He squinted his eyes and stood. He had a few things to say to her. Things he’d been saving up over the past few months. Things that no longer had to wait.
“I’ll meet him back at the office in an hour,” he told Clyde. “Thanks again. Really.”
Abandoning the lawyer’s proffered hand, he shoved his way out of the courtroom and tracked Nina down the hall, shoving his way through the throng of reporters who all shouted his name too.
“Mr. Gardner!”
“Calvin!”
“How do you feel about the verdict!”
“Will this affect your divorce with Mrs. Gardner?”
“Get the hell out of my way,” he snapped, shoving the closest photographer hard enough that he nearly fell down the steps. The rest fell back. Typical. Shove one, the rest fall, like bowling pins. Sheep.
He spotted her across the street, purchasing some iced tea from a street cart vendor. As soon as she spotted him, her large eyes widened even more, and she shoved a bill at the vendor and darted away. Was she—was she really headed toward the subway in her pristine white coat? His wife? Nina?
“Nina!” he shouted after her. “You might as well turn around, princess. You know I won’t give up.”
Goddammit it, he really hated to run. Thankfully, she stopped, whirling around with sudden fury.
“And what is that supposed to mean?” she snapped.
“Hello, princess,” he said. “Nice to see you, too.”
“You are not supposed to talk to me. Go away, Calvin, before you get into more trouble.”
She glanced around nervously. Gardner tried not to smile, then decided not to bother. He always did enjoy the way he made her scare like this.
“I’m not doing anything wrong. Your little restraining order expired at the end of the trial. That’s today, in case you missed it. Which means I’m free to see you as much as I want. And Olivia, come to think of it,” he added, unable to help himself.
He really did love seeing her squirm whenever he mentioned her waifish daughter. Honestly, the kid always gave him the creeps, with those huge dark eyes of hers that seemed to see right through him.
But she didn’t squirm. Instead, she straightened to her full, irritatingly tall height. Gardner was thankful he had worn lifts today, but that still put him an inch or two below her when she was in heels. Fuck.
“I don’t think so,” she said. “You’ll leave Olivia and me alone, Calvin. You won’t have a reason to see her anymore anyway.”
“And why’s that?” he asked. “She is my daughter, after all.”
Again, to his disappointment, she didn’t squirm. If anything, his normally demure wife looked about ready to hit him. God, what had she been doing the last six months?
“She absolutely is not,” Nina said much more calmly than she looked. “And as of last week, she knows it too.”
It took a moment for Gardner to process what she had said. His face grew hot, like a kettle about to boil over. She knew? Which meant…others likely knew too?
“And, Calvin?”
He remained frozen as Nina leaned forward, causing her necklace to dangle down toward the ground.
“What?” he gritted through his teeth.
She was still beautiful, even if she was over the hill at thirty-one. But he had never wanted to mess up that beauty more than now.
“I know about Giuseppe,” she said in a voice that was cold as ice. “I know what you did.”
She knew about… He couldn’t even finish the thought before he took a step back and immediately hated himself for it. Nina was as thin as a mannequin—how could she manage to intimidate him?
“What’s that?” he demanded suddenly, shoving a meaty finger toward the piece of jewelry dangling from her neck. Some ugly medallion and something else that flashed in the light.
Nina captured it before he could identify anything.
“Nothing,” she said quickly. “A good luck charm I borrowed from Jane for the trial.”
Gardner snorted. “That’s cute. Who would want any of that whore’s luck?”
A mistake. Nina’s silver eyes blazed. And then, before he could stop her, she had overturned her entire cup onto his white shirt, covering it
“What the fuck!” Gardner screeched as the iced tea splattered down the front of his shirt and pants. He danced on the sidewalk, and irritably noticed the sound of cameras clicking behind him. “What in the fuck, Nina?”
“You may have won this battle,” Nina told him bitterly, even haughtily despite the fact that he had just been fully acquitted in this damn trial. “But the war is far from over. You would do best to stay out of my way and respect those I hold dear.”
“Is that a challenge, princess?” he sneered even as he was picking the wet fabric off his skin. “What do you think you’re going to do? Snub me to death?”
But she didn’t speak, only crossed her arms and looked him over. The revelations she had just made throbbed in the back of his mind, stunting his speech long enough that she didn’t even deign him with a response. Instead, she turned on her heel and continued down the street.
As she walked, Gardner was filled with fury despite the victory of the day. She was infuriating. A bitch. Self-righteous when she had no fucking right to be. She had always thought she was better than him.
And now she was embarrassing him again, revealing the rest of their secrets to the world, threatening him with charges of what, murder? Of her beloved professor more than ten years ago?
It was laughable. Which had to be the point, he realized. It was all just a game, like she had been doing for years every time she pointed out a stain on his shirt or crumbs on his mouth. That didn’t even touch the early days, when he actually tried to be nice, but she rebuffed his attempts to claim his rights as a husband as if he had suggested she jump into a vat of boiling oil.
All she had ever done was humiliate him. And for that, he wanted
