“Indeed it does. So happy to make your acquaintance.” He turned his attention to Kiki. “And the statuesque tigress to my right must be Kiki?”
“Right again,” she said, shaking his hand and smiling politely. “Nice to meet you.”
He kept staring at her. “You could totally pull off a Cher look-alike gig, you know that? You have some of the bone structure … ”
“So I’ve been told.”
“Well,” he said as he turned to go into his office, “if you ever do, I’ll be buying a ticket. Come in, ladies. We have much to do before your hour is up. Come in, come in.”
They followed him inside and took their seats as he shut the door. After making his way around the desk to his high-backed leather chair, he began speaking again. “So. You have a new business, is that what I hear?”
The heads around the table nodded in tandem.
“And a misbehaving almost ex-husband who needs to be reminded of the laws of the State of Florida, is that right?”
Elizabeth and Kiki nodded firmly, but Aimee just shrank a little down into her seat.
Marcus addressed himself only to Aimee. “Sweetie, I know what you’re thinking right now. Do you want to know how I know?”
“Because you’re psychic?”
He smiled. “Aren’t you a peach?” Then he got serious again. “No. I know because many of the ladies who come to my office and sit in that chair where you’re sitting, feel exactly the same way. And later they tell me what they were thinking as they sat there, during their first appointment. Usually it’s something like … oh … how they don’t want to fight … or how they just want to move on without causing a fuss. Am I close?”
Aimee couldn’t help but smile. “Yes. Very.”
“Good. Well, let me tell you something. In all my years of practicing law, I’ve never once had a client come to me later and say, ‘I should have gone with my first instinct.’ You know what they do say, Aimee?”
“No.”
“They say, ‘I’m so glad you made me see this through to the end. I feel strong again. I feel like I’m in control of my life again. And I know I’m never going to let a jerk like that take my life over and make me lose myself again.’” He fixed her with a stare, as if she and he were the only ones in the room. “Do you want to take your life back, Aimee? Because I can help you do that.”
Tears sprung to her eyes as she whispered, “Yes. I’d like that very much.”
“Well then!” he nearly shouted, clapping his hands together once very sharply and making them all jump, “let’s get this party started! Ladies, Kiki and Elizabeth, you may remain here for part of this conversation, however at some point I will ask you to step out so that my client and I can discuss some things in confidence. But first, let’s talk about the nuts and bolts.” He paused to take an expensive-looking pen out of his drawer along with a pad of paper.
Aimee snuck glances at her friends and noticed that the expressions on their faces mirrored her inner thoughts. They were inspired and moved. Marcus was freaking awesome. Aimee felt like Rocky Balboa on the stairs, getting ready to train and then kick some serious butt. She reached on either side of her and squeezed her friends’ hands.
Marcus went on to gather the basics about the marriage and how it had come to an end. His laughing and joking manner took a back seat to his probing and frowning concentration, his head nodding or shaking from side to side in all the right parts. When Aimee told him about the insurance he held up his pen and pointed it first at her and then the two other girls. “No. You will not be signing over that insurance policy. Over my dead body, and I promise you, I’m hard to kill. Two people have already tried. True story. But, as I said … No. Capital N, capital O.” He looked at Elizabeth. “You know where I’m going with this, right, Lizzie?”
“Yes.” She turned to look at Aimee. “Your insurance policy is an asset. It’s worth possibly quite a bit of money. If he wants you to sign it over, it must mean you’re the owner of that policy, which means he can’t do anything to it without your written authorization.”
“Right,” said Marcus. “And speaking of, we’ll want to get together a detailed list of all marital assets. Do you have something like that?”
“Um, well, I used to.”
“Used to?”
“Well, Jack made me keep binders of all of our expenses. They’re back at the old house. He’s probably figured out I’ve left though, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to get back in.”
Kiki patted her hand. “We’ll get back in. Consider it done, Marcus.”
