Page 27 of Scandalously Yours

“I’m not giving you another cent more than I already offered.” She wanted my money, and blackmailing me into meeting her demands wasn’t beneath her at all.

“Then, these little pictures might fall into the wrong hands,” she answered. I grabbed the photographs and tore them down the middle, ignoring the sound of her laughter. “You have to know I have copies of them, so do your worst.”

“You’re not going to get away with this extortion,” I warned. She wanted to play hardball, and seemed to have forgotten I could do the same.

“You don’t have the upper hand here, Kristopher, despite whatever you believe.”

She was very pleased with herself. I could only shake my head at how deceptive and cold she was. Moving over to her, I softly gripped her shoulders. “Have you ever thought about what all of this fighting does to our children? We need to settle this once and for all, and do what’s best for them.”

“You’re a liar and a fraud. You will never get those kids. I—”

The urge to shake some sense into her did strike me, but I resisted the temptation. “If you cared anything at all about our children, you would focus on them instead of trying to shake me down for a bigger settlement.”

“How dare you act like I don’t care about them. I...” She paused, and before I could respond, Hayley hauled off and slapped me. The sting of her strike made me growl. I was about to say something else when she struck me again.

I grabbed her arms and pinned them behind her back, then pulled her taut to my chest. Leaning in close, I didn’t hold back. “Enough!”

She struggled against me for a few seconds until she realized it was futile. “Let me go before I scream and wake up the children you pretend to care so much about. What would they think if they saw you hurting me?”

“Hurt you.” I seethed. “You’re the one that hit me.”

“Semantics, Kristopher. You’re going to give me what I want, or else I will make sure you never see those fucking brats of yours again.”

I tightened my grip on her. “Speak of them like that again and it will be the last thing you do.”

I let her go after saying that, then stepped out of her strike range. She did have quite a left hook on her, and my jaw still stung from her blow. I wanted to say our relationship had just recently spun out of control, but the truth was that it had been this way for quite some time. I could barely even remember the days of our courtship where I would go horseback riding with her in the countryside, take romantic retreats to the mountains, or just lounge under a cabana on a beach. The two of us had been the envy of our friends, and now, we were two bitter people fighting each other for very different things.

“I can’t do this anymore,” I finally said.

“Give me what I’ve asked for and I will let you have what you want.”

She seemed quite pleased with herself, and I knew she thought she had the upper hand. Hayley would give me my children, divorce, and let me be with Alessia if I gave her millions of dollars. Call it pride or determination, but she would get what was agreed to in the prenup and not a penny more. She would also take better care of our children or else I would use those millions she wanted so badly to drag her negligent ass into family court. In the end, I would also have Alessia because we loved each other.

“Your best bet is to take what I’m offering before you end up with nothing. You—”

“You’re going to be the one who ends up with nothing, and no one. Do your little playthings know your secrets?” She smirked. “I guess not.”

After leveling her with a look she chose to ignore, I finally threw my hands up and left.

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