Chapter 28
Drew
“Your client should be more worried about losing her medical license than a timeshare in the Virgin Islands. Her patient videotaped her bent over the examining table as he gave her a rectal exam with his dick, Alan. When we’re dividing up assets, consider that video one of mine. My client spent twenty grand buying that video, but I’d say the value is a hundred times that in this room.”
I was sitting in my conference room negotiating a settlement with opposing attorney Alan Avery. We’d done enough cases together for him to know I wasn’t bluffing. Roman had found out a sex tape existed even before the good Dr. Appleton knew about it. And now Mr. Appleton wanted alimony and all of the marital assets.
But Alan’s focus wasn’t on the possible repercussions of that tape. His mind seemed somewhere else entirely. And when I turned to look over my shoulder to see what he was watching, I was pissed about more than just him wasting my time.
“She your new secretary?” he asked.
Emerie stood at the end of the hall, signing for a package from UPS. Her ass looked phenomenal in a tan, form-fitting skirt.
“No. She’s a sub-tenant for a while,” I said curtly.
“Married?”
“Can we get back to the settlement?” I slammed my file shut. “My client isn’t giving Dr. DickUpTheAss one damn cent.”
“That’s ridiculous. Her husband has been mooching off her for years. She paid for all of the joint assets they have with proceeds from her medical practice.”
“Yeah, well, tell her we said thank you for the parting gifts. She can earn some more. I’m sure she’s a very popular proctologist.”
“She’s an ENT.”
“Really? Video looks more like she specializes in rectal exams.”
“Speaking of assholes, what crawled up yours this morning? You’re in a mood.”
“Let’s just get this crap done. I have a busy afternoon,” I grumbled.
A few minutes later, Emerie knocked on the open door. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but you have a phone call, Drew. She claims it’s urgent.”
“Who is it?”
Emerie was hesitant. “I don’t know. She wouldn’t give me her name.”
“Tell her I’ll call her back. It’s obviously not so important if she won’t even tell you her name.”
Emerie locked eyes with me. “The caller has a strong Southern accent. I thought perhaps Georgia.”
Great. Fucking Alexa.
I stood and spoke to Alan. “Excuse me for a minute.”
“Take your time. Your new tenant and I can get to know each other while you’re gone.”
Just perfect.
I didn’t stop the door from slamming behind me as I shut myself into my office and picked up the phone. “Drew Jagger.”
“The woman who answered the phone is annoying.”
I let out an irritated sigh. “What do you want, Alexa? I’m in the middle of a conference.”
“I’m staying in Atlanta another two weeks.”
“Like hell you are. My visitation starts on Friday, and you’ve already been there a week longer than the two weeks we agreed on. I haven’t seen my son in more than three weeks.”
“You can come here for your visit.”
“I can’t drop everything and fly to Atlanta every other week because you want to play with your friends. Beck needs to be home, back in school, and back to his routine.”
“He also needs to get to know his father.”
I knew exactly what she meant. “Fuck you, Alexa. He knows his father!”
“His biological father. Levi wants to get to know him. It’s important.”
I felt the rise of my blood pressure. “Really? If it’s so important, why didn’t you tell him seven fucking years ago when you found out you were pregnant? And why hasn’t he made an attempt to know our son when he’s known the truth for more than two years now? Not to mention, has he started paying support yet?”
I wasted the next ten minutes of my life in another useless argument with Alexa. For Beck’s benefit, I stretched my patience as thin as it could possibly go and didn’t hang up on her. I didn’t trust my ex-wife to not play the only card she had left in her very worn deck: taking me back to court to reduce my visitation. Even after paternity had been proven and Levi’s name replaced mine on my son’s birth certificate, her redneck ex-boyfriend had never attempted to get to know Beck. We’d settled out of court on the custody arrangement, and I’d agreed to pay hefty additional alimony and child support even though I could have made a motion to stop support once paternity was disproved. But in the back of my mind, I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop—especially now that she was apparently speaking to Levi again. My son still had no idea who the man was.
Knowing how vindictive Alexa could be kept me from doing a lot of things I wanted to do to make her life miserable, like hanging up on her today.