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Pages ripped from books, scattered across the floor like autumn leaves on a windy day. Broken glass fractured the patterns of my favourite rug in a twisted mosaic of destruction; it cracked underfoot as I walked through the kitchen doorway. Torn cabinet doors, the remains of plates and bowls littering the ground, the drawers emptied on top of them. My open fridge, its contents smashed and smeared on the walls and surfaces. I felt sick. I couldn’t breathe. My heart was breaking and sinking with each step. I walked through every room, taking in the carnage. Every word etched on the walls was a reminder of what I was.
I took another breath, bringing myself back into the room as I sat and faced them.
I didn’t want Max anywhere near me, let alone in my office, or marrying my sister’s best friend. Bunny and I went to all the same parties. She was basically next in line to inherit Mum’s social duties. Did this mean Max was the newest name on the guest list?
“Obviously, you need to keep all of this hush-hush until the big day. Wouldn’t want any spoilers!” Bun laughed again, stroking Max’s arm fondly from the chair next to him. He gave a small smile, keeping his attention fixed on me. Bunny continued to gush. “I’ve already got everything planned for the party, but I’d like to get super ahead with all the boring stuff, so we don’t have to worry about it when the story hits the news.”
“Don’t worry,” I tried to reassure her. “I won’t tell a soul. We take client confidentiality very seriously here.”
Even though she had spent the last month making posts about the lavish engagement party she was throwing next week, where the rich and famous would gather to see who the lovely Ms Bunny Collins was tying the knot with — oh, and don’t forget, her new line of designer dresses would be available for purchase too!
I handed them copies of the contract in blue leather binders and sat. “This will be very simple. We’ll go through each section, I’ll write down anything else you might like added or changed, then I will send you both a final copy to sign and return to me. The deadline for this is twenty-eight days before your wedding day.”
“Oh!” Bun laughed again. “Don’t worry about that. We won’t be getting married until Maxxy finishes the UK tour! It’s just four months! We’ll have a huge weekend party before he leaves for Europe. Isn’t itsoexciting? I just have to wait four whole months, and then we can get married!” She beamed, happiness radiating from her.
Cold drenched my body as my gaze bore into Max. I felt like someone had slapped me. Did he honestly not remember? The paper in my hand shook as I went for another deep breath.
Four months. That was exactly how long he’d told me I needed to wait for him. Max was moving out of my place in Oxford, leaving to record his first album in London, and I only had to wait four months for him to finish, and we’d be together again. I found my flat destroyed the day he left.
I thought it had been him; I still blamed Max for it, even though his bandmate, Goss, owned up to the crime.
Scandalous. That was the word that sprung to mind. I was close to laughing as Bunny gazed at him adoringly. She had no idea, did she? I tried to shake away the shock, but betrayal went deep. I didn’t forgive so easily.
I guided them through the clauses, pointing out places in the contract they might want to change or add regarding their own individual assets.
He and Bunny had their heads pressed together, discussing each section piece by piece. I glimpsed the earrings I used to play with when we lay curled up in bed together, noticing some new additions, like the gold rings riding the shell of his right ear.
I watched them both, amazed at this entire situation. I couldn’t work out how he was sitting here in front of me after all these years, after everything that had happened. When I left Oxford, he never tried to find me. He didn’t know how I had forced myself through my exams, just scraping by, and then spent a summer in bed, curtains shut tight, ploughing through endless romcoms with my sister. Grace was the only one who understood.
He gave a throaty laugh, and they grinned at each other. Heat pulsed inside me at the sound, curling in my stomach and pooling in my thighs.
I wanted to stab him.
The longer the meeting went on and the more memories that came back, the more I felt justified in shoving a letter opener through his eyeball and leaving it at that.
My boss, John Harris, kept a hunting rifle above his desk that he’d show off to certain clients. I’d laughed about it, calling him old-fashioned, but looking at Max smiling at Bunny, I thought having a gun in the office wasn’t such a bad idea.
Sadly, I knew “He used me for sex and money!” wouldn’t hold up in court.
I eyed the paperweight at the edge of my desk. It had been a present from Harris when I started as a legal aid straight out of uni. He thought favouritism would get him an in with Dad, and he was right. It was the size of a tennis ball, heavy enough that if I took a good swing, it would embed itself neatly into Max’s skull. My office contained a lot more weapons than I had first thought.
“Cat? Babe, are you listening?” Bunny chirped.
I realised with horror that I’d been staring at Max while daydreaming of all the ways I could make him bleed. Bunny had been wittering on for so long I’d completely forgotten about her.
“Sorry, Bun, what were you saying?”
“I was just thinking, what if Daddy passes away and he leaves me the speedboat, but I never use the speedboat?” She glanced at Max, concern creasing her brow. “But Max totally loves the speedboat, and he would use it all the time if he could, wouldn’t you, babe?”
“Oh, definitely.” he replied, not taking his eyes off me.
I felt like he was sizing me up. He kept staring, watching me in that lazy way of his, the one that made me think of long nights and slow licks.
“So, if Maxxy is using the speedboat and I don’t… Does that mean he gets it if something totally awful happens, like we break up?”
I felt sorry for anyone who wasn’t used to Bunny’s chattering. I was saving some poor stodger in the Family Law Department from trying to fight his way through her ramblings just to get to the point.
“Bunny, this is why we’re doing the prenup. In the tragic event you do break up, everything you own will remain yours.”
