Naleighna Kai's Literary Cafe Magazine NK LCM February 2018 Anniversary Issue | Page 72

another one who can strap one on and give your mistress something to scream
about. But I digress.”
Darek was on his feet, waggling a finger in her direction. “Now you look here.
You end this before I’m ready and you will pay.”
“How? That wasn’t our deal, remember.” She uncrossed her legs, stood and
walked the length of the office until she came to the cathedral windows with a view
of Lake Michigan. “You can’t hold my brothers over me any longer. One’s a lawyer
who could run rings around you. The other’s a community activist with a non-
profit that outranks your own. And he’s about to run on an opposite platform which
you’re gearing up for. He’s for the people. You’re for the people with money.” She
turned to face him, placed her back against the cool glass, and folded her well-
toned arms over an ample bosom. “So how, exactly, do you plan to make me pay
any more than the twenty-seven years that I’ve put into this marriage.”
The angry silence that ensued was telling. For the first time in their marriage,
Samara had the upper hand. Darek had put recent efforts into running for elected
office. More power; more connections. He put this strategy into play a few months
ago, two years before Rhena’s eighteenth birthday, possibly gambling on the
fact that his political campaign would be well under way, and it would be nearly
impossible for Samara to leave him.
One of those little revisions she had made on the prenup that day, was the
children “going off to college” instead of his words of “reaching majority”. He
was under the belief that majority and off to college were one and the same, not
giving any credit to the fact that Samara had entered Howard at sixteen.
Yes, her presence was required on his part, but certainly not hers and there were
no terms he could lay down to make that happen. She wanted no parts of it—none
whatsoever.
“The money, the prestige, the connections you enjoy,” he said between his
teeth. “Are all because of me. I made you,”
“God made me,” she shot back. “And he didn’t make me stupid, either. The
moment Rhena accepted Harvard’s invitation to become a student and all the
paperwork was in to make it so, my time in this marriage was a wrap. Nothing you
have done over the years have made up for how you treated me on our wedding
day.”
Darek gripped the edge of the desk so hard he nearly broke off the glass. “Why
are you so upset about the prenup if wasn’t about the money.”
“It’s about respect,” she snapped. “You could’ve had that paperwork completed
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