Page 94 of Enemy Daddy Next Door

“You do,” D’Angelo says coolly. “At least, you did. But this…”

Veronica collapses into her chair, wide green eyes crawling into mine with desperation. “Why don’t you want me to have a relationship with her?”

I don’t speak. I’d like to laugh. The fact she’s still putting on this ruse after it’s been made obvious what she wants is…well, it’s embarrassing for all of us.

“Let’s recalibrate, hm?” D’Angelo murmurs to Veronica.

“Sam, this would be a good time for those documents we were talking about,” I say to Sam.

“What documents?” Veronica sneers.

I shake my head. “How do you expect to get anything you want with that tone, Veronica?”

Sam clears his throat and pushes the documents over to D’Angelo. “As you can see, we’re requesting that Ms. Ricks waive her parental rights as well as her last name.”

D’Angelo leans over to examine the papers in front of her. Veronica’s eyes stare so hard at me I’m afraid she might drill holes through my skull.

She doesn’t scare me, though. I have the power here.

“What do we get out of this?”

“Well, this information was found out by a private investigator. We know we’re both in the business of justice, but in the interest of my client, we’d be happy to sweep this little hiccup under the rug and allow your client’s continued…business endeavors,” Sam explains.

I hate that that’s the deal we have to strike. However, Sam has assured me that there’s no way they can legally hold us to that. When the time comes, we’ll let the proper authorities know.

D’Angelo clearly takes no guff. Maybe I can get her on my legal team when we aren’t on opposite sides of the table. “That’s quite an allegation, Mr. Serty, I –”

“I’ll do it. I’ll sign.”

We all look at Veronica. She said it in a voice that was barely audible and yet we all heard it.

She’s giving up. I’m sad to say I knew she would.

“We’re so glad you’re amenable to that, Ms. Ricks.”

“Please stop calling me that,” she replies, face empty of expression.

“That’s your name, isn’t it?” I growl.

Sam clicks his pen.

D’Angelo tries to lean over to whisper something to Veronica, but my ex-wife just waves her off. “Give me a fucking pen. It will be worth it so that I never have to be called that name again.”

As soon as she gets her hand on D’Angelo’s beautiful Mont Blanc, she slams the pen onto the paper, ferociously scribbling off her initials and signatures wherever required.

“I didn’t realize you’d break so easily,” I mutter. “You sure you care about your daughter or –”

“Bite me, Hunter,” Veronica spits through grit teeth.

“Your client, D’Angelo.”

D’Angelo scoffs. “You think I can control her?”

I resist laughing along with her.

“There, are we done?” Veronica shoves herself up from the table and doesn’t wait for a response before she storms out of the conference room.

D’Angelo sighs and stands. “Pleasure doing business with you gentlemen.”

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