“I’m on my way to your office, Jonathan.” He picked up on the first ring. “No need to act like you actually give a damn about my financial reports today.”
“That’s not why I’m calling.”
“Of course it isn’t. What do you want?”
“Have you received my wedding invitation in the mail yet?”
There was a sudden knock on my door and I walked over to answer it.
“Would you like me to keep talking into the phone?” Milton walked into my office. “It wouldn’t surprise me if you did.”
“Did you receive a wedding invitation?”
He shrugged. “No.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m pretty sure, but I don’t need one of those to be there if that’s why you’re asking...”
I shook my head. “No...I’m just...I’m just wondering.”
He asked me to give him a few minutes to get his files organized and I took a seat at my desk. I sent out a text to five people, five people who I knew I had personally told Claire to invite—addresses and all, and waited for them to tell me if they had received their invitation in the mail.
Their responses came back instantly: “No.” “No...” “No.” “I need an invitation to get in?” “No.”
What the f**k?!
I prepared to text Angela to get to the bottom of it, but I accidentally hit my email app and saw a message labeled: URGENT. It was from our cake designer:
To: Statham, Jonathan
From: Elegant Cakes, Inc.
Mr. Statham,
My name is Jacqueline Russell and I am the manager of Elegant Cakes. Per my conversation with your fiancée two weeks ago, I wanted to make sure that you were canceling your complete order which includes: One five tiered wedding cake, two three tiered dream cakes, and the customized frozen anniversary cake.
Since your name is on the contract and we have your signature on file, we’ll need you to verify that this information is correct.
We’re sorry we won’t be able to work with you on your special day,
Sincerely,
Jacqueline R.
My mind was officially blown. I couldn’t believe this shit.
“Jonathan? Jonathan?” Milton cleared his throat. “Are you there?”
I shook my head and sighed. “Go ahead...”
“Okay...” Milton handed me a folder. “Inside that folder, you’ll see that I’ve outlined your current assets, totaled your domestic and foreign bank accounts, and appraised the company’s future earnings. As you can clearly see, the future Mrs. Statham’s name is nowhere to be found because well...She did not contribute to you gaining any of these things so...”
“I thought this was a strategy meeting.” I rolled my eyes.
“It is. Angela informed me that you’ve cancelled all your appointments with the marital attorney as of this morning. Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“Well, maybe you’re not thinking straight... Let me help you out: Your net worth as of this quarter is nine point eight billion. Your net worth. We live in California, a fifty-fifty split state.”
“Milton...”
“That means that if you should ever get a divorce, your-ex-wife will automatically be entitled to over four billion dollars. If you last for more than ten years and your earnings continue to grow like they have in the past, you’re looking at handing over seven to eight billion easily. Do you understand that?”
“I do.”
“Glad to hear that. I’ll arrange for the attorney to come back.”
“There’s not going to be a pre-nup, Milton.”
His jaw dropped. “I thought you just said you agreed with me.”
“There can’t be a pre-nup if I’m not getting married...”
“What?” He gasped. “You two were just here weeks ago telling me about the wedding venue...It’s over?”
I didn’t answer him.
“Jonathan?”
I sighed. “I’ll call you later tonight to go over that mistake in the master file you mentioned at this morning’s meeting. I have a feeling we’ll need more than one accounting team to sort that out.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but then he shook his head. He took his folder back and patted me on my shoulder before leaving my office.
As soon as the door closed, I leaned back in my chair and shut my eyes.
I can’t believe this shit...What the f**k is Claire thinking?
I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions about the wedding, about marrying Claire, but invitation and cake bullshit aside—what she’d pulled last week had rocked me to my core.
At first, I didn’t want to believe that I’d seen her and Ryan inside of Starbucks when I drove by. I refused to believe it. So, I’d driven around the parking lot, telling myself that Claire—my Claire, would have called me the second Ryan showed up anywhere near her. Like she promised.
I’d decided that my eyes were playing tricks on me so I simply parked my car. With flowers in tow, I’d headed towards the Starbucks, but then I saw her again—with Ryan, pressed up against her car with her f**king leg around his waist, with her lips inches away from his mouth.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get that image out of my mind...