“Yes, please. I’ll go get him.”
Snow lost herself in playing with Bluebell. She loved spending time with her daughter. Bluebell never failed to cheer her up when life got to be too much.
Snow’s phone started ringing. She glanced at the screen to see that it was Amanda. She frowned as she turned the phone onto silent. She didn’t want to hear anything Amanda had to say. She had fallen into Amanda’s trap once before, but not again.
Amanda would no doubt try to lure her back into bed with sweet words and apologies, but Snow had never wanted a purely sexual relationship. She wanted someone she could come home to, someone who she could trust with her troubles and who could help her raise Bluebell.
Snow did her best to push Amanda to the back of her mind. She resolved to return any further money she received from the photo cards. She didn’t want money that was only a ploy to get her into bed. It made her feel like a sex worker, and while Snow respected sex workers, that wasn’t the direction she was going in with her career.
She continued her game with Bluebell, doing her best to forget all about Amanda.
17
“Snow, wait!” Too late. Snow was gone. Amanda didn’t even think Snow had heard her. She had only fully realized that Snow was gone as the door slammed. She’d been so focused on Nicole that she hadn’t even seen Snow gathering her stuff, but looking around now, all of Snow’s bags and picnic stuff were gone.
“What the hell, Nicole! Get out of my house! And leave your key here!”
“Not until we talk. Now that little slut is out of here—”
“Don’t call her that!”
“Whatever. She’s gone now, run away back to school, so the adults can talk.”
Amanda fumed quietly. She didn’t want to argue with Nicole. The sooner and more peacefully she got her ex-wife out of here, the better. Even though the papers weren’t signed yet, Amanda already thought of Nicole as her ex. Their relationship had been over for a long time now.
“What do you want?” Amanda growled.
“I want half the value of the Christmas tree farm.”
“What?” Amanda gasped. “You can’t have that!”
“If you want me to sign the divorce papers, you’ll have to give it to me.”
“But the Christmas tree farm is my part of the business! You’ve invested no capital in it, you’ve never worked to maintain or sell the trees, nor have you received any profits from it. In what universe do you imagine that you have the right to half of it?”
“Read the fine print, Amanda. The terms of our marriage are that if we get divorced, we split our assets evenly, and no exceptions are made