Page 35 of The Sexy Billionaire

“True, it is their marriage license, except it wasn’t filed. And the reason we know it hasn’t been filed is, if you see here,” Abigail states as one of her team pulls out paperwork and their laptop, showing that our marriage doesn’t exist in New York State.

The mediator adjusts his glasses and looks at the evidence presented before him. “She’s right, Mr. Cannon, there doesn’t look to be any filed marriage by your client.”

“She’s lying,” Michael pipes up, while his lawyer orders him to hush.

Abigail adds, “My client remembers asking Mr. Nelson to file the paperwork after their marriage, and he assured her that he did. She even remembers there being a disagreement about it. Does that ring a bell with your client?”

The lawyer turns and looks at Michael who is spluttering, trying to find an answer, knowing full well he never filed it.

“But … I don’t understand … how can this be?” Michael stutters over his words.

“Ms. Spence, do you mind giving me and my team a moment to discuss this latest development?” the lawyer asks Abigail.

“Of course, we’ll just be outside,” she states, indicating for all of us to get up and follow her. One of the staff takes the mediator to another room. I can feel Michael’s eyes burning into my back as we walk past. As soon as we leave the room, the curtains are closed in the conference room, and I can hear Michael losing it inside.

“Someone didn’t do their job.” Callie chuckles beside me.

“What does this mean though?” I ask. Will we have to postpone this entire meeting? I was hoping this would be it.

“It means that Michael is fucked, and he doesn’t have a case. That he needs to accept that what you’re going to offer him is a generous deal,” Callie explains.

Twenty minutes later, the blinds are back up and a fuming Michael is sulking in the corner, clearly not happy with the news that his own incompetence is his downfall.

“Showtime, ladies,” Abigail states before we walk back into the room.

“Thank you so much, Ms. Spence, for letting us convene with our client. It seems your records are correct. That there was no filing of the marriage between your client and mine,” he states, with Michael looking on furiously. “It seems there is no marriage to dissolve, so I am happy for us to get into the de facto separation of assets.”

The mediator nods in agreement at the change.

“Very good, Mr. Cannon. Let’s start with the loan your client and mine took out with her great-aunt. As you can see here in the paperwork, it was the down payment to purchase their apartment, and an amendment added regarding the restaurantwith a deposit amount borrowed for that venture,” Abigail explains to the room.

“What loan?” Michael turns and argues with his lawyer, who tells him to be quiet as he takes the paperwork from the mediator. He scans it and you can see on his face that he is not getting paid enough to deal with whatever Michael had been telling him.

“Is this your signature on the paperwork?” the mediator asks Michael.

“Yes, it looks like it, but I never signed it. She forged it, she used to do it all the time,” he stammers.

My heart skips a beat; what in the hell is he saying? I never forged it.

“Ms. Johnson, could you please elaborate for us?” the mediator asks.

“I would never forge someone’s signature. We had come back from our honeymoon at my aunt’s place in the Hamptons, as we couldn’t afford to go anywhere else. Lucia was staying at her Manhattan home when we got back. We had dinner with her and asked if we could borrow the money for the apartment,” I explain.

“She said it was a wedding gift,” he argues.

“And I said that it was too much money. That it should be as a loan, and you agreed, reluctantly, as you didn’t want to be indebted to my family.”

Michael glares at me; he knows that’s how the conversation went.

“We then went into Callie’s office, and she had another lawyer draw up the paperwork, and we both signed it. Callie was there when you did,” I say, pointing to my best friend.

“Is this true?” the mediator asks.

“Yes. As I knew them both, I didn’t think it would be right for me to do the paperwork, so I had someone else do it. I was a witness to the signing,” she explains.

“What about the loan for the restaurant?” the mediator asks.

“When Lucia came to visit again, we had dinner with her and told her our vision to open our own restaurant, but we needed a loan to set it up. She was very excited and offered to loan us the money,” I clarify.

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