I’ll give you the divorce when you give me 52% of your company.
I want the house in Phoenix too.
I will get it one way or the other. U know me Landon. U know I will get what I want.
Jesus, she was insane. Alexa hadn’t sacrificed anything to help Landon build his business, yet she felt entitled to demand a controlling interest in his company. I stared at the screen, thankful that I didn’t know his password, and therefore couldn’t unlock the phone and give her a piece of my mind. She had no idea what kind of person she was taking advantage of, how hard he’d worked to build every brick of his empire.
“Interesting reading material?” Landon asked, and I jerked, nearly dropping his phone.
I blushed, holding the phone up to him. “I’m Sorry. I didn’t mean to— “
“Yes you did,” he said, but there was no anger in it. His voice was flat, factual. “But I don’t care. I doubt she’s saying anything you don’t already know.”
“What are you going to do about this?”
“Nothing,” he said, his voice firm… resolute. “She’s no longer authorized on any of my accounts, and she’s little more than a nuisance at the center. A fly buzzing around, making noise.”
“She wants half your company.”
“More than half—fifty-two percent gives her the ability to fire me if she so chooses,” Landon said, as if he was discussing the weather. “It would put her boot on my neck for the rest of my life.”
“You think she’s serious, or is she just trying to negotiate to get a better deal?”
He shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter. She’ll give up eventually. The lawyers she’s hiring are expensive, and without access to my accounts, she’ll run out of money. Besides, my lawyers are better. And after a dozen or two of our monthly board meetings, she’ll lose interest.”
“Oh,” I said, softly.
He took in my expression, which must’ve been a mixture of concern and despair.
He sighed. “I’ve offered her a fair settlement—not fifty-two percent of the company, which is ridiculous—but a fair amount. More than she deserves, certainly. I don’t care if it takes her five years to realize it’s all she’s going to get. I won’t ever give her a penny more.”
It was like someone had taken an ice cream scoop to my chest, hollowing it out. I wanted him to care if this would take years. I needed him to care.
But he didn’t. he wasn’t thinking of me as he went to battle with her. He wasn’t trying to get free of her to be with me.
Five years?! I was supposed to date a married man for five years?
I couldn’t wait that long.
“So that’s the plan? Turn into Fort Knox and wait until she’s too tired to keep banging on the door?” I said.
His expression didn’t change. He was resolute. Stoic. “I refuse to give in to her. No matter the cost. Alexa has expensive tastes. She’ll run out of money, and then she’ll accept whatever I’m willing to give her.”
My eyes stung, but I refused to cry. How could he not see that he and I might be the cost of his refusal to budge?
I didn’t think he should give her a controlling interest in his business, but I also didn’t see how he could be so cavalier about the divorce drawing out for years and years like this.
How could he not think of me as he refused her? Maybe I could wait for him… but not if he didn’t even bother to ask me how I felt about it all. Not if he didn’t even recognize what this meant to us. Once again, I felt left behind and forgotten.
I stood up, facing him. “And what if it takes six years to get her to see reason? Or eight? Ten?”
He crossed his arms and stared at me, as if confused by my reaction. “I don’t care how long it takes. I won’t give up more of my company and my profits just to get rid of her.”
I shook my head, biting hard on my lip to keep from crying. I wouldn’t cry. Couldn’t. He didn’t shed tears over me, he didn’t deserve mine. “But you’ll give up me.”
“What?” He said, confusion lacing his tone. “No. I’m not giving up on us.”
“Right, you’ll just ask me to sit around for a decade or so until you’re divorced, that’s all.”
“Taryn--” He stepped toward me, reaching out.
But I jerked away. “You really think it’s so easy for me to fall in love with a married man?”
“This isn’t about you,” Landon said.
“Exactly!” I cried, throwing my hands up. “It’s never about me. It’s about you, and what you want, and everything you prioritize in life that comes in front of me. For just a second, I let myself think that there would come a day I was number one to you. But I just keep waiting, and that day never comes.”
“That’s not true.”