“What are these binders like, Aimee? And what did you do with them?” asked Elizabeth.
“They have receipts taped into them for anything we bought. I put the amounts into software on the computer, too. They’re sitting on shelves in the home office.”
“Get me a copy of that data, both what’s on the computer and in the binders. Every bit of it,” said Marcus, making notes on his pad.
Aimee started to get really uncomfortable.
“I can see you squirming, Aimee. What’s wrong?” asked Kiki.
Aimee looked at all of their faces and wasn’t sure how to say what she was feeling. “Well, I’m not sure. I guess I feel like I’m being sneaky.”
Marcus put his pen down and folded his hands. “Okay, time to get real, sweet pea. Did Jack, or did he not, have repeated sex with another woman during your marriage and get said other twenty-something-year-old woman pregnant?”
“Yes.” Just hearing it out loud made her feel awful all over again. Just like the day she found out.
“And did he, or did he not purchase …,” he looked down at his notes and then back up again, “…a townhouse for said girlfriend using your marital savings?”
“Yes. He did.” She was feeling more and more humiliated by the second.
“Aimee, the guy used you to wipe his feet on. Did he or did he not make you drop out of school? Cut you off from the world? Tell you that you sucked at the one thing you love - baking? And cause you to fall and crack your head open?” finished Kiki, obviously losing patience.
Aimee looked down, feeling terrible and knowing she wasn’t going to be able to stop the tears. “Yes. That’s all true. I’m an idiot.”
Elizabeth handed her a tissue and took her hand. “Aimee, no one is saying you’re an idiot. And you’re not. We know this is hard for you. You’re a lover, not a fighter. But if you need to, you can lean on Kiki and me for the fight part. You have to stand up for yourself, that’s why we’re reminding you of the reasons you have to be strong. You might not realize this now, but you need to do this. For yourself … your soul. Don’t let him take everything from you.”
“He already has.”
“No. He hasn’t,” said Kiki grabbing her other hand and squeezing it. “You still have the sweet, funny, loving person that’s inside of you, hiding behind the wimp that’s going to have to take a rest for a little while; because the time for running away is over. It’s time to stand up for yourself, like Lizzie said.”
Aimee looked up and saw Kiki smiling at Elizabeth. Aimee looked at Elizabeth in time to see her stick out her tongue at Kiki.
Elizabeth caught Aimee looking and said, “I hate that nickname. Marcus has been teasing me with it since I was a little kid.”
Aimee felt emboldened by her friends’ support. And she loved that they teased each other in the middle of the chaotic pain. It totally made her feel like she’d always imagined the girls in the story Little Women felt like - sisters who had a tight bond that really came into play when the chips were down. And the chips were definitely down right now. At least in her life. “I hear what you’re saying. And I’m going to try. I really am.” She hoped that was good enough for them because it was all she was capable of promising right now. She hadn’t realized until this moment just how much Jack had taken from her. It wasn’t just the house and the money and the fidelity of their marriage. He had taken some essential part of her and snuffed it out, o
r caused her to bury it so deeply, she didn’t know if she’d ever get it back. She sighed in resignation.
“She’s on board,” assured Kiki. “Let’s move on.”
“Okay,” said Marcus. “I just need a few moments alone with my client, and then you ladies will be free to go. And I hope your first order of business will be to get those binders for me.”
Elizabeth and Kiki stood. “You bet,” said Elizabeth. Thanks, Marky Mark, for all your help.”
“I’m not finished with you. You’ll come back in for a few minutes to discuss the new business when we’re done here. It’ll only take five minutes.”
Aimee waited for the other two to leave and shut the door behind them before she began speaking. “Marcus, I just want to apologize. I’m so sorry I’m such a wimp. I really appreciate your help. I’m sorry if I’m not the most ideal client.” She felt so bad that Elizabeth was calling in favors for her so that she could have a lawyer. Jack was such a jerk. He was going to make this Marcus person wish he’d never agreed to this.
