Betrayal

Chapter 4

HUNT CAME TO Palm Springs to stay with Tallie the day after. They spent a nice evening at the hotel, although Tallie finished late, but Hunt never minded. They lay out by the pool for a long time late that night and chatted. He told her that everything was in place for the audit to begin the following week, and then he asked her if she’d talked to Victor Carson.

“Not lately,” she answered. “I usually have Brig talk to him. She called him about the audit. Why?”

“Nothing. He sounds incredibly stressed about something. Maybe he’s insulted that we’re doing the audit. It’s a smart thing to do anyway.” Hunt was sensible and cautious about business, although he spent a considerable amount of money, but he could afford it.

“My father always said that too. He’s been bugging me to do one for years. He never trusts anyone. He was a lawyer for too long.” And then she remembered what Brigitte had told her about meeting Victor’s wife at the nightclub. “Apparently, he’s married to a real bimbo, half his age. Maybe she’s giving him trouble.” Hunt laughed when she said it.

“He doesn’t look the type. He looks so dull and respectable, I figured he’d be married to some nice conservative old lady.” He assumed Victor was older than he actually was. Tallie always had too. He looked ten years older than his age.

“Maybe that’s the one he left for this one. Sometimes guys go a little crazy at his age. Just warn me if you ever decide to dump me for a bimbo or a younger woman.”

“I’m not that old yet,” he said, smiling at her from a deck chair. “Besides, I love what I’ve got.”

“You never know,” she teased him. “Give it a few years, you might want some twenty-year-old bimbo too.”

“I hope not. If that ever happens, just shoot me. Besides, I can’t afford one.” He could, but he didn’t want to.

“Maybe he can’t either. Maybe that’s why he sounded stressed. I can never understand why guys do that. Someone half my age would just make me feel older.”

“Men think it makes them look young and virile, instead of old and foolish,” Hunt explained. It was a phenomenon they saw a lot in Hollywood, but Tallie had never known Hunt to lust over young women. He was totally focused on her, and devoted to her. She thought not being married kept their relationship alive and fresh, and that was how she intended to keep it, and Hunt had never objected. He didn’t want to get married again either. They shared that point of view.

He told her about the agents he’d talked to that day, about the potential stars of their next film. They had two locked in already, the biggest ones, and two who were almost sure. The last hurdle they had to get over was the audit, and they both knew it wouldn’t be a problem. Their finances were in good shape, and their last movie had made a fortune. The audit was just a formality to satisfy their investor, and not a concern to either of them.

After shooting the next day, Tallie had given the cast the weekend off, and she and Hunt drove to Santa Barbara. He had rented a beautiful house in Montecito for the weekend, and they were both looking forward to it. Brigitte went back to L.A., and Tallie was going to drive back up to Palm Springs with her on Monday morning. It was going to be a treat to have a weekend to relax and get away from the film. Tallie always got new ideas when she got a little distance from it. She would wake up in the middle of the night, and make notes on a pad she kept next to her bed. And this weekend was no different. But most of all, she and Hunt enjoyed each other’s company. They walked on the beach, slept late, and went out to dinner, and by the time they got back to L.A. on Sunday night, Tallie felt as though she’d had a vacation, not just a weekend.

She felt alive and fresh when she left for Palm Springs with Brigitte at four o’clock on Monday morning. She chatted with Brigitte all the way there and told her about the weekend. Brigitte said she’d had a couple of dates but didn’t volunteer with whom, and Tallie assumed they couldn’t have been important, or Brigitte would have said more about them.

And she reminded Brigitte to call Victor Carson a couple of times that week and see how the audit was going. She was expecting everything to go smoothly, and Brigitte assured her she’d do it.

Tallie and Hunt both had a busy week ahead, and he warned her that he didn’t think he’d be able to come to Palm Springs. She promised to come back to L.A. when she could, but she had a lot to do too. She didn’t want the location shoot to fall behind.

And by six o’clock that morning, Tallie was off and running, and she didn’t stop till midnight that night. The cast was utterly worn out by then, but Tallie was still going strong. Brigitte smiled as she watched her in action. There was no one in the world like her.

