Chapter 8
The next afternoon, the lawyers from both sides met at Richard Young's law firm.
When I got there, Julia was already waiting.
She was in a black business suit, her makeup barely there. There was exhaustion in her face, but she sat up straight, still radiating authority.
When she saw me walk in, her eyes lingered on my face for a moment. Her lips moved like she wanted to say something, but she stayed silent.
I took a seat across from her.
Richard placed two agreements on the table.
"Let's start with the shares," I said.
Julia's lawyer was a middle-aged, balding man named Woods. He pushed up his glasses.
"Mr. Chandler, Sunrise's stock price has plummeted because of your sell-off. If we use the pre-sale price, these shares would be worth about 400 million dollars. But at the current price..."
"I'm talking about the pre-sale price," I cut him off.
"Mr. Chandler, that's not fair. You're the one who caused the stock to drop..."
"Mr. Woods," I said, meeting his gaze. "Are you really sure you want to get into who started all this?"
His expression shifted, and he glanced at Julia.
Julia closed her eyes for a moment.
"Do as he says. Four hundred million dollars, wire it to him within a week," she said.
He opened his mouth, but in the end, he didn't say anything.
"Next, the divorce agreement," I said.
Richard slid the papers over to Julia.
Julia picked them up and looked them over, her hand trembling just a little.
"The house is yours, the car is yours, and everything else we split fifty-fifty. I don't want anything from Sunrise," I said. "It's simple."
She flipped through the agreement, reading each page carefully.
"You're not even taking the house?" Julia asked.
"It's in your name. Honestly, I couldn't stand living there," I replied.
She set the papers down and looked up at me.
Her eyes were starting to tear up.
"Luke, can't you just think it over? It's been five years. You're really just going to walk away like none of it meant anything? Do you really think that's fair to what we had?" Julia said.
"Five years?" I repeated.
I looked at her.
"How many nights did you even bother coming home for dinner? How many times did you actually remember my birthday? Who was the one driving you to the hospital in the middle of the night when you were sick?
"And every time you came back from fighting with investors and started smashing things, who was the one cleaning up after you?" I asked.
She didn't say a word.
'Julia, what you owe me after these five years isn't something a divorce agreement could ever settle. But I'm not here to keep score. I just want to leave with a clean slate,' I said.
She bowed her head, and a tear dropped onto the paper, blurring the ink.
Her hand trembled as she picked up the pen and signed her name.
I added my signature right after.
When we walked out of the law firm, a light rain was falling.
Julia was waiting at the door, Emma holding an umbrella over her.
She looked back at me.
"Luke, so what are you going to do now?" she asked quietly.
"That's none of your business anymore," I replied.
I turned and walked into the rain.
That was the end of our marriage.