So if that was spousal neglect, then yeah, the attorney definitely had a reason to go after me. While I knew he didn’t, I knew Liv and her family, and I wouldn’t have put it past them to somehow find a way to have something on me.
“I can’t do this anymore,” I whispered as Mr. Reynolds’s voice drifted to an end on my phone.
“I don’t blame you, but you have to be strong. Don’t let this break you, not after everything you’ve been through. Have you—” Chief cut off and eyed me for a moment. “I know you’re not happy. Have you ever thought of leaving her?”
“That’s what I meant just now. I’ve been wanting to for over a month now, but I wanted to get her help first. I can’t, though. I can’t help her if this is how they come back at me. You have no idea how responsible I feel for the woman Olivia has turned into, but I’ve been done with her for years. And now . . . well, now I’m done being responsible for her too. If they want to make it seem like I faked her suicide attempt, and then threaten me with their attorney because I’m not asking her to come back home the next day, then her parents can take care of her.”
Saying the words out loud, even if just to my chief, made this crushing weight slowly begin to lift from my chest. And suddenly, I couldn’t wait any longer. I’d dealt with her for far too long, I’d made Kamryn wait for this for too long, and now that I knew that Olivia was a lost cause, there was nothing else to wait for.
I stood up quickly, and Chief gave me an odd smile. It was happy, but still somehow pained. Like he knew this was something I’d agonized over, but needed nonetheless. “Well, I guess you’ll probably be getting an attorney regardless, then. Just let me know if you need tonight off.”
Shaking my head, I grabbed my phone and headed toward the door. “I’ll be in. Thank you for listening.”
As I drove to an attorney’s office in town I called Kamryn, but she didn’t answer. Knowing she was either near Kinlee or too busy at work, I didn’t bother leaving a message and tossed my phone in a cup holder. I tried to calm my anxious shaking as I drove and focused on what was to come. I was finally going to do what I should have done long ago.
I walked in, told the receptionist what I needed, gave her my name, and took a seat in the lobby. Not three minutes later, a woman in a suit walked out.
“Mr. Saco?”
“Yes.” Standing, I offered my hand, which she shook.
“I was told you were looking to file for divorce. Is that correct?”
My hands started shaking even harder, and my stomach tightened in anticipation. “That’s correct.”
With a smile, she nodded once and took a step back. “Okay, just making sure I knew what to be ready for. I’m finishing up something that needs to be sent over to a client. It will only take a few minutes, if you don’t mind waiting.”
“That’s fine, I’ll be here.”
“All right then. Ten minutes tops!” she said with a smile and hurried back down the hallway.
Thirty minutes later, a man in a suit that had to cost more than I made in a month walked into the building.
“Brody Saco, what a pleasant surprise seeing you here.”
I raised my eyebrow and straightened in the chair. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”
“Oh, well, not exactly. But you’re about to if you decide to continue on with what you’re about to do. I’m J. Shepherd, but I’m sure you would have figured that out sooner or later in this conversation.”
I locked my jaw and my eyes narrowed as I recognized the familiar name. Olivia and her parents threw it around enough, there was no way not to know it. He was her parents’ attorney.
“You know what I just find absolutely hilarious?” he asked as he took the seat next to me. “Other than the fact that you really thought I didn’t have enough pull in the surrounding cities to have them watching for you and to call me when you finally came in? And to file for divorce too. I had bet it would be for a defense attorney.” He clucked his tongue. “Guess I lost out on that three hundred dollars.”
“What do you want?” I said through gritted teeth.
“Right. So this is what I find funny. A man who was driving when an accident occurred, which resulted in killing his son, and the same man who tried to make his wife’s fainting look like a suicide attempt . . . is now wanting to file for divorce. I’m seeing a pattern. If I’m not mistaken, Mr. Saco, you only married Olivia Reynolds because she was going to have your baby. Is that correct?”
I didn’t say anything. I just sat there trying to control my breathing.
“I’ll take your silence as a confirmation. So that means you never really wanted a life with her, and that includes a family. It is quite convenient that your son is out of the picture. And now, after waiting a long enough time that it wouldn’t seem suspicious to most, you try to get your wife put in a psych ward before divorcing her. Now that, Mr. Saco, seems very suspicious, if you ask me. And since we are asking me . . . I’ll just inform you now that if you continue with your filing, we will press charges for trying to make Olivia look suicidal so you could force her into a psych ward, which will only bring up the question of whether the car accident was actually an accident or not.”
My breaths were coming fast, too fast. It felt like I was going to be sick. This couldn’t be happening.
“We wouldn’t want that to happen, now would we?”