The independent audit got under way as planned. The firm that was doing it was based in San Francisco, and they were cool and businesslike when they went to Victor’s office, and asked for what they needed. They used his conference room to spread out Tallie’s books and accounts, and they had brought their own computers. There were two accountants, and they had brought two assistants with them. And they kept to themselves all week. Now and then they asked Victor for an explanation or some substantiation as they pored over her general ledger, and they offered very little comment. But Victor found it stressful anyway. He felt as though they were checking his work and questioning his competence. They were a very high-flying firm, and he was sure they were charging the Japanese investor a fortune for the audit, but apparently the investor thought it was worth it.

On the second day of the audit, Brianna had a surprise for him when he got home, looking nervous and exhausted. She’d been to see a lawyer, she explained, and she said she wanted a postnup from Victor. She looked very pleased with herself as she said it.

“A postnup?” He looked shocked. “What exactly do you mean?” A cold chill ran down his spine as he said it.

“You know, a postnup. Like a prenup, but after the marriage.”

“We already have a prenup, Brianna. We don’t need a postnup too.” He didn’t like the sound of it at all. It sounded like blackmail to him, or a serious threat at the very least. He had done a prenuptial agreement with her, and she had insisted that he put a sum of money in an account for her before they married. He had been so desperate to marry her that he agreed.

“I’ve already spent most of the money you gave me in the prenup, Victor. I need more. My attorney says that you can give me an amount now, and pay me an additional sum for every year we stay married.” It was like paying her to be married to him, and something told him that the amounts weren’t going to be small.

“Why did you go to an attorney?” he asked her somberly. He wondered if she’d been asking about a divorce but was afraid to tell him. He had given her seven hundred thousand dollars when he married her, and she had spent it in three years, in addition to what she had cost him. He couldn’t imagine what she had spent it on, but she went through money like water. Despite his careful accounting, she constantly slipped through his fingers.

“I just don’t feel comfortable without money of my own,” she said, whining at him. “I don’t want to ask you for everything. If you give me a lump sum now, and pay me an amount every year, I’d feel a lot better,” she said, sidling up to him.

“I honestly don’t think I can afford it right now,” he said sadly. “Some of my investments haven’t been doing well. I’d rather just pay your bills and take care of you, than put a set amount in an account every year.”

Despite the Angelina Jolie-lookalike pout, Brianna set her mouth in a firm line. “I don’t think I can stay married to you if you won’t do that for me,” she said with a nasty undertone in her voice. “If you love me, you’ll do it. You didn’t do anything you promised for my career. This is the least you can do for me. I wouldn’t feel secure without it.”

“And if I don’t, or can’t?” he asked, feeling discouraged and frightened. It was a race he couldn’t keep up with. He had nearly ruined himself for her, and she was insatiable in her demands and need for money. It was why she had married him in the first place. That was finally coming clear even to him now, with her demand for a postnup.

“I’ll have to discuss it with my lawyer and let you know,” she said with something very hard in her eyes. “Think about it, Victor. You don’t have any choice.” She was making her position clear, and he felt desperation clutch his throat. He was sixty-five years old and he didn’t want to lose her. And despite her ulterior motives with him, he had grown attached to her. And how many more women who looked like her were there going to be for him? He felt suddenly tired, defeated, and old.

He sat in his study alone that night, thinking about what she’d said, and he drank too much Johnnie Walker. Brianna went out with her girlfriends and came home at two o’clock in the morning. Victor was passed out on the couch in his study. She looked at him from the doorway and went to bed alone. She didn’t wake him or try to get him into bed. She was sure he would give her what she was asking for. He had no choice if he didn’t want to lose her, and she knew he didn’t. She had him by the throat, or worse.

She heard him in the shower the next morning and left for the gym. And by the time she got back, Victor had left for the office. The independent auditors were still in his conference room, and he was using the opportunity to go over Tallie’s accounts himself. It never hurt to double-check things. And late that afternoon, he came across several entries that confused him. Brigitte paid all of Tallie’s bills, and she was always very organized and careful about it. She recorded the entries in the general ledger, and then turned over the accounts to him. Brigitte signed the checks, and had been doing it for years. What was puzzling him were regular stays at several hotels. It was none of his business what Tallie did and how she spent her money, but he wasn’t aware of why she was staying at various hotels in L.A. And if they were business related, he wanted to take them as deductions.

There were a few stays at the Bel-Air, and quite a number at the Chateau Marmont and the Sunset Marquis. The same hotels appeared in Hunt’s accounts as well. Brigitte didn’t pay his bills-he had a bookkeeper he’d had for years. And Victor wondered if they spent romantic nights at hotels, or used the hotels for meetings, but he just wanted to confirm that with Tallie, as long as he was going over her books. He was sure it was nothing important. He also noticed that she was spending a considerable amount of cash, which he didn’t like, because whatever she spent it on, he couldn’t use as a deduction for her taxes, and he wanted to tell her that too. He wanted her to use her credit cards instead of cash.

