One Weekend with the Billionaire novel Chapter 85

I don’t even want to go home today for the first time since Julia left Jeff and came to live with me. I want to stay in the office, pretending to work, burying my head in the proverbial sand, so that I don’t have to tell her that Jeff refused to sign the agreement.

In the hours since Thompson scattered the offer across the table and stormed out of the conference room, my lawyers have been in contact with his lawyers, and I have learned that it isn’t about the money. It’s about winning and losing. Sure, he wants the world to think it’s about him keeping his wife, but that’s not it at all. It wouldn’t matter if it were Julia, a puppy, or even an ice cream cone. Jeff Thompson is just bitter because he lost, so he’s refusing to give me the prize. It’s all so very stupid and not at all in Julia’s best interest.

Shawna, my lead attorney, recommends we fight it completely now, making him sorry that he didn’t take the offer. I am fully with her. If he is going to put us through going to court, then I will make sure that he pays. Besides, the more I look at the accusations myself, the more I realize that there’s not as much to them as Kyle Warren would have us believe. Most of what Jeff is accusing me of doing, Julia decided to do for herself, and she will be willing to testify to that in a court of law. I am ready to fight this thing head on.

My only real issue at this point is the media. They were already speculating, trying to figure out what was going on since I’ve been quiet, and Thompson hasn’t been talking yet either in an attempt to get a settlement from us. Now, he’ll probably be willing to say a lot more than he was before. In that case, there’s a good chance that Julia could be dragged through the mud, despite the fact that she’s done absolutely nothing to deserve that. I know from experience that the media doesn’t care. They will say and do whatever they think will sell copies of their newspapers and magazines, even if it’s not true.

I take a deep breath and rake my hands through my hair, knowing I will have to go home now and face Julia. She is probably already wondering why I haven’t called her. Unless she knows somehow. I don’t think that Thompson has her new number, but her mother does.

This realization, that Julia probably already knows that he turned down the settlement, has me moving now. I let my driver know I’m coming down and grab a few things from my desk, not that I’ll be doing any work from home tonight. I turn off my computer and head out.

Cindy is still there, sitting behind her new desk outside of my new office. I can tell by her expression that she is upset but doesn’t know what to say to me. I give her a confident, reassuring smile, even though I’m not feeling that myself. "It’ll work out, Cindy," I say to her.

She nods, but I don’t think she believes me. I only mildly believe myself.

My driver is waiting for me. I am stoic on the way home, staring out the window, lost in my thoughts. Outside my window, the city is a blur of movement. Lights, people, cars whizzing by. The country scenery closer to home is a patch of green in the dissolving light of the early evening sun. I see very little of it. I say nothing. I only sit and think and wonder how I will tell Julia what has happened and how we must fix it.

When we pull up outside of the house, I get out of the car, resolved to go inside and make the best of the situation, telling Julia it will all be fine. It will just take a little more time this way. I hope I can convince her better than I can convince myself. My lungs feel restricted, like they are not capable of truly filling with air.

I walk in the front door and stop in my tracks, not at all expecting to see what I am looking at. Julia is standing in the middle of the foyer, dressed in the clothes she was wearing when she arrived a few weeks ago, her bag by her side. "I have to go," she says.

My heart drops out of my chest as my mouth falls open. There are no words….