Page 13 of Laws of Love
“Dad called today,” Meila stated, and Aiva turned to look at her.
She knew their father had called. He’d called her earlier in the day, and Aiva had watched the phone ring. Then deleted the voicemail he’d left before ever listening to it. Aiva seldom spoke to her father unless it was at a gathering at her grandmother’s house. Even then, it was the bare minimum. Meila answered when he called, if for no other reason than to remind him of how he’d ruined their childhood, used and abandoned them, and the hurt he’d caused. It wasn’t expressly why she answered the phone, but the conversation often went in that direction.
“What did he want?” Aiva questioned, not caring, but she knew her sister wanted to tell her because she was bringing it up. It was no secret when he called one, he called the other. If he wasn’t reaching out to both of them, he was reaching out to neither of them, and Aiva preferred the latter.
“To remind us that his sixtieth birthday is around the corner.”
“And?” Aiva inquired as she took a drink from her glass because she didn’t care.
“He’d like us to come to celebrate the milestone, as he put it, with him and the family.”
Aiva scoffed. “The family he started while still married to our mother, or one of the two others he has now?”
“Who knows,” Meila responded. “I just thought I’d tell you. Besides, we haven’t seen our other siblings in a while.”
Meila was right, and while she condoned nothing their father did, they were still her half-siblings, and they kept in contact with them while avoiding their mutual parent. However, they’d all been so busy with life the past few months that they hadn’t seen each other outside of a few video calls. Usually, the older ones would get together once a month, and they’d take the younger ones out separately, but lately, their schedules didn’t permit it.
“Which is why we have that trip planned this summer for all the adults,” Aiva responded. “We can get the others when they’re out of school,” she finished with a shrug. “I don’t have to see Edison for that to happen.”
Between the man’s three families, he was currently juggling, Aiva and Meila’s father had amassed twelve children. The age difference between Meila, the oldest, and Kaley, the youngest, was twenty-six years. There were four under eighteen, and the rest twenty to twenty-seven. They were a regular fucked up Brady Bunch.
Aiva downed the rest of her drink before standing and going to the bar. The mention of their father had soured her mood, and she needed something stronger than what she’d been drinking. She was glad her sister had driven them because Aiva would need a few to get the sour taste of Edison’s name off her tongue.
7
Aiva left a message as the phone went to voicemail. The delivery service she’d employed contacted her a few minutes ago, letting her know they were about to serve Mia with papers. She was calling Knox to inform him but received no answer, and left a message.
Placing her phone down, she leaned back in her chair. It was a slow day. Other than the mediation she’d attended that morning, and the two appointments she’d had that afternoon, Aiva spent the day putting together her argument for another client, who was in much of the same situation as Knox was. The only difference was it was the husband who was acting like a child.
He’d supported her during their marriage, and he was attempting to hold that over her. Using their child as leverage to make her comply with his demands. Aiva was not having it, and she was confident they’d get what her client was owed in court.
However, that just affirmed Aiva’s belief that regardless of how well off your spouse was, you needed to have a way of making your own income. Even if that income was just a hobby that you made money from on the side to save for a rainy day.
Not that she thought the dynamics of a sole breadwinner and someone who stayed at home didn’t work. It was simply that she’d seen it from this side, and she knew that in a divorce, it could become ugly. The person who held the purse strings, with all the financial responsibility in the relationship, thought they held gold in their hands in a separation. Aiva enjoyed showing them they didn’t.
She took great pleasure in turning that prize, that treasure they were attempting to hold over her client’s head into a grave of despair, an empty vault when she finished with them. People who fancied themselves bullies in separations when money and children were involved deserved to be robbed blind, and Aiva had no problem doing so.
Mediation between this client and her husband failed to help reach an agreement, but Aiva hadn’t expected them to. Especially after reading the text, he’d sent her client, and then listening to the man in their first mediation session.
Now, she was preparing for them to stand in front of a judge, and while she knew they would come out with everything her client wanted, and then some, Aiva liked to be as prepared as possible. She was double-checking everything when her office phone rang.
“This is Aiva,” she answered, leaning back in her seat.
“Hey, Aiva, it’s Knox.”
Aiva didn’t need him to tell her. She would recognize that deep baritone anywhere. Each time she heard it, it felt like a caress over her body.
“Hey, Knox. How are you?”
“I’m good, but after listening to your message, I’m sure that will change pretty soon,” Knox responded.
Aiva glanced at the time. “They should deliver it within the next couple of minutes if she’s at home.”
“Then it won’t be long before I receive a call. You were able to include the stipulation I requested? I know it was last minute.”
“I was,” Aiva responded. “I added it before I submitted the paperwork. It was a good call on your end.”
He’d called the office Sunday afternoon and left a message, asking if she could add that Mia could not take Yasmine and disappear from the state. Aiva hadn’t thought of adding it before because she didn’t see Mia doing that. The woman was selfish and seemed to just worry about herself. Which, in Aiva’s mind, told her that Mia would in no way leave her income source, which was Knox. However, she could understand that he wanted to be sure.