Victor tried not to think of Brianna as he went over Tallie’s books. What she had said about the postnup was very upsetting. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to give her large amounts, and he was afraid that what he could give her right now wouldn’t impress her. And her request for a postnup had sounded like an ultimatum to him. His personal life was in turmoil. But he had to get this audit taken care of for Tallie and Hunt. He didn’t want to hold up their next picture, or frustrate their very precise Japanese investor. Tallie was counting on him to do it promptly, but it was hard to concentrate while he worried about Brianna.

Victor carefully went over Tallie’s accounts for two weeks and made a list of questions. There were expenditures relating to her daughter, some of which the IRS could have viewed as gifts, in which case Tallie had to pay taxes on them. He didn’t think they could take the Paris apartment as a business-related deduction since she never went there anymore, and up until then they had been. She hadn’t made a film in France in years. And he had a list of other expenditures that he wanted clarification on. The independent audit was to establish her solvency and net worth, but the one Victor was doing was just to make sure that her accounts were in good order, and they were taking deductions properly. Victor was conservative in his approach. He never liked taking too many deductions, if they were questionable, and he wanted to be able to defend all of their positions if they were ever challenged by the IRS. He didn’t want to get anyone in trouble, or let his clients stick their necks out too far. Some of them wanted him to be more aggressive than he thought reasonable, although Tallie never had, but this was a good opportunity to reevaluate their positions, and he was doing the same for Hunt.

Hunt’s bookkeeper’s accounting system was less precise than Brigitte’s. A lot of money came in and a lot went out, but he spent most of it on his credit card, so they had a good record of it. Victor met with him and asked him several questions. It was all very straightforward. And when Victor asked him about the local hotel stays, he said he’d stayed there with Tallie, and once in a while he rented suites at hotels for meetings with out-of-town investors so those were business deductions, and Victor wanted to know which charges were for business if Hunt remembered, and most of the time he did.

It all made sense and Victor was comfortable with the deductions they were taking for him, and they hadn’t put Hunt at risk for an audit. Victor was satisfied with Hunt’s answers, and the accounting firm of the Japanese investor seemed pleased too. They were almost finished at the end of two weeks, and very happy with what they’d seen. It looked like the deal would go forward. All Victor had left to do was ask Tallie similar questions to those he had asked Hunt, just for the sake of clarity in their ledger. And in Tallie’s case, he thought they should be taking more deductions. He also wanted to be sure that they were up to date on her California Use Tax, for things she had purchased out of state or abroad. He checked diligently that Tallie was keeping track of it, and Brigitte was recording it correctly, so Tallie didn’t get hit with penalties later. Most of his questions were about that, money spent on Max, and the considerable amount of cash that Tallie was spending, instead of using her credit cards, which he would have preferred.

He called her on her cell phone on Friday afternoon on the set. She sounded busy and he apologized for bothering her, and told her he had a number of questions to go over with her, to be sure that everything was in order and that he fully understood her expenses in the ledger.

“Can you talk to Brigitte about it?” she asked, sounding distracted. They had fallen slightly behind that week due to bad weather and a lot of changes in the script. She was worried that they were going to go over budget on location.

“I can,” Victor answered her cautiously. Sometimes he drove her crazy, he was such a nitpicker, but that was what she paid him for. She just didn’t have the time to spend on it with him at the moment, or she really didn’t want to. “But I’d rather ask you. You’re the one who’s responsible for your taxes, if Brigitte or I make a mistake. I’d rather hear it from the horse’s mouth. When will you be back in L.A.?”

“This weekend. But I’ll be back here on Monday morning.”

“Would you like to meet on Sunday?” he offered, and Tallie sighed, thinking about it. She wanted to spend her time off with Hunt, not Victor, but she knew he’d drive her crazy till she agreed to meet with him. She might as well get it over with, and figured she could do it on Sunday morning when Hunt played tennis. It wasn’t how she wanted to spend her Sunday, but she agreed to meet him at ten-thirty at his office to answer his inquiries. He promised he’d make it quick. Brianna liked to go to the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel for Sunday brunch, and she wouldn’t be happy about his working either.

