A Man with Nerves of Steel (Joseph Hart) novel Chapter 14

Chapter 14

“Alright, then. We won’t talk about Cora anymore. Let’s talk about you instead,” Fiona said.

She pulled out a copy of Joseph’s personnel file from the hospital. “You’re just an attending physician, aren’t you? If you divorce Cora, you have to think about how your career is going to go from here as well as the child support you’ll have to pay-”

“What child support?” Joseph cut in.

“You and Cora have two more daughters. After the divorce, there’s no way she’ll give you custody, and the court won’t grant it, either. If she has primary custody, then as their father, you’ll still have to pay child support. Based on the lifestyle the Lowells are used to, you’ll likely have to cough up 10 or 20 grand a month…” 1

“Fiona, whatever’s going on between Cora and me is between husband and wife. You’re an outsider who knows nothing, so you don’t need to get involved. If you’re talking to me in a personal capacity as my friend, then I’m not obligated to tell you anything.

“If you’re talking to me as Cora’s attorney, then you’re the defendant’s lawyer, and I’m the plaintiff. We shouldn’t be meeting at all.”

Joseph picked up on the threat hidden in Fiona’s words. Feeling that it was utter nonsense, he told her to leave. Selena and Kimberly weren’t his, either. The nerve of them, demanding that he pay child support for them!

He called Cora. It took quite a while before she finally picked up. It sounded noisy on her end. She said, I’m talking business with a friend right now. I’ll come by to pick you up and bring you home in a bit.”

He said, “Cora, I was originally planning to have a peaceful divorce. I wasn’t going to ask you for money, but you just had to send a lawyer over to tell me that I must pay you tens of thousands of dollars a month in child support.

“Fine, then. If that’s how you want to play it, we can leave feelings out of the picture and talk about money alone. I’m not just filing for divorce. I’m going to demand a payout of three billion dollars as compensation!”

“Three billion dollars? Sounds like a fantastic project!” On the other end of the line, Cora just chuckled dismissively and ended the call.

Right before the call ended, Joseph heard a middle-aged-sounding man ask what kind of project could possibly be worth three billion dollars.

Was it a lot? She wouldn’t even be able to protest if he asked for half of her assets!

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