The turn went down and as she hoped, she had the worst hand ever. She went all in. The remaining players folded. Eli called, they both revealed their hands and the river card was turned.
It was time to put an end to this.
* * *
Nate gave up watching the tournament early. Annie wasn’t playing well, and his angry glare wasn’t helping. Despite everything that had happened between them, he wanted her to succeed. So he’d gone to his office for a few hours.
On his desk, he found the courier’s package from her lawyer that he’d fished out earlier. The first time it had arrived, he’d laughed and phoned his attorney to throw a monkey wrench into her plans. Now, he held it with a sense of somberness and finality.
There had been a fleeting moment this week when he’d thought he might not need this paperwork any longer. That night at the fountains when Annie had confessed to him, he’d had a glimmer of hope. Despite everything else going on, he’d started to believe that what really mattered—the two of them and how they felt about each other—might survive the rest. He’d held that tiny flame of possibility tight against his chest even as she told him she didn’t love him and was just protecting Tessa.
But maybe he was just like a child who refused to believe the truth about Santa when he was faced with the cold, hard facts. He clung to the fantasy because he was certain Annie was lying. But why? There was no logic to her actions that he could find.
It might have just come down to being unable to stay with the man convicting her sister, no matter how much she cared. No matter how much he cared, although he’d never voiced his feelings to her the way he should’ve.
Nate flipped the cover page over to view the divorce paperwork. The settlement was simple—no assets to divide, no custody battles. They were each walking away with what they’d come into the marriage with, despite having no prenuptial agreement in place. Annie was technically entitled to half of what he had. She could take half of the hotel, force him to sell his home and raid his savings and retirement funds. It could be a huge hit to his finances. And yet, despite his stalling and aggravating her, all she’d wanted was her freedom.
So he’d give it to her.
Nate slipped the paperwork from the envelope and read over the divorce decree. It was amazing to him how one little slip of paper could dissolve not only a marriage, but all the promise and potential it had. Although he’d told her he’d refused to sign to force her here and make her suffer, he knew now that he hadn’t been ready to give up on them yet. And he didn’t want to give up now. He loved Annie. He always had—he was just too stubborn to admit it to himself before now.
But Nate knew it was time to let it go. Annie had made it perfectly clear that she was done. If he’d fallen for her again, that was his problem, not hers.
Pulling a pen from his coat pocket, Nate smoothed out the paperwork on the desk and signed his name on the dotted line. That done, he slipped the platinum wedding band from his finger and took a deep breath. It was as if a burden was taken off his shoulders. He’d carried this marriage on his own for far too long.
He slipped the papers back into the envelope and radioed someone to take it to Annie’s suite. He didn’t want the papers sitting near him any longer than they needed to be. He might be tempted to tear them up or run them through his shredder.
For a moment, Nate considered calling Gabe and seeing if he was up for a night on the town when the tournament was done. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d gone out. His own hotel had a club frequented by the Hollywood elite where he could commandeer the VIP suite, gather a crowd of people and lose himself in the hedonism of the town he’d lived in his entire life. A couple drinks and a couple willing ladies might be just what he needed to put this mess behind him.
He eyed his cell phone and then with a sigh, Nate let reality creep back in. That was the last thing he needed. Instead, he pulled out some business papers and returned to the work of running his casino.
* * *
It was over. Finally.
She hadn’t won, but that was fine with her because she didn’t want to give Jerry the satisfaction of taking the tournament. Until today, she’d done well enough without his help, although now he was going to walk away with two-thirds of her winnings. It was a small price to pay if Tessa was safe. Perhaps he wouldn’t bother either of them again if he thought Annie didn’t have the chops to make it to the final table in another tournament.
She’d completed a couple interviews and gone through the motions of wrapping up her tournament. It was the typical process, but this time she couldn’t bear it. The lights and the cameras and the questions were just too much for her to take. One reporter had even had the audacity to ask her about her marriage to Nate and if it had contributed to her choking today. It took everything she had to maintain composure and not take out her aggravation on the blonde.