When Tallie went back to L.A. that night, Hunt had good news for her, and he was making a wonderful dinner.

“Well, we passed the audit with flying colors.” Hunt beamed at her. “Mr. Nakamura is happy with everything, and they’re going to draw up the papers next week. I guess that means that neither of us is going broke, nor a crook.” He kissed her and she smiled too, and told him about her meeting with Victor on Sunday. “I had one of those meetings with him this week too. I swear, he wants to know everything I ate at every restaurant and was I talking business while I did.” They both laughed about their persnickety accountant, but Tallie commented that she was sure he was why she had never had an audit by the IRS, because he was so precise and so honest, and Brigitte kept such good track of her books. Problems with the IRS would be a headache, and she had always assiduously avoided them by being honest and cautious. So it was worth putting up with how thorough Victor was, and sometimes how annoying.

“I’ll meet with him when you play tennis,” she told Hunt. “He said it would be quick. The last thing I want to do is spend my Sunday with Victor.” They both laughed at the idea.

Hunt and Tallie spent a relaxing weekend. Tallie caught up on some errands and things she wanted to do. It was nice to have some time in the city before she had to go back to Palm Springs again. She visited her father on Saturday afternoon, and spent several hours with him. He wanted to hear all about how the film was going, and they sat in his garden and chatted while she filled him in. And on Sunday, when Hunt went to play tennis, she went to Victor’s office for the meeting she had promised him. He was waiting for her in a suit and tie. Tallie was wearing torn blue jeans, her high-tops, and a faded sweatshirt whose only virtue was that it was clean.

“Thank you for coming in on Sunday, Victor,” she said politely. “My schedule is crazy right now while we’re on location. It sounds like everything went great with the audit. Our investor notified us on Friday that he’s satisfied. I really appreciate everything you did.”

“That’s my job,” he said, as he adjusted his glasses and sat down. He had a list in front of him on his desk. The questions that applied to the California Use Tax were on the top of his list. He reminded her that it applied to her daughter too, and that anything she bought in New York and brought back to California had to have state tax paid on it. It seemed like a terrible burden to Tallie, but it was the law. And she said that Brigitte kept a careful record of everything they bought out of state and reported it to him. Victor was relieved and said that many of his clients forgot and got in trouble for it later on. He had questions about employees, several independent contractors that he wanted to verify with her. And as he droned down the list, Tallie found herself thinking that he could have done a lot of it with Brigitte. He had recategorized the apartment in Paris as a personal rather than a business expense, and he reminded her that she could only take Max as a dependent as long as she remained a full-time student, which Tallie already knew. He had told her several times. And then he scolded her for the amount of money she spent in cash every month.

“I can’t use it as a tax deduction when I don’t know what you spend it on,” he complained.

“Ice cream, parking meters, Starbucks. I don’t think you’re missing any big deductions, Victor,” she said with a rueful look.

“You must drink a lot of Starbucks then. From what I can tell, you’re spending about twenty-five thousand dollars a month in cash.” He tried not to look disapproving, but he was unhappy about it. That was a lot of deductions to miss.

“Twenty-five thousand? That’s impossible, I don’t think I spend more than two hundred a month in cash, maybe one. I use my credit card for everything I buy, even if it’s just shampoo,” and Brigitte usually bought that for her too. She bought all of Tallie’s personal supplies for her. There was very little that Tallie had to do herself. Brigitte took wonderful care of all her needs, and often thought of them before Tallie did herself. “Victor, that’s crazy. You must be looking at the wrong amount or the wrong column or something. There’s no way I’m spending twenty-five thousand a month in cash.”

“That’s what I show. There are checks made out to cash, and they’re being cashed at the bank. Do you leave the cash lying around the house?”

“Of course not. Half the time I have to borrow money for coffee, especially when Max is here. She helps herself in my bag, but not to twenty-five thousand dollars. That has to be a mistake.” She was certain of it.

“No, it’s not,” he insisted. “That’s why I wanted to have this conversation with you. I’m concerned about the lost deductions, and even more so if you don’t know what you’re spending it on, or don’t know what you spent.” He made it sound as though she were irresponsible and careless and couldn’t keep track of her own money.

“Look at my credit card statements. For anything over five or ten dollars, I use my card.”

“Then how would you explain a twenty-five-thousand-dollar cash expenditure every month? Is Brigitte using that much cash for you?”

“No, Brigitte uses a credit card too. We have a joint card for anything she buys for me.” He knew that, he saw it in her accounts. “I don’t think she uses much cash either.”

“Well, somebody is spending it. You need to find out who, if you’re not.” He was visibly worried about it on her behalf, and Tallie was concerned too. To Victor, it was a black hole in her accounts. “If you round that up, annually, over the last three years, it comes to close to a million dollars. You can’t just lose track of that kind of money.”

“Obviously,” she said, mystified. “I’ll talk to Brigitte. Maybe she’s paying for something in cash that I don’t know about. Since she pays the bills, I don’t know what she’s using the credit card for, or checks, or maybe cash. I’ll ask her,” Tallie said, although she looked less concerned than Victor. She was certain that there was a reasonable explanation for it. And Brigitte kept a very careful record of her accounts. Victor had always been satisfied before. But the recent audit had allowed him to do some fine-tuning, and look at the overall picture more carefully, and he never liked to press his clients about what they were spending unless they were in financial trouble, which Tallie certainly wasn’t, but he didn’t want her to lose track of that much money either. It was a very large amount. He didn’t like his clients using cash for just that reason-no one could ever remember what they spent it on, and Tallie was no different. Victor was sure the money had been spent legitimately, but he wanted to know for what, and by whom. Tallie promised to find out. She knew without a doubt that Brigitte would have the answer to his question.

After that, he ran down a list of bills that he wanted to verify with her, to double-check that they sounded accurate. Clothing for Max, some artwork Tallie had bought in New York, and several gifts for Hunt, among them a gold watch. He was always very generous with her too. And at the end of the list, several travel expenses, airfare, and the local hotels that he had also questioned Hunt about.

“Hunt explained to me the other day about the local hotels.” He was no longer concerned about that, but he had wanted to be sure. Victor could see from her accounts that they frequently stayed at several local hotels, although they had stopped showing up on her credit card statements for the past year. They had been on her credit card bills for about three years before that, and now they were only on Hunt’s. Apparently Hunt was paying for the hotels now since the charges still showed up on his statements right up to the present, and no longer on Tallie’s.

“What local hotels?” Tallie asked in answer to what he’d said.

“The ones where you stay with Hunt.” Victor was prepared to move on. He was meeting Brianna for lunch, and he had covered all the ground he wanted to with Tallie, particularly the cash.

“I don’t stay at local hotels with Hunt,” she said simply. “I only stay at hotels out of town, when I’m traveling or on location, like right now in Palm Springs. I have a room booked there for a couple of months, but that’s a business expense.”

Victor looked surprised. “You have a few charges at the Bel-Air, and quite a lot of them at the Chateau Marmont and the Sunset Marquis. I’ve got three years of charges there on your statements, although none for this year. And Hunt has them on his statement too. He says he rents rooms sometimes for meetings with foreign investors, and that he stayed there with you.”

“He must have misunderstood. We’ve never stayed at any of those hotels, except once we stayed at the Bel-Air when I was having work done at the house. That has to be a mistake.” And then suddenly Tallie wondered if Brigitte had used their joint credit card for some of her racy little flings. She knew that Brigitte had a fairly active romantic life, and Tallie was sure that if she had used the card for that, maybe because she didn’t have her own card with her, she would have reimbursed it in some other way, which Victor might not be aware of. “Maybe it’s Brigitte. I’ll ask her about that too,” although she didn’t love the idea of Brigitte using the credit card for her romantic trysts.

She was sure Brigitte wouldn’t let her pay for it in the long run, but she might have used the card initially, which she really shouldn’t. It didn’t sound like her. She was so diligent and businesslike, and so careful with Tallie’s accounts. There had never been any question about it before. It was the investor’s audit which had brought it to light. Tallie said she would get the explanation from Brigitte about the hotel charges and the cash. Victor dropped the subject of the hotel charges. He didn’t want to press it. Hunt had been absolutely clear that he had stayed at those hotels with Tallie, and she was saying they never had. It sounded like delicate ground to Victor. It wasn’t the first time that something like that had come to light in one of his clients’ accounts, and it could be extremely awkward. He didn’t want to insist, but he definitely wanted to know about the cash, which was of much greater concern to him and a far larger amount than the hotel stays. He reminded Tallie about the cash again before she left.

