16
It’d been a hectic morning, starting just after midnight when I was forced to crawl out of bed and head to a rural home where three hours later, I had to send a young laboring mother to the hospital as her blood pressure reached dangerous levels. She and her twins were fine now, but just as I made it home, I received another call—heavy contractions only five minutes apart. I met this mother at the birthing center and had to send her back home, as she’d only dilated one centimeter and her labor stalled an hour after she arrived. Too tired to drive home, I shut myself up in my office, and four hours later, was awakened by a knock. Greeted with a crippling headache, I lifted my head, said, “Come in,” and gave Cass half of a greeting as I rummaged through my purse for pain reliever.
“Hey, you okay?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Headache. Rough night. Exhausted.”
She sank into the chair opposite my desk. “You can’t form complete sentences. Go home.”
I downed the pills with lukewarm water from a water bottle. “Can’t. Appointments.”
“Any of them urgent? Can we reschedule? Let me check your schedule.”
I hadn’t even noticed she was carrying a laptop up until that point. As she checked my schedule, I rested my head on my desk, popping it back up when she said, “You think it’s your blood pressure?”
I shrugged.
Her eyes were still fixed on the computer she’d balanced on her crossed legs. Cass was tall and elegantly pretty. Delicate dark skin, almond eyes, hair in micro braids. She could’ve easily been a model if she’d wanted to. “Well, you’ve been under a lot of stress with the divorce, and things have been hectic around here. All of that could be sending your blood pressure up.”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm, looks like we can move everyone except Mrs. Raynor. I’ll see her and tell her about her negative test. I remember you saying how anxious she was to know the result.”
“Yes, she and her husband have been trying to get pregnant for a while now. I know how much anxiety builds up between tests,” I said, leaving out from personal experience. “A delay can be tortuous.”
Cass closed the laptop and pulled her stethoscope from around her neck. “Let me check you out. Where’s your cuff?”
I opened a desk drawer and pointed.
My blood pressure was through the roof. So after an emergency visit to my personal physician, I went home with a filled prescription and crawled into bed and just cried. This damn divorce was killing me. Literally killing me. And as I lay there with the remnants of that Prada cologne drifting into my nose, I started wondering if maybe I should just go back to Robert, give in, revert to sitting around the house pretending everything was okay. Because this was torture, and I’d obviously hit my limit. I was not only exhausted from work but from dealing with…everything. Tired of bracing myself for whatever stupid thing he would think up next to make things worse for me. And then there was Lorenzo and what he’d said to me at the benefit last week, the passion in his voice and eyes. At this point, I didn’t give a damn about my morals. I was just too defeated to pursue anything with him. If Robert’s goal had been to break me down, he’d succeeded.
By some means, through a mind thick with thoughts, I managed to fall asleep and nearly jumped straight out of bed when I heard my phone ring. I kept my eyes closed, relieved the headache had subsided, and groped for my phone.
“Hello?” I muttered.
“Hey. Renee? Are you busy?”
Anxiety rushed over me. It was Danielle.
“N-no, not really.”
“Got a call from your husband’s lawyer. They want to meet today, in thirty minutes if that’ll work for you.”
I held the phone.
“Renee?”
“On my way.”
*****
I stepped into Danielle’s office in surrender mode. Whatever he wanted this time, he could have it. I’d sell my half of Genesis. I could start over. I didn’t want to, but I could. Hell, maybe I wouldn’t do anything for a while. Just rest. I needed rest. I lived with my mom, had no bills other than a car note and credit card payments. And I had two savings accounts this asshole didn’t even know existed. I’d be fine. I could find a job in a second with my employment history and experience, but what I wasn’t going to do was let this situation or this man cause me to have a damn stroke. I was tired of it all, wanted it to end, and so, I would give him what he wanted. Whatever he wanted.
Once in Danielle’s conference room sitting across from him, a peace fell over me, an overwhelming feeling that this was about to be over, because I was going to make it be over. I was taking my life back.
“My client is anxious to dissolve this marriage as quickly and efficiently as possible,” Peter lied.
Somehow, I managed not to scoff or roll my eyes.
“So, in that vein, he has decided it would be best to sell the home and divide the proceeds equally. He wants Mrs. Mattison to keep all funds in the joint accounts. You will both retain your individual cars. And…that’s it.”
I finally looked up at Robert, whose eyes were on something behind me. The wall? A window? “What about Genesis?” I asked. “You don’t want me to sell it anymore?”
Robert glanced at me, opened his mouth, then shook his head.
His lawyer slid some papers to Danielle. “If you find this amended answer is agreeable, we can sign now.”
“Can you two wait in the lobby? Give us time to go over this?” Danielle asked.
An hour later, I left the law offices of Prince and Stitt, a free woman.