“You’re worried about what Jack’s going to say.”
“Yes.”
“And do.”
“Yes.”
“To you and to me, if I’m not mistaken.”
Aimee looked up. “How did you know? You are psychic, aren’t you?”
“No. I’ve just been doing this for too long. I’m not sure about the psychology behind it, but so often I see the women being cheated on tending to be very sweet, nice people, who have a bad habit of blaming themselves for everything terrible that happens to them.”
“Well, that’s true, that I do that - but I’m not sure that makes me a nice person. The divorce is mostly my fault.”
“How do you figure?”
“Well, for years, Jack wanted to have children. And I can’t. So it was a big disappointment. Plus, he liked to entertain his clients and colleagues, and I wasn’t very good at that. I think … I think I embarrassed him with my … goofiness or whatever. I don’t know.” She couldn’t finish. It was too humiliating. She felt like she was sitting with a therapist, and she wasn’t even able to pay him.
Marcus got up and came around the desk to sit at her side, taking the seat that Elizabeth had been in. He reached over and grasped her hands, pulling them out of her lap so they rested in between the two of them. His hands were warm and dry, soft to the touch. They were the hands of a lawyer who shuffled paper all day and left the manual labor to someone else.
“Look at me, love bug. Right here in my eyes. I know it’s difficult and you might feel like crying, but that’s okay.”
Aimee really didn’t want to, but she did it anyway because she knew he was just trying to be nice. As her eyes made contact with his, she was immediately struck by the kindness she saw there. And it was in such stark contrast to his lawyerness, it caused her to pause her normal inner diatribe against herself.
“I’m going to share a secret with you. This will be just between you and me. Those two wonderful ladies outside that door don’t need to know this part, okay?”
Aimee nodded her head wordlessly. She was on the edge of her seat wondering what he was going to say. It felt like it was going to be monumental.
“Years ago, when I was young and foolish and fancied myself in love, I found myself in an emotionally abusive relationship. Over a period of three years, I suffered the slow and insidious breakdown of my sense of self. Little by little - with what seemed like innocuous, harmless comments - my lover tore the foundation of me down, brick by brick, until almost nothing of me remained …”
Aimee’s heart squeezed painfully for him. He was so beautiful with those earnest blue eyes. Who could have done such a thing?
“You know what the worst part is?” Marcus asked.
Aimee shook her head, unable to speak.
“I let him do it. I left me … Marcus … in the dust. I became this other person - the one I thought he wanted me to be. I would have done anything to please him, to make him happy. I left my friends and family behind … ” He paused, rubbing the back of her hands with his thumbs and looking down for a moment. When he looked back up, his eyes were shining with unshed tears. “When I’d finally been brought down to my lowest point … when I had finally let him convince me that I was worthless and would never measure up to anyone’s standards of beauty, intelligence, or worth, someone stepped in and saved me. She grabbed me by the shoulders and gave me a good, hard shake and told me to snap my sorry butt out of that horrible dark place and get away from him. She made me see the web of hatred and self-loathing that my lover had spun around me. I’d been trapped willingly, but she wouldn’t let me feel the shame of it. She said something to me that I’ll never forget, and it helped me, so I’m going to say it to you too. Maybe it will give you that little ray of hope it gave me, and the inspiration to keep on going and trying to get out of the darkness.”
“What did she say?” whispered Aimee.
“She told me that the only person’s expectations I ever needed to measure up to were my own. No one decides for me who I am, who I need to be, or what I should be doing with myself, but me. And she told me I was perfect, exactly the way I was, faults and all. Because faults are what make us human, and ultimately unique and wonderful.”
