novelxo Chapter 9
CHAPTER TEN – DIVORCE PAPERS
CHAPTER TEN DIVORCE PAPERS
Two days after the disastrous reunion in the park, Jasmine was jarred from her solitary painting re palette to swipe at the unfamiliar number flashing across the screen.
revere by the insistent buzzing of her cell phot
phone. Frowning, she set aside her bushes and
“Hello!” she answered cautiously.
“Mrs. Delacroix!” The crisply professional tone on the other end belonged to a man she didn’t recognize. “This is Roger Hines, legal counsel for your husband, Ethan I’m calling to inform you that divorce proceedings are being initiated on his behalf, and arrangements need to be made for you to receive the paperwork shortly.”
The bottom seemed to drop out of Jasmine’s stomach at the callous statement. She drew in a sharp breath, ice prickling along her velina as the words slowly registered.
Divorce. It was really happening.
“Lyes, of course,” the managed after a prolonged silence. “I’ll have my den representation contact you to begin negotiations.”
“Excellent. We’ll be pursuing an efficient, dignified path towards settlement, the lawyer stated in a tone putting Jasmine immediately on edge. “I’m sure neither party wi this situation unnecessarily.”
r party wishes to thaw out
The implications were clear–Ethan expected to steamroll this process on his team, undoubtedly with significant demands for her compliance. But a renewed flicker of defiance began smoldering in Jasmine’s chest.
“We’ll see about that, Mr. Hines,” she replied in a dipped tone before disconnecting the call.
True to her word, within two days Jasmine had secured representation of her own a whipsmait young attorney from an elite family firm who took one look at the preliminary proposal and
“Your ex think he can take you for everything with this lowball offer, samantha lited, flicking her precisely–curled dark hair over one shoulder. “It’s almost insulting, really,” Jasmine lifted her gaze from the stack of dense legales, brow furrowing “What do you mean? From what I can tell, he’s willing to keep things relatively equitable…”
Set off she squinted hard enough past the obvious maneuvers to shortchange her earnedassers and suppress any hint of controversy.
Samantha shook her perfectly coiffed head, painting glossy lips into a disapproving line. “He’s giving the appearance of being generous while clearly angling to cut ties as quickly and cleanly as possible”
Her dacky bored into Jasmine. “And
I you agree to those terms, he’d be rewarded for the utter disrespect he showed your marriage.”
Arighteous spark flaced in Jasmine’s chest at having her own indignant thoughts so boldly voiced. She lifted her chin fractionally, squaring her stance.
Then I say we fight this,” she stated in a ton of renewed determination. “If Ethan wants to dictate how this plays out, I won’t make it easy for him.”
The sly in Samantha beoke into was all the validation Jasmine needed. “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.”
The ensuing weeks were a whirlwind of terse corespondence between their respective legal teams, each feverishly countering, rejecting and submitting proposals loaded with calculated loopholes and skewed terms.
Jasmine began loolding forward to her strategy sessions with Samantha, where they would spend hours meticulously dissecting every stipulation of Ethan’s latest gamb
“The audacity of him insinuating you don’t have a rightful claim to your personal assets acquired daring the dissolution,” Samantha huffed in disbeliet over one particularly galling clause “As if your career hasn’t been thriving alongside his for year!”
Jasmine couldn’t help but smirk as she reached for her signature turquoise fountain pan, freshly filled with ammunition to eviscerate line by line.
“He seems to be barbering some interesting opinions about women’s validity these days,” the remarked in a tone dripping sarcasm. “I can’t imagine where that outlook stems from Eventually, the inevitable stalemate arose – neither party willing to yield an inch further on the core disagreements over assets, custodial value placement, and, of course, finances. When Ethan’s counsel formally requested they convene to discuss “alternative revolution proceedings,” Jasmine could taste the impending bitter rancor on the air.
It was a tense, electrically–charged atmosphere when both parties swept into the sleek uptown conference room armed with reams of documentation and battle–ready dispositions Liban, coded and polished as ever in his designer suit, didn’t even deign to glance in Jasmine’s danction as they all took thair seats around the mammoth granite table.
Roger Hines cleared his throat, sleeked hair gleaming beneath the recessed lighting as he launched into his prepared overture.
–
“If I may be so beld as to summarice where we currently stand he began in that irritatingly patronizing voice of his
Things devolved fairly quickly after that point. Accusations of asset concealment, verbal spars over evaluator bias, a vicious game of tug–of–war centred on the new property portfolios Jasmine hadn’t even begun cultivating yet.
By the time both teams had exhausted their blustering thetoric, a terse pall of stalemate had settled over the entire room
Jasmine’s hands were clenched into white–knuckled fits atop the table, aching from the strain of maintaining some semblance of poise before them all.
y certain of emerging the victor
But it was the subtly smugexpression on Ethan’s face that was her true undoing in the end. The pinched line of his mouth spoke volumes, as if he was already o In this pissing contest over who could trample whom the hardest
“Well, I see we’re at a staggering impasse once again,” Roger Hines sighed at length, looking decidedly put out by the lack of chillity or progress in which case, the only recourse may be to pursue rigation and allow the courts to decide how this situation is properly adjudicated”
the mere motion of surrendering the power
The pronouncement struck Jasmine like a blow to the solar plexus, momentarily robbinger of air. She couldn’t articulate the reasons why, but the m balance of her divorce to some faceless institutional authority made her want to recoll viscerally,
“You can’t be serious.” Samantha was protesting Indignantly beside her. “There has to be a more productive avenue than the unnecessary hassle of dragging this before a judge when both parties are clearly amenable to terms it properly nepe-
“Enough”
The single clipped utterance sliced through Samantha’s perfectly honed rebuttals, drawing all eyes towards Jasmine.
She finally wrenched her gaze up to meet Ethan’s then, allowing all the anguish and bitter affront she felt towards him to blage across her features.
“My attorney in right, Mr. Hines,” she stated in a measured tone that brood no argument. This situation has already been drawn out excessively due to your client’s refusal to approach dsolution with the slightest shred of dignity or capect towards me.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN – TENSE NEGOTIATIONS