She wasn’t worried about it as she drove back to the house, but she wanted to check it out to satisfy Victor. Brigitte would know, and she seriously wondered if Brigitte had been charging her little hotel stays to their joint credit card account. If not, Tallie wondered if it was a case of identify theft. That had happened to her before too, where someone got her credit card number and was running around to stores, and charging things to her account. She had had to change her credit card numbers several times because of that. At least there had been no local hotel charges on her bill for the past year, so they must have straightened it out. And she had no idea why Hunt had said he had stayed at those hotels with her, since they never had. She was sure that Victor was confused.

Other than that, it sounded like everything was fine and her accounts were in good order.

Hunt got home from his tennis game five minutes after she walked in. He was hot and sweaty, and she was making a big salad for lunch. Despite her lack of skills in the kitchen, even she could do that. He was in good spirits, he had won. He was very competitive on the tennis court, and at most games. He played hard, and usually took it badly when he lost. From the grin on his face, it looked like it had been a good day.

“How was Victor?” he asked, helping himself to some Gatorade in the fridge.

“Fine. The poor thing asks a million questions and worries about everything. And he’s a little confused about some of it. He says I’m spending too much cash, and I don’t spend any. I always use my credit card. I have to make sure Brig isn’t using cash to pay for things or for bills, because that way we lose deductions. That’s what he was upset about. I’m sure Brig has the explanation. I don’t.” And then she wanted to mention the hotel bills to him, but she didn’t know how to do it without sounding accusing. She thought that maybe she should ask Brigitte first, in case she had been charging hotel bills to her when she stayed there with her boyfriends. If so, Tallie was certain that she had reimbursed her, probably by depositing a check or cash to one of Tallie’s accounts. And Victor wouldn’t have known what it was for. And there again, there was surely an explanation. So she didn’t say anything to Hunt. She was sure that the confusion was at her end. What she needed to do was check it all with Brigitte and get back to Victor with the simple explanation.

They spent a cozy, relaxed afternoon together and sat chatting in the garden after lunch. Tallie was loving being home. She was getting tired of being on location, but she reminded herself that it was a lot less arduous and unpleasant than some of the locations she’d been to in the past, like India during a monsoon, or Africa during a civil war. Palm Springs certainly couldn’t be considered a hardship and at least it was close to home.

And as Tallie and Hunt were relaxing in her garden, Victor was having lunch with Brianna at the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel. She had been annoyed when he kept her waiting for half an hour, but he explained that he had had to finish his meeting with Tallie. And Brianna was irritated that he had to work on a Sunday. She thought he looked like an undertaker in the suit and tie. She had suggested he wear jeans and a button-down shirt, but Victor wouldn’t do that, out of respect for his clients, whether it was Sunday or not.

Victor and Brianna had been passing like ships in the night for several days. She seemed to be out a lot these days, and he had been tied up with the audit.

“I’m sorry I’ve been so busy lately. It should calm down now,” he said apologetically. She looked beautiful in a tight white dress with a low neckline she had bought that week at Roberto Cavalli. Her cleavage looked remarkable in it.

“It’s okay,” she said quietly. She waited until they were having coffee to drop the bomb. She took a breath and leaped in. “I want five million dollars,” she said bluntly.

“What for? So do I,” he said with a smile.

“To stay married to you,” she said coldly. She was suddenly all business, and not nearly as inviting as she looked. “And an amount every year that we can negotiate. But I want the five million up front.”

“What is this? A business deal or a marriage?” he asked, looking upset. “I don’t have that kind of money,” he said, looking her in the eye.

“You used to.”

“I don’t anymore.” And if he did, he still wouldn’t have paid her to stay married to him. That was pure blackmail. “Pay, or I’ll leave” was the message to him loud and clear.

“What about three million?” she asked. She was willing to negotiate with him. “But if you don’t pay it, I’m leaving. I can’t sit there penniless all the time. I need to know that there’s some money in the bank, just for me. It will make me feel secure.” Her secure, and him broke, Victor thought to himself.

“Brianna, I just don’t have it.” He didn’t know why her lawyer had put the idea of a postnup into her head, but it was destroying their marriage overnight.

“If you don’t give it to me,” she said coolly while he paid the check, “I’m going to leave you. I can’t be married to a man who doesn’t want me to be happy.” Her happiness came at a high price. She had made herself clear. Victor looked pale as they waited for their car outside the hotel, and they drove home in silence. He could see where this was headed. Either he paid the postnup, or he paid alimony and a settlement. He was so upset that he ran a red light and they nearly had an accident. He had never felt so panicked in his life.