Page 5 of Laws of Love
The school bell ringing pulled him from his musings as children filed out of the building. It didn’t take him long before he saw Yasmine exiting, talking animatedly to another little girl. Knox couldn’t help but smile at her. If his daughter was nothing else, she was friendly. She made friends easily with other children, she was also comfortable talking to other adults but only did so when she was accompanied by one she knew.
It didn’t take Yasmine long to spot him, and when she did, she waved at the other little girl before running over to him. Knox bent down, allowing her to run into his arms before picking her up.
“Hi, Daddy!” she exclaimed excitedly.
“Hey, Yas,” he greeted as he turned and headed back towards his car. “How was school?”
“It was okay. We didn’t learn any new songs today,” she told him sadly, and Knox had to keep himself from chuckling. Learning new songs was one of her favorite things to do in school. Though when you were in kindergarten, just about everything should have been your favorite thing to do.
“Well, you can sing me the last one you learned. I forgot how it goes, so you can teach it to me again,” he replied as they made it to the car.
Knox unlocked the backdoor and opened it before pulling Yasmine’s backpack from her and placing it inside. Then he placed her in her booster seat, allowing her to strap herself in but watching to ensure she did it properly.
Knox got into the driver’s seat and started the car, turning the radio down while he backed out of the parking spot so that Yasmine could “teach” himThis Old Manfor the third time.
When they pulled into the parking lot of his condo building, Knox got out and helped Yasmine unbuckle herself. She slipped her little hand in his as they went inside, excited like she always was to push the button on the elevator.
Once they were in the condo, Yasmine immediately took off towards her room while Knox entered the kitchen to make her a snack. He washed an apple before cutting it into slices and putting it on one of her sectioned Minnie Mouse plates. He also washed and cut up a stalk of celery and added it to the plate before squirting some caramel sauce into one ear and adding peanut butter to the other.
Knox took out a juice box and was exiting the kitchen when Yasmine came skipping down the hall with her tablet in her hand. He sat her snack on the coffee table where she set her tablet up on the stand.
He always let her play on her tablet while she had her snack and then he’d do whatever practice exercises her kindergarten teacher had given them.
While his daughter ate and watched videos onYouTube Kids, Knox grabbed his laptop and continued placing incidents in the timeline he’d started, as well as putting names of people who had witnessed them out beside them. He wanted to be as prepared as possible.
Knox was no fool. He knew Mia would not take the news well. Just like he knew she would make the situation much harder than it needed to be. He was preparing for the headache he knew would come along with the process, but he also knew that once it was over and done, it would make the entire thing worth it.
When Knox glanced over a bit later, he found Yasmine had finished her snack and was scrolling through videos.
“Yas, go get your activity book, and let’s do those before you watch any more videos,” he instructed, saving his document, and placing the laptop aside.
“Okay, Daddy,” she responded, getting up and disappearing down the hall, only to come back a minute later with two of her activity books and a pencil.
Knox moved her plate to the side and sat on the floor in front of the coffee table beside where Yasmine was situated. They went through the words on the page; she sounded them out and said them before they worked on learning the spellings of each one, and then she traced them.
When they finished, Yasmine put the workbooks away and began playing an educational game on her tablet, and Knox watched some television until it was time to make dinner.
3
While sitting in the waiting area, Knox couldn’t stop his leg from bouncing. He wasn’t nervous, but anxious. He hadn’t realized how long he’d been mentally counting down the days to now since he’d separated from Mia. Counting them more openly once he’d decided to take the next step, the final step.
It’d been two weeks since he’d filled out the questionnaire on the website. Two weeks of him gathering information for incidents he remembered, as well as recording any incident that happened over the past two weeks. The amount of evidence was almost shocking. Most of it was Mia sending him belligerent text messages or leaving voicemails; but there was another time Mia denied him the opportunity to spend the weekend with Yasmine, stating she wanted to. Instead, she left her with the babysitter again.
He’d brought everything with him. Even printing copies of the text messages to leave with the lawyer. Knox had no desire to draw this out. He’d given it a year, though his marriage had been over before then, and nothing had changed. So, now, he wanted it done as soon as possible. Though he was sure it wouldn’t be that easy.
Knox showed up to his scheduled appointment twenty minutes early. He was always one to show up a little early for anything, but he hadn’t realized exactly how early he was. Knox turned down the drinks offered to him, and he killed the time by flipping through a magazine and glancing at the television on the wall.
“Mr. Chandler, Ms. Neel is ready for you. If you’ll follow me.”
Knox stood, following behind the other man down the hall. They came to an open door, and he was gestured in. He walked into the office, and the woman who stood from behind the desk had him pausing momentarily.
Knox had done and seen a lot of things over his life and football career. But he had never seen a woman who could make a suit look sexier than any lingerie he’d ever seen. The soft lavender two-piece pantsuit fit her every curve; but it wasn’t in a way that made it seem as if she was trying to sexualize it.
The color complimented the penny hue of her skin. Skin that looked as smooth as silk. He’d bet it was as soft as pillows. Her face was soft, almost innocent, if Knox didn’t know any better. However, it was her eyes that pulled him in, held him captive. They were deep brown, so deep that if he hadn’t seen the barely lighter fleck of brown, he would have thought they were black. Gorgeous felt like an inadequate word to describe her.
Knox shook himself mentally. He was there to proceed with a divorce filing. Not to appreciate the lawyer that would help him do so.
“Mr. Chandler, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Aiva Neel,” she greeted, holding her hand out.
