Chapter 12: Open Offer

VIVIAN'S POV

“Perhaps I shouldn't have come…..” I said to myself. Not once. Not twice.

I had told myself ten times on my way here. In front of the giant mirror in the room where I fixed my lipstick like I was going to war.

I repeated the same to myself in the taxi and even in the elevator. Yet, I am still here.

“Come and see me in my club house. I have a special offer for you…” That was exactly what Alexander's father whispered in my ears before he left the house the previous night.

I couldn't tell Alex. I wanted to know what this is about.

First, he came to the house to paint me as the bad guy and now he wants to see me privately.

Indeed, I am curious.

The club house was too quiet. That kind of quiet extremely rich people pay for.

No music. No press. No phones allowed. Just dark wood, white tablecloths, and waiters who look at you and already know you do not belong.

Richard was already there, sitting in the corner like a king waiting for his subject. In front of him was a glass of whiskey. He rubbed his hands around the glass cup slowly and his eyes darted around like he was watching out for something beside me.

He stood up the minute he saw me, “Ahah, Vivian, you actually came. That's a good choice. I am impressed. Have your seat,” he uttered.

For some reason, I didn't feel okay that he said what he said but then I had no choice.

I didn't sit immediately. I stood with my chin and my gaze fixated on his forehead.

“Why am I here, Richard? You told me to come alone and here I am….”

“Say what you have to say and let me go….” I said, holding my bag tight against my side.

“Sit,” he said in a sharp tone.

I obeyed. My hands began to shake but I pressed them against my dress under the table so he wouldn't see them.

I can't allow him to see me this way. He would think I am scared of him.

“I ordered for you…” he said as he waved at the waiter, signaling him to get him something.

“Salad, no dressing. I noticed you like to watch your weight or am I wrong?” He said it like it was a tease.

I had had enough of it already.

“I did not come here to eat,” I said without a pause.

“Then we will get straight to it,” he said. He leaned forward with his elbows on the table. “You are a problem, Vivian. A beautiful problem, but still a problem.”

“Thank you for the compliment,” I responded in a breath.

“I am not complimenting you. I am stating a fact. Since you married my son, there has been nothing but headlines. Adrian Cole. Nuclear Magazine. Top times papers. This and that, everywhere..”

“.......The board is calling me. The investors are calling me. Catherine’s family is calling me.”

Catherine’s family?” I asked. “What does Catherine have to do with me?”

“Everything,” Richard said. “Catherine was supposed to be my daughter-in-law. She understands this family. She understands sacrifice. You only understand yourself.”

I laughed. A short, angry laugh. “Sacrifice? You mean she understands how to pretend she is perfect while she waits for Alexander to come back to her?”

Richard’s eyes narrowed. “Careful.”

“No, you be careful,” I said. “You invited me here alone to insult me. You could have done that at my house last night. Why the secret meeting? Why not do it all in the presence of your son??” I blurted out angrily.

I didn't care how I sounded. I didn't care if I was following the script or not.

“You really want to know why I brought you here??” He asked like I was supposed to answer with immediate effect

“......Because Alexander is blind when it comes to you,” he said. “He cannot see what you are doing to him. So I will do what a father must do.”

He reached into his jacket, pulled out a thick brown envelope and pushed it across the table towards me.

For some reason, my heart started pounding really fast. It was so fast that I had to breathe in and exhale loudly in front of him.

“What is this?” I asked.

“It’s yours. Open it,” he said without holding back.

I couldn't or rather I didn't want to but my hands did it anyway.

I finally opened it and all I saw was a paper, neatly pressed within the envelope.

“And what am I looking at?” I said like I didnt bother but I truly was.

“Read…” he said as he finally sipped the drink in front of him.

“Settlement agreement for a quiet divorce”

I froze. Was I cursed even within a novel?

Another agreement? I didn't remember this part in the novel.

I looked up at him….”You want me to divorce him?”

“I need you to leave quietly….without any trouble,” Richard said.

I stared at the papers one more time. The numbers were blurred for a second then it became clear by the minute.

A whooping sum of ten million dollars. My throat almost went dry.

I almost let out a scream. Not only that, with the apartment in Brooklyn, the same one I told Alexander I would love to have.

“Ten million?” I whispered.

“Yes…exactly as you see it there…” he responded with a half smile up through his cheeks.

“....it is more than enough to start your little brand. Enough to let you leave Alexander. You get to walk away rich and made!” He said like he couldn't want to just get rid of me.

I felt insulted like I was just an ordinary person that could be slapped off with money.

I bursted.

“So this is how you actually see me, Mr. Blackwood?? You think I’m for sale?” I asked.

“......you think you can buy me out like I am a bad employee? Like I am a mistake you can pay to disappear?”

He let out a short laugh, quiet annoying when I heard it.

“....you know what I think,, Vivian?? I feel you are a smart girl,” he spoke calmly.

“....and smart girls take the money when it is offered. Stupid girls stay and fight for a man who does not love them and they end up losing everything.”

“I know you will make the right choice,” he said, tapping his fingers on the table in a rhythmic manner.

“Alexander loves me,” I said, even though I was unsure about it.

“Does he?” He said like he was mocking me.

“...stop lying to yourself, little woman.. You know what you are, in this marriage.”

“A deal! A tool used for convenience!!” he lashed out. Those words hit me not because I was just being insulted or mocked but because somehow they were partly true.

I was about to say a word in protest when he brought out something from his pocket that caught my attention once more.