Chapter 21

Inside the office, Julia appeared ready to pounce with her assistants barely restraining her, if they were even trying. Barnett, meanwhile, made certain to keep his desk firmly between him and his crazy ex. His eyes darted to a nearby corner, where a hulking figure stood in waiting.

“Jack, can you please diffuse the situation?” Barnett asked, motioning towards Julia and her two assistants.

Barnett’s bodyguard stepped forward, gently took Julia’s arm in one hand, and more forcefully grabbed the arms of her assistants with the other.

“You can’t do this!” Julia exclaimed, trying to wrench her arm out of Jack’s grip.

“Yes, I can.”

Barnett turned on the web camera perched on top of his PC and directed it at Julia. He then stepped in front of the desk, in view of the camera.

“I am sick of your games. You are nothing but a user and a witch. You only care about what I can do for you, not about me as a person.

“You know what else? You haven’t given me a hard-on in a long time, and you bore me sexually. Now, I want you out of my office and my life.”

Julia’s face and neck turned blood red. She still could not free her arm of Jack, but she did manage to reach her cup of afternoon tea and threw it in Barnett’s face. Fortunately, it had mostly cooled down by this point and didn’t hurt Barnett too badly.

“You can’t do this to me!” she screamed.

“Yes, I can. And I can have you escorted from this building.”

Julia’s eyes narrowed at Barnett.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

Barnett glared as best as he could at Julia through the tea dripping down his face.

“Watch me.”

Julia snarled.

“Let me go!” she demanded of Jack. “We’re leaving.”

Jack obliged but kept his body between Julia and Barnett.

Julia and her assistants swiveled as a group toward the door and stormed out of Barnett’s office.

“Are you all right, Mr. Cogsworth?” Jack asked without taking his eyes off the door.

“Yes,” Barnett replied. “Follow them. Make sure that they leave the building.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And Jack?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Make sure that they never come back. They are permanently banned from these premises.”

“Yes, sir.”

Jack left the room speaking on a walkie talkie, sending out orders regarding Julia and her minions.

Barnett wiped his face with the back of his sleeve, not caring how the tea might stain the silk. After a moment of deep breaths, he returned to the camera and walked up to it as though he hadn’t missed a beat.

“Regarding the woman seen in the parking lot with me,” he began, “she is just my neighbor. She has nothing to do with what has transpired between my ex-wife and me. And yes, Julia and I have been divorced for three months now.”

He braced himself for the consequences of what he was about to reveal next.

“Julia only wanted me to not disclose this fact for the sake of her career, how it might affect her to lose her identity as Mrs. Barnett Cogsworth. I know now that it was a mistake to go along with this. I will tolerate her nonsense no longer.”

Barnett heard the growl in his voice and forced himself to calm down.

“Back to Anna Leonard, I know that many of you have taken it upon yourselves to harass her on behalf of my marriage. I will personally be legally pursuing those individuals who caused her distress during this time. The same goes for anyone who decides to harass her over my marriage from this point on.”

Deciding that his message had been clearly communicated, Barnett switched off the web camera and prepared to upload the video.

• * *

At Lily’s behest, I checked out Barnett’s social media account. Apparently, he had uploaded a video regarding some confrontation with Julia. I wasn’t sure why she thought I would want to see that, but I figured that I would watch it anyway, just to please Lily.

I was enjoying a lazy night at home when I brought the video up on my phone. I didn’t know what to expect, but I most certainly did not expect to see Julia fighting against Barnett’s bodyguard or throwing tea in Barnett’s face. It was almost enough to get me to spit out my flavored water from laughter.

The fact that Barnett said that Julia no longer gave him a boner was just icing on the cake.

Then I came to the part of his video about me.

He would be legally pursuing those who had caused me distress? What did that mean? Was he talking about the shooter in the parking lot?

The thought of more legal battles beyond my divorce settlement set the gremlins to work on my stomach. Still, it was sweet of him to stand up for me. Just like when he stood up for me in front of Bob.

But if I were just his neighbor who had nothing to do with his marriage, why had he told Julia that I was his girlfriend that day? Was he playing some sort of game with her, too? Something else that I was caught in the middle of?

No, no. Barnett wouldn’t do that. At the very least, he wouldn’t do that and then go out of his way to tell people that I was just his neighbor.

And for all I knew, I was only that—his neighbor and his niece’s best friend. Not to mention a thorn in his side. Lily had her theories, but that’s all that they were, theories.

My cell phone suddenly rang, pulling me out of my thoughts.

Andrew Thompson. The divorce lawyer that Barnett had referred me to.

I hadn’t heard anything about the case in weeks. My heart pounded hard against my ribs. It was most likely just a routine call, but maybe some progress had been made on the settlement.

Maybe this would all be over soon.

“Hello? Ms. Leonard?” Thompson’s scratchy voice said as soon as I answered.

“Yes, it’s me.”

“Good afternoon, Ms. Leonard! How are you doing?”

“I’m fine, thank you. And you?”

“Just wonderful. I had a visit from my grandsons this weekend. We went camping in the backyard.”

“That’s nice. Any news about the case?”

Normally, I would jump through the hoops of social niceties. Yet even Barnett’s video couldn’t put me in a good enough mood to not be nervous about Thompson’s call.

“The best news, in fact.”

He paused, perhaps to get his papers or perhaps for effect. Either way, the wait agitated me and put me on edge. I tapped my fingers against my lap impatiently, glad that Thompson couldn’t see me at that moment.

“So, I got you everything that belongs to you, of course. Bob will have to sell the house, and you’ll be getting half the proceeds from that sale. On top of that, you will receive sixty million dollars.”

My brain stopped working. Hell, I thought my heart stopped working for a moment. I wasn’t sure I had heard him correctly.

It wasn’t Barnett rich, but it was more than I could have ever dreamed of having on my own. I didn’t even know that Bob and his family had this much money.

“Ms. Leonard, are you still there?”

“Sixty…million…dollars?”