“What?” Aurora said. “I don’t remember signing or reading this!”
“Your signature is on the bottom of the page, Mrs. Tousey,” Mr. Redding said as Gannon slouched back in his chair and looked down.
“But I thought it was some marriage contract or something.” She looked at Gannon with fire in her eyes. “Is this why you never wanted to have kids, Gannon?” Aurora turned to her lawyer. “You know what, scratch what I said about not needing to do anything about this divorce settlement. I will be contesting this prenuptial agreement.”
“On what grounds?” Mr. Redding said.
“Please let me take this from here,” Aurora’s lawyer said. “From what I just heard from Mrs. Tousey now, she didn’t know about this agreement. So just off of that, as you know, Mr. Redding, Wisconsin law states that a pre-nup is not enforceable when the terms of the agreement are biased in either party’s favor.”
“Okay,” Mr. Redding said. “So, you want to contest it. What grounds do you have? Maybe she is not telling the truth.”
“I am not lying! When I walked in here today, I didn’t want anything from him. I didn’t even want to see him.”
Erik cleared his throat to draw the attention to himself. “The pre-nup obviously favors one spouse,” Erik said. “Also, Mrs. Tousey did not have a lawyer present, nor was she given the option to have one, as this prenuptial agreement was drawn up on the day of their wedding. In addition, I am sure there has to be something else in here,” he said as he flipped through the pre-nup pages. “Well, I don’t know now, but I will find it.”
“Well, I guess we will be fighting this in court,” Mr. Redding said.
--
A big gust of wind hit Aurora in the face as soon as she opened the door to walk to the parking lot. The wind sounded like Mother Nature was whistling. She quickly looked for her leather gloves in her purse. After the meeting with their lawyers, Gannon wanted to talk to Aurora.
As she looked up, she saw Gannon walking fast towards her. Her heart beat fast and adrenaline ran through her veins. She thought he was going to attack her, as she was used to when he would walk fast towards her.
After the lawyers left, Gannon was crying in the parking lot until he saw Aurora and yelled, “Baby, don’t do this.” Gannon stuttered, “I-I-I love you so much. You keep ignoring my calls and messages. I can’t stop thinking ‘bout you. Why would you leave me like this?” I just want him to suffer like he made me suffer.
Aurora hated confrontation, but she was getting frustrated at this point. “Gannon, we are done,” Aurora said. “So, is your love for me your wanting me to pay you half of everything I have?”
“Aurora,” Gannon said. “It is my parents. You know we are old southern money.”
“If you are old southern money, then why do you need mine?”
“Come on now, Aurora,” Gannon said. “You know that was my mother’s idea.”
“You are not royalty, Gannon,” Aurora said. “Dowries like the one in that pre-nup are for royalty. You are far from it.”
Gannon tried to get closer and touch her face. She flinched and threw his hand off of her. It brought back the trauma from one of the times he had slapped her so hard that he bruised her cheek.
Aurora raised her voice, as she started listing off things with her fingers: “One, you flushed my phone down the toilet. Two, even though they are crazy, you never let me see my family. Three, you abused me for months and constantly left bruises on me. Do not forget the time you kicked my desk chair out from underneath me and bruised my whole left hip. It took months for that bruise to go away. Four, you made me want to kill myself all of the time, and I have not felt that way since I left you. Five, you made me feel like I was the problem, Gannon. I am not the problem, Gannon. You are. We are done.”
Aurora turned her back on him and began to walk to her car. She didn’t want to give him a moment to respond.
“Rora, I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you like I did. I gave up everything for you. Why would you leave me? I only agreed to meet today so I could see you.” Aurora rolled her eyes as she walked towards her car and put on her leather gloves.
Aurora did not fall for his sweet talk for another second. That southern charm no longer worked on her. Something made her stop in her tracks as she was walking away. She didn’t want him to say the last word.
She turned around and took a deep breath. “You didn’t give up anything for me.” She raised her voice and said, “I gave up everything for you, Gannon! You manipulated me to stay with you. I never knew who you really were before I married you. You abused me mentally, emotionally, and physically. How many times do I have to point these things out to you?”
Gannon gritted his teeth and knitted his eyebrows together as he said, “Yeah, I hit you sometimes, but you made me do it. Any man would hit a woman like you. I was never like that before I met you.”
Aurora laughed hysterically. She wasn’t going to give attention to what he had said, like you ignore a child after they have misbehaved. Aurora went silent and her words were monotone as she said, “Okay, Gannon. That is why we are getting a divorce. Because of the woman I am. Now leave me alone. I am leaving.”
Aurora almost turned around again as Gannon said, “Rora, no! I am sorry. I didn’t mean it. I am just p-p-pissed.” He was acting like a child who lost his toy.
Aurora had enough of what was coming out of his mouth. She had no reason to listen to him or put up with what he had to say anymore. Aurora threw her hands up. She was fed up. She turned and looked at him again.
“Gannon, I am done,” Aurora screamed. “Gannon, I hate you! Leave me alone!” Aurora turned her back and walked briskly to her car, almost running. She could feel Gannon running behind her, like the devil was chasing her.
“Are you going to try to abuse me in the parking lot?” Aurora said. “Come and try it!”
She ran to her car and slammed her car door, almost breaking Gannon’s hand by closing it. Gannon kept tapping on the window, screaming that he was sorry. Aurora started her car, pressed the gas, and drove away. Snow and a salty, icy slush flew up from under Aurora’s tires and covered Gannon. She drove away as fast as she could and saw Gannon in the rearview mirror fall to his knees.
She started to cry. You finally did it, Aurora. You finally confronted him. She wiped the tears from her salty rose-colored cheeks. She was scared from her confrontation with Gannon, but proud she had stuck up for herself. She was happy the marriage was almost over.
Aurora was still surprised how her relationship with Gannon was so perfect before marriage. Now how will I ever be able to trust again or feel safe with any man?
Aurora thought back to her wedding day with Gannon. It made her even more upset and filled her eyes with more tears.
Chapter 10
It was the week of the big gala charity event, and Aurora was extremely busy. In between Aurora’s working and the divorce, she could not stop thinking about Melih. She couldn’t stop thinking about how he pulled her close that night at the club. Did I do something wrong that he hasn’t talked to me since?
Though Melih would not message, Gannon would not stop. He was relentless and kept sending the same messages along the lines of, “Don’t do this, Aurora. Don’t leave me. I promise I will change.” Blah. Blah. Blah.
The food vendor pulled out last minute because the head chef accidently cut off one of his fingers. Aurora scrambled to find a new vendor on such short notice. She was supposed to have a beautiful elegant French meal, but she ended up catering the event with food from her favorite restaurant on State Street, Crandall’s Peruvian Bistro. After big tests in college,