Marcus reached up and took Aimee by the shoulders, gently shaking them for effect. “This is me, giving you a good shake. Now, snap your sorry butt out of that well of pity that you’re drowning in and take responsibility for your happiness.” He grabbed a tissue and used it to wipe the tears that were streaming down her face. “Jack does not get to decide who you are, what you can do, or what you should do. Jack does not decide what your world is going to be like. You are gorgeous, fierce, loving and lovable … today is the day you take your life back. One thing at a time. Yes, it’s going to be hard sometimes. You’ve buried the real Aimee down in there somewhere, and she’s afraid to come out. Be patient with her. It will be worth it, I promise.” He sat back and just stared at her, practically insisting she respond.
Aimee didn’t feel forced though, she was compelled by her own curiosity and newfound sense of hope to speak up. “What ever happened to that guy? The jerk who tried to destroy you?”
“He destroyed a few more lost souls before drinking himself to death.”
“That’s horrible,” she said, feeling sick for Marcus and wondering how he could possibly have ended up so fabulous with such a terrible experience in his past.
“He was a gay man who was never okay with who he was. He battled it and hated himself for it nearly his entire life. He couldn’t deny who he was, always drawn to relationships with other men; but he hated them for being attractive to him, so he launched this psychological warfare on those around him in an effort to cleanse his conscience. At least, that’s what my dime store psychological handbook said.” He smiled, making light of the analysis of his painful past.
“Well, Jack isn’t gay, so he wasn’t torturing me over something like that.”
“No, but he’s got issues. I don’t know what they are - but they did cause him to systematically tear you down, to the point that you want to run and hide whenever his name is mentioned.”
“I don’t want to feel that way anymore.”
“I know. That’s why I shared my secret with you.” He stood and went to the door. “I’m going to let the girls in now, if you’re ready.”
“In a second. I just want to thank you first.” She stood up and went over to him, giving him a quick hug. “Sorry. I’m a hugger.” His hand reached around and patted her on the back.
“Don’t apologize. It was my pleasure. I hate to see a beautiful soul being hidden away.”
Aimee released him. “Okay. You can let in the troops. And thank you. Again. For sharing that part of your life with me.” She returned to her seat, blowing her nose and doing her best to wipe her face clean.
The girls joined her, looking at her worriedly. Aimee smiled, trying to reassure them that she was okay.
> Marcus went back to his chair. “Okay, so last on the list of things to do is business start-up.”
“Yes,” said Kiki. All three women nodded their heads.
“You want an LLC. Are we doing an even split?”
They all looked at each other and nodded affirmatively.
“Good. I need you to send me what each of you are contributing for your share - just a simple email will do. Are you planning on franchising?”
“Not at this time,” answered Elizabeth.
“Adding additional investors?”
“No,” said Kiki.
“Are any of you married, other than Aimee here?”
“No. But is that going to be a problem for her?” asked Elizabeth.
“Maybe. Maybe not. I just ask that you not share with Jack or anyone he knows any information about this business. If you start it during the marriage, it could get mixed up in the process. I’d prefer if you officially start it after the divorce judgment is final.”
“Can you fast-track it?” asked Elizabeth.
Marcus smiled a little deviously. “I have some ideas on that. It’s possible. Let me get back to you.”
“We were hoping for a three-month start-up,” said Kiki, looking anxious.
“It could be possible … if my theory proves out. I’ll let you know.”
“Feel like sharing that theory?” asked Elizabeth.
“Not yet. Give me a few days. In the meantime, I don’t want any of you signing any documents or officially declaring the existence of this business.”
“We won’t,” said Elizabeth. “Right, girls?”
Kiki and Aimee agreed they wouldn’t.
“Okay, that’s all I need for now. Elizabeth, keep in contact with me about the business.” He looked at Aimee. “Aimee, go home and open up a new email account. Use a brand-new password you’ve never used before. Send me the address. This will be just for you and me to use. Don’t share the username or password with anyone except these two girls, if you want. Do not write the password down on anything. Do not use one that Jack could guess - meaning, don’t use your birthday, anniversary, pet names, etcetera in the password, okay? Pick something random. Got it?”