The Marriage Wars
Chapter 15
Riley
Spending the day on the phone had left a crick in her neck. Riley had called every lawyer in town. No one would take her case! At least not without a considerable retainer fee. Most of the lawyers just said no! She had no idea that Seth had so many friends. She was beginning to think that she had underestimated him. But, if he wanted to get rid of her, he would pay and pay well. She kept reminding herself that they didn’t have a pre-nuptial agreement. He had never asked for one before they got married, not that she would have been so stupid as to sign one. Riley had never signed one for any of her other husbands. She gave a little laugh at that one. Seth was under the impression that she had only been married once, but the truth was he was number four! The first one was a no-good dope addict she had had the hots for after high school. One right fist to her eye changed her love into hate. After years of watching her mother get abused, she was smart enough to get out of there quickly. The next two were good guys with average incomes. After a year or two, they were glad to give her a divorce and gave everything they had to her in the divorce settlement in exchange for their freedom. The problem was that they just didn’t have enough to give her to keep her in the lifestyle that she wanted. After each divorce, she had found herself broke and in the marriage market in less than a year after the final decrees were signed.
It was pure luck that she had run into Seth at their mutual friends’ wedding. She had seen the potential in him. Sure enough, he had proved his worth by building up his practice until he was the owner of the most prominent CPA firm in the county. There was no way she would settle for a mere $10,000 settlement with all of his assets. Ha. She kept an eye out for Seth’s computer passwords and frequently logged in and checked his accounts. She had even opened an account of her own with him using one of her former married names. R. Elizabeth Jones was just another client as far as he knew. Any court would say that she had the right to call herself by that name, so he couldn’t claim it was fraudulent. Riley occasionally moved money from his accounts into her own. She did it in such small increments so that it wouldn’t be noticeable. Things were looking up, but she still needed more time to build a healthy nest egg.
Suddenly Riley shivered. She must be getting a cold because she had felt cold all day. Getting up to grab a knitted throw off the back of the couch, she wrapped it around her as she roamed around the house. Ugh, this throw was the ugliest thing in the house. Seth wouldn’t let her get rid of it because his mother had made it. It was warm, though. Shivering, she glanced at the computer screen and checked the temperature. It was 95 degrees outside! How could it be so cold in the house? Suddenly she knew and was up on her feet and racing into the control room. Riley looked at the panel. The temperature was sitting at 40 degrees. “Ugh,” she screamed, and lacking anything to throw, she started punching the wall.
Cell phone in hand, she punched in Seth’s number. It immediately went to voice mail. She began to scream into the phone until she heard the beep that signaled the end of the message.