Page 12 of The Marriage Deal
At that wild assertion, I decided I had heard enough and marched into the living room. "That's rich coming from you."
Wyatt was surprised to see me. His eyes widened only for him to control his reaction and say, "Ah, so I was correct."
Levi glanced at me as I came to stand by his side.
"You have some nerve."
Here he was, the man who cheated on me, acting like he was hurt over something he assumed I had done, when he was the bad guy. Wyatt's gaze scanned me like I was a bag going through airport security, noting the t-shirt I was wearing. His lip curled in revulsion when he realized it was Levi's.
"Here I was thinking something was wrong with you when I saw your car abandoned in the parking lot, but it seems like you were having some fun of your own."
A harsh laugh escaped me. "You were worried for me? When was that? Before or after you stuck your dick into Billie's pussy."
"You don't understand what you saw."
I guffawed. He was a master gaslighter. He has always been like this, but this was the first time I was reckoning with the fact. I can't believe I imagined spending my life with him. I recalledwhat Levi said last night. That he had seen the two of them together a few months ago. Wyatt had been lying to me for at least that long. Stringing me along and making me believe in fairytales whilst he was cheating on me. "How long?" That's all I needed to know. I need to know how long I was a fool.
"How long what?" Wyatt narrowed his eyes as though he had no idea what I was referring to. It was infuriating. It made me want to punch his smug face.
"How long have you been fucking my friend, you bastard!"
He smirked. "As long as you've been a slut."
Levi punched his face.
5
Levi
A few months later
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, I can't liquidate my stocks? It is my money, isn't it?"
The fund manager, Patricia Scott, sitting across the desk from me, looked old enough to be my mother, but that didn't make her comforting at all. The opposite, in fact. She had an unshakable plastic facade that she must have cultivated in all her years managing the tempers and the money of spoiled rich kids. Her Botoxed cheeks shone as she gave me a weary smile. "It is. But you can't liquidate without adhering to the requirements of the trust." Her low-pitched raspy voice was even less comforting.
I thought after Ivy had the last guy fired, the clause would no longer be a thing. But after spending an hour in this oppressive, minimalist white office that must have been designed by a psych ward decorator, I felt like I was moments away from checking myself into one. We had been circling the same topic and speaking over each other without the other understanding what the other was saying for hours to no end.
"What about a loan? I can take a loan against my shares, right? Use them as collateral or something."
"There are restrictions on that as well. The loan limit, according to the trust," she paused, casting her gaze to theceiling to recall the amount, "is one hundred thousand dollars. If you want to take more, you have to, you know."
"And if I don't want to?"
"You can challenge the trust." Patricia snatched a pair of giant glasses that were lying on her pristine white desk, put them on, and darted her gaze to the laptop. "We could take it to court. There's a good lawyer we can use." She typed something with dexterous fingers.
"How long would that take?"
She stopped typing. "The whole thing?" She frowned. "If we expedite it, about four months, give or take."
"I don't have that long! I need the money now."
Patricia's gaze darted back to me. "Then you'd have to do what the trust says. Don't you have a nice girl in your life who's dying to get a ring on her finger? You don't look like you'd have a hard time finding a woman willing to marry you."
A pair of beautiful brown eyes flashed through my mind, and I buried the image immediately. "I don't want to get married," I said through gritted teeth.
"So… we try our luck with the courts?" She raised her eyebrows.
I got up from the plush chair. "No. I'll see what I can do."
