Henri had come through for her. One of his trust fund friends, Dalton Wallingford, had a penthouse condo in the Wilshire corridor that was fully furnished and sitting vacant. It came completely furnished with a baby grand piano and a one-year-old Porsche 911 that Dalton had no problem loaning out to her temporarily.
She introspectively assessed that a few weeks prior, she would have been sleeping in like this on a Sunday. It would still be this quiet because Sully was on the road. She would have gotten out of bed and found a way to make work fill in the silence. That was the one area she was determined to change. She decided to embrace her creative process and do her best to exorcise her demons.
Writing had been flowing easier and easier. Now that she was solely focused on the album, life had become much easier. She only had two more songs to record before she was finished.
She quickly found that the more she slowed down, the more the inspiration and melodies and lyrics flowed. A brand new guitar that she bought for herself as a gift didn’t hurt either.
She padded out to her living room with floor to ceiling windows framing a black baby grand and showing off a gorgeous, sunny, blue sky L.A. day awaiting her. She raised her arms to the sky and stretched, looking forward to a hike in Runyon Canyon with Melanie, an old friend she had recently reconnected with.
Melanie had done a great job of making a name for herself. She started out as a backup dancer and worked her way onto the big screen. Her acting career was blooming. Kit found that being around her was helping her own transition. They were constantly bouncing creative ideas off of each other.
Glancing at the clock she hurriedly headed back to her bedroom to throw on her workout clothes and sneakers. She called down to the valet and asked to have Dalton’s Porsche brought around. She was grateful she didn’t have to bother with buying a new car yet. Ready to go, she headed out quickly.
When Kit returned home, she felt filled up and rejuvenated. Having girl time was exactly what was needed. She followed that up with a delicious lunch and a relaxing massage at her favorite spa. As she floated into the condo, she noticed Candice on the phone at the dining room table.
She made her way into the living room, taking a seat at the baby grand as a content grin spread across her face. She started playing anything that came to mind, allowing the music to flow through her without trying to pin it down into a song or shove it into some semblance of creative expression. She simply enjoyed the process of playing.
Candice hung up the phone and watched Kit carefully. She noticed that Kit was relaxed and appeared happy. Part of her wanted to hold back and not relay the message, but the other part of her realized it was important to do her job. She had a bad feeling about it that she couldn’t deny. Despite that, she proceeded into the living room and stood next to the piano.
Kit stopped playing and grinned at Candice. “Hey. How has your day been? Please tell me you’ve gone out to lunch and haven’t worked straight through.”
She grinned. “I brought my lunch today. And no comment about working through it. Your attorney called. She said it was urgent that you return her call.”
Candice watched Kit carefully, waiting for a reaction and realized she was completely unfazed. She then realized she had insider information from Giselle and hoped it wasn’t showing on her face. She swallowed hard.
Kit nodded and sighed, getting up from the piano bench. “Ok. I’ll go into the bedroom and call her.” She chuckled. “She’s probably going to tell me that they had to send the papers out for the fourth time. I’m sure this won’t take long.”
She proceeded to her bedroom and sat down on the edge of the bed, picking up the receiver and dialing the number from memory. As she waited for her attorney to get on the line, a strange feeling overcame her. She wondered what was so urgent. Usually her attorney’s paralegal would make the call and inform her that the papers were going out again. Something was different.
“Kit…” Lizbeth’s voice jolted her out of her thoughts.
She scrambled to speak. “Lizbeth, hello. My assistant said it was urgent?”
“I wanted you to know that we received a call from your husband’s attorney first thing this morning. Sully’s ready to comply and his financials will be coming over later in the day. We’ll start the process of determining how the assets will be split.”
Upon hearing Lizbeth’s words, Kit’s heart sank. It surprised her for a moment. Doubts rose up instantly accompanied with tears that welled up in her eyes. She wondered if this was all a big mistake.
Confused, she shook her head and swallowed hard. She didn’t feel like she could back down now. She composed herself and moved forward. “Has Sully asked for anything in the separation?”
Lizbeth paused. “Not yet. We’re at the preliminary stages. As we start dividing up the assets, we’ll know more.”
Kit sighed. “Ok. Anything else you need from me right now?”
“Not right now. Let us get started on determining what equitable division of the assets will look like for both of you. Then I’ll have you come in so we can go over it and figure out next steps.”
Kit started straight ahead in a daze and spoke softly. “Ok. Thank you, Lizbeth.”
She gulped, returned the receiver to its cradle and bolted to her master bathroom where she threw up. She sat on the bathroom floor for a moment and held her stomach, feeling tears well up in
