom had finally admitted she and Jefferson were a thing, and thinking of tying the knot in Vegas. They’d both been married before, and it hadn’t worked out. They were both in their fifties, and Jefferson said he already sees me as his daughter, and nobody messes with family.
I would not want to be MattheworKarenany time soon.
With all the evidence we had stacked against them for the affair, the hidden accounts he had in my name, the post-nup he signed and filed, it was shaping up for me. I was hoping this would be a quick and easy divorce. I didn’t want him to try to drag it out. Jefferson was planning on filing first thing Monday morning, which, looking at the clock, was in three hours. I was working from home today, which was just code for me getting to stay home with Mom, and the movers could move me and Ryder into her spare rooms for now. The divorce papers were beingfiled as soon as the courthouse opened today, along with the other paperwork. Jefferson, being in law for decades, had made a few friends in the filing offices, and they’ve been keeping an eye out for anything that Sullivan would try to push through so we could be the team to file first.
It was petty, but we wanted to be first. We needed to be first.
Laying in bed in the guest room, I could hear Ryder snoring in his room, as our doors were slightly open so we could hear each other. It was something we started doing more and more when Matthew wouldn’t come home. It was a comfort to us to know the other person could hear us if we needed them. And something about hearing his little snoring would usually always lull me to sleep, but tonight I was wired.
I was wide awake, tossing and turning in bed. I’d spent the last two days helping get Stormi out of her house andaway. Neither of us knew whatawaylooked like, but she needed it. She promised to call wherever she landed. Mom’s girls were falling apart at the seams, it seemed. I had my mess, and Stormi had just filled us in on how her sister, her twin, was doing the horizontal tango with her fiancé, Jason. I almost threw up. I knew she would be fine, but it was going to take some time to get there. I just hoped that her ex would leave her alone. Fucking hersister? Hertwinsister?! I put my arm over my face, willing myself not to think about it again.
Men sucked.
They all sucked.
All of them, except Jefferson, who was killing it with Mom. Now that her relationship was out in the open, the happiness I saw on her face all the time was wonderful, and shewas most at peace, I think I have ever seen her. Jefferson might be busy, though, because between my divorce case and his other cases, he may also have to step in if Jason shows up at work again. Mom told him kindly enough today to fuck off while still being polite about it. But tomorrow was a different story. I laid in bed, trying to pinpoint when my marriage went and shifted. Was it sudden? Was it subtle? Where did it begin? Was that why I didn’t notice? Why didn’t I see the signs? Or that I was just stupidly blinded by love? Was I that naive? Was I one of those willfully blind women?
