Chapter 129: Sign the divorce papers!

IVY

"Whenever you’re ready, Mrs. Kingsley."

I stood outside the penthouse with two of my lawyers and glared up at the building that used to be my matrimonial home.

After talking with Kai, I had rallied them, and divorce papers were drawn up in a few hours. What a long fucking day.

I still hadn’t fully processed it, but one thing was certain: I was not staying married to that garbage. This was the last straw, and the camel’s back had been shattered. I had made sure the lawyers came with me because I wasn’t risking getting beaten up again.

Inside the penthouse, Angel sat on the couch, tapping rapidly on his phone. Pamela had texted me that he was home. The lights were low and the air smelled of her rose perfume.

He looked up when I entered. "Ha! Have you come to beg? You’ll have to grovel..." Then he saw the lawyers. "What the fuck is this, Harper?"

Pamela came out of one of the rooms with wide eyes. "Harper, what’s going on?"

"This doesn’t concern you."

Her head hung at my words. Angel rose slowly, his eyes flicking between the two suited men and me. "You’ve hired lawyers? Are you serious?"

I pulled the envelope from my purse and tossed it onto the center table. It landed with a satisfying thud. "Sign."

He stared at the envelope as if it would grow a snake’s head and bite him. A cold, disgusted sneer slid across his face.

"You’re joking."

"Do I look like I’m joking?"

He picked it up and tore it open with more force than necessary. His eyes scanned the pages, and with every line his jaw tightened.

"On what grounds?" he demanded.

"On the grounds that you’re a lying, cheating, manipulative bastard who put an IUD inside me without my knowledge and let me believe I was barren for three years."

Pamela gasped. Angel’s head snapped up.

"What?"

"You heard me." I stepped closer and dropped my voice. "I found out that the pills you gave me, the ones you told me were for migraines, are birth control, and that there’s an IUD inside me that’s been there for three years. The same three years we’ve been married."

He blinked, feigning confusion. "The pills are birth control?"

"Don’t play dumb with me."

"I’m not!" He held up his hands. "I didn’t know. I swear, Harper, I didn’t know."

"Then who did? Dr. Meyers? He told me you and my father are in on it together. So either you’re lying or you’re even more incompetent than I thought."

He grinned and shrugged. "Well, now that you know, there’s no need to pretend anymore. It was fun while it lasted, though."

A sickening feeling filled my insides. Fun?

Torturing me for three years had been fun for this bastard?

"What are you going to do? Divorce your father too?" He laughed as if he had told the smartest joke in the world, and I wanted to dig my heels into his brain. "Besides, it was for your own good."

"For my own good? You’d have to be pea brained to think I’d believe that."

He sighed as if I were being dramatic. "Fine. Maybe I should have told you. But it’s not like it mattered. You couldn’t have children anyway, remember?"

The words hit me like a slap. "I couldn’t have children because of the IUD, you idiot! There was nothing wrong with me!"

"Oh, quit whining." He set the papers down and crossed his arms. "Think about it, Harper. We were barely married. You were still adjusting. A baby would have complicated everything and the timing wasn’t right."

"The timing wasn’t right," I repeated, incredulous. "I guess the timing with Pamela was right, since you forced her to get pregnant and forced her to move in too!"

His eyes widened and he shot a glare at Pamela. "You told her? God, women are so stupid..."

I couldn’t take it anymore. I stepped closer and smacked him hard across the face, my nails scraping a red line down his cheek.

"Mrs. Kingsley!" the lawyers protested while my chest heaved, ready to burst with grief.

"Screw you, Angel. Are you even human? You think you’ll get away with this?" I spat in his face. "You have no idea what you just unleashed. This divorce is only the beginning. I’ll make your life a living hell!"

I pointed at the papers. "Sign them. You have one week. If you don’t, I’ll go unhinged and release everything to the press. The affair, the pregnancy, the IUD, the lies. I’ll make sure the whole country knows what kind of man you really are."

"Ha! You wouldn’t. You care too much about your father’s precious company. The board votes in weeks. If you divorce me now, you’ll lose everything, trust me, Harper."

I stepped closer until we were nose to nose. "Look at me, Angel. Do you think I fucking care about that right now?"

He blinked rapidly in surprise.

"I’ll earn the company my way," I continued.

"Without you. Without anyone’s help. So sign the papers, stay the fuck away from me, and get out of my life."

"You’re a fool, Harper," he said, clenching his fists. "As long as you’re kissing the floor your daddy walks on, you’ll never get anything. You’ll always be his puppet."

I turned and walked out. The elevator doors closed on the sound of Pamela’s quiet crying.

The lawyers followed me out of the penthouse.

"We’ll follow up on your behalf so you’ll have minimal contact with Mr. Braddock," one said.

"Thank you very much." I shook their hands and sent them on their way.

The moment I got into the car, the calm I had been clinging to shattered. My hands shook. My heart pounded as I leaned on the steering wheel and pressed my palm to my chest, trying to breathe.

I did it. I actually did it.

My phone rang, and I pulled it out expecting Ivy Thompson or maybe my father. Instead, Roman’s name flashed across the screen. I answered on the second ring.

"Hey."

"Vivi, where are you? I’ve been waiting outside your house for the last twenty minutes."

I blinked. "You’re... what?"

"Outside your apartment. It’s funny, though. The people around keep saying they don’t know anyone by your name living here."

Crap. I had to get downtown before shit hit the fan.