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There were also quick notes of nothing news he liked to hear anyway, like she was home, having a glass of wine and thinking about him.
Or he’d get Cute Elsa filming a short video of herself pondering the idea of adopting a cat, or asking him, since she had a media center now, if she should buy a TV for her living room or maybe move the one she had, which was in the bedroom, to the other room.
“But I like watching TV in bed,” she’d pouted at the screen, a poorly disguised tease.
When he saw that, he told Brandi to arrange for the new super of her building to install a TV in her living room as a gift from him while she was in LA.
In other words, he always looked forward to her texts.
In fact, they were the highlight of his day.
Nope, that wasn’t exactly right.
They were the only light in his days.
This time, there were three. And they lit him up, but not like they normally did.
The first said,Nugget of news: Mom AND OSKAR are suing Dad as part of the divorce settlement to get Dad’s brownstone.
The second said,Another nugget of news: Dad grew up there. It was my grandparents’ house. It was also my great-grandparents’.FYI: My great-grandad’s parents came over from Hungary to escape the Nazis.
The last one said,Final nugget of news: I…just…can’t.
He instantly hit her name at the top of the screen then hit call.
She answered in two rings.
“Hey,” she said tersely.
“You okay?”
“I. Am.Livid.”
“Breathe, baby, and talk to me.”
“Dad is…he’s beside himself, Hale. He offered her a two-million-dollar settlement to start. He’s confessed this to me, and I use the word “confessed” considering he knows how I feel about Mom’s shenanigans, and that’s most of his retirement. He also told me he was willing to settle at two point five, which would nearly wipe him out.”
“I don’t know his finances, but that seems more than fair.”
“I agree. However, she, or Oskar, or both of them said no to that, demanded five million and the house. Even if Dad gave her my and Emilie’s wedding funds, he obviously doesn’t have anywhere near five million dollars.”
“Has Oskar seen his financials?”
“He had to cough them up, so, yes.”
“Then I don’t understand.”
“Right, because I didn’t tell you she’s not actually angling for that five and the house. She’s angling for maintenance for the rest of her natural born days,and the house. Dad wants to put a line under it. She wants her hooks in him for alimony until the day he dies,andhis childhood home. Apparently, this place in Bushwick is not a lifestyle to which she wants to become accustomed. And Adam’s nest egg also had to be given over considering he fucked over his own wife, so Mom is feeling financially vulnerable. However, there’s an alternate scenario, that being it seems the family has split between Mom, Oskar and Emilie, and Dad and me, and I don’t have five million dollars either…yet. But I’m flush, and I could help him out. So this might mean they’re going after me.”
Hale felt it boiling up inside him. It was a familiar feeling. It happened on specific occasions.
Those being anytime someone he cared about was getting jacked around.
“Do you think that’s true?” he forced between his teeth.
“Honestly? I don’t want to. But it’s something Oskar would do. Multitasking. He’s jealous of my success and he’s pissed I’m not getting in line when it comes to Mom so he wants to punish me through Dad. And it’s obvious he simply wants to punish Dad, for whatever reasons he has.”
Hale didn’t have to ask if Oskar was that fiendish, he’d met the guy, and he was a certifiable dick.
