“Well,” Erik said.
“I have one question,” Gannon said. Aurora’s chest got tight as she took in a deep breath. “I want to know if in those six months, if Aurora and I decide to get back together, will that cancel the divorce?”
“Are you delusional?” Aurora asked.
“No, I just…” Gannon said.
“We are here today just so I can prove to you I am serious about divorce. I want to show you that you lost the best thing that has ever happened to you,” Aurora said as she turned to her lawyer. “Are we done here?” Gannon’s eyes grew big as he became shocked that Aurora was sticking up for herself.
“Well, I guess we….” Erik said.
“Okay, good,” Aurora said as she got up to storm out of the office.
“Wait, Mrs. Tousey,” Gannon’s lawyer said. “We have further things to discuss.”
“What do you mean?” Aurora said.
“Why don’t you take a seat?” Mr. Redding said.
“I’d appreciate that you wouldn’t tell me what to do,” Aurora said.
“Fine,” he responded.
“So,” Aurora said as she sat down. “Do you mind telling me what you would like to say?”
“I would like to talk about the dowry clause in your pre-nuptial agreement,” Gannon’s lawyer said.
“The what?” Aurora said as she looked at her lawyer and whispered, “What does he mean? A dowry?”
“Why didn’t you tell me this?” Erik said as he whispered to Aurora.
“I didn’t know!”
Mr. Redding handed them all copies. Aurora read over what was in front of her. In despair, she sank back in her chair. I feel like such an idiot. I thought this was a marriage license…
“Look on page 8,” Mr. Redding said as everyone turned to page 8.
“As you see here, it states that if the two parties do not conceive a child and heir to the McMaster estate, then the wife is subject to pay a dowry of fifty percent of all of their assets to the other spouse.”
“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
