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Her friend turned to the lawyer with a sugary smile. “Hi, sorry. Can you give us a minute?”
Emma’s head slumped to the table. The sound of retreating footsteps signaled the lawyer’s departure.
She turned her head without lifting it from the shining dark wood.
“Five million dollars,” Emma breathed, slurring because her face was still pressed to the table. “He’s trying to give me five million dollars.”
George raised her brows. “I thought he was making you sign a prenup.”
“He is!” Emma pushed the thick contract toward her, pointing to the part the lawyer had highlighted with a sticky note in the shape of an arrow.
“Wow.” George lifted the contract to get a closer look as if she couldn’t believe what she was reading. “In the event the marriage dissolves, you get five million dollars in the form of a one-time alimony payment.”
“Just like that!” Emma exclaimed. “Five million! It’s automatic too.”
The lawyer had explained it was hers by default the day after the divorce was final. There were no conditions, which he seemed to find remarkable.
Georgia blinked with exaggerated slowness. “Here I thought Garrett was doing the cutthroat CEO thing, making sure you got nothing.”
She slumped. “So did I when he mentioned the prenup.”
Emma was still reeling. It would be one thing if the five million was earmarked to buy health insurance, but it wasn’t. The insurance was guaranteed for life and separate from the alimony payment.
“There’s something wrong with him.”
Chuckling, Georgia murmured her agreement while flipping pages. “Are these always so long?”
How was Emma supposed to know? “I guess you didn’t get one of these?”
“Nope.” George pulled open a page that folded out, accordion fashion. “What is this? It looks like some kind of inventory.”
“Those are his assets.”
It was a complete listing of properties, bank accounts, stocks, bonds, and who knows what else.
“That part was actually comforting because it spelled out explicitly that he keeps all that stuff.”
Which was fine. That was normal. She didn’t want Garrett’s assets. This was a deal for health insurance and a little breathing room from bills and other expenses.
Georgia’s head drew back, her eyes widening as the list unfolded a comical number of times. It stretched to the floor and beyond, spilling around her chair like a frothy wave. “Uh, this is kind of…”
“Psycho?” Emma finished, still incredulous. She lowered her voice to a whisper, wondering if the wall had ears. “Is this how all rich people do things?”
“I have no idea. Rainer was the first rich guy I met and he’s a marshmallow—so gooey inside.”
Emma brightened at the touch of humor. “I don’t think he’s like that with anyone else.”
Sure, Rainer was perfectly polite to her. But she had noticed a reserve to him, a little standoffishness that told her he usually held the world at arm’s length. That innate distance went out the window only when Georgia was around.
Suddenly she was depressed. What would it be to bethatfor a man?
Emma might never get the chance to find out. With her medical issues, her prospects for love had never been good. Now she was going to be in a fake marriage with a man too handsome for his own good.
That might sound good if this was a movie. But Emma lived in the real world.
There would be other women.
The contract hadn’t come right out and said anything about infidelity for either party, but of course, he’d start dating eventually. That was going to be weird and uncomfortable.