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“There was a pre-nuptial agreement,” Roarke said, looking back down to the file and back up at me. “So, if she did cheat, she’s not entitled to a cent.”
“But where’s the proof? All it says in the briefs is that she went away on vacation with her sister three different times and came back...” I paused, rifling through my briefcase and finding the right page instantly. “Came back ‘smelling like cologne,’” I continued, reading aloud from the brief. “That’s not much evidence. She could have brushed up against someone at the airport, or hell, even tested some men’s cologne while shopping. For herhusband.”
Roarke scoffed. “I don’t know. In my opinion, women are likely to cheat, especially if the husband has a busy job. He was a doctor, right? Martinez?”
My brows furrowed as I frowned deeper. What was he trying to say? That all women, left to their own devices, would cheat? “Yes, he was a doctor, but don’t the statistics say thatmenare the most likely ones to cheat?”
Roarke shrugged. “I don’t cheat, and two of my ex-wives did.”
I choked on my dumpling. “You have two ex-wives?”
“Three,” he corrected, and I choked again, finally managing to get it down with a swig of cold coffee from my travel mug.
“Three ex-wives,” I murmured.
“Do you have a problem with that?” Roarke asked.
I looked at him innocently. “None. I guess I’m just surprised three different women agreed to marry you.”
Roarke snorted. “Okay, that was a pretty good one, I’ll give you that. Anyway, since two of them cheated, I’m more likely to believe she was unfaithful instead of him.”
“I don’t thinkeitherof them was unfaithful,” I explained. “Couldn’t it just not have worked out? Just not been the right fit?”
Roarke tapped a pen against his lower lip.
“I guess so. That’s the way it was with my first wife. We just got married too young and grew into different people.”
“So, you agree that not all women cheat?” I asked smugly.
Roarke pointed at me. “I never said all women cheat. I saidmostwomen cheat.”
I scoffed, “That would be like me saying most men are jerks because…”
Roarke frowned at me. “What?”
“Well, look at who I’m talking to,” I teased.
Roarke’s face relaxed. “Ha…Ha… Aren’t you funny? Not,” he grunted.
I stared at him for a long moment. He actually had a sense of humor. Maybe he wasn’t atotallylost cause.
“So, for our first hearing, we’re going to play up the idea that the infidelity is just the way that Mr. Martinez is trying to get out of the pre-nuptial agreement.”
“I think that’s the best course of action,” Roarke agreed. I thought this was maybe the first time he’d ever agreed with me, period, not just since I’d extended Chinese food as a truce.
“Really?”
Roarke looked up from his shrimp-fried rice and locked eyes with me. “Are you not sure of your own strategy? Are you questioning your skills? Should I?”
I huffed. Of course, he would turn it around on me like that. Just because we had an uneasy agreement about how to approach the case didn’t mean I liked him any better.
“Of course not, I was just surprised that you didn’t fight me just for the sake of it, that’s all,” I said.
Roarke grinned and it lit up his whole face. “I wouldn’t dream of it, Ms. Riley.”
We drew up our plans, with Roarke dictating and me typing away on my laptop. For the initial hearing, we were going to ask for what the pre-nuptial agreement had detailed: half the marital assets, including the house, the estate, and all of Mr. Martinez’s classic cars, as well as half the bank account balance. That would come to a sum of around one point five million dollars. The Martinezes had done pretty great for themselves.
“I can’t imagine what I’d do with that much money,” I marveled, looking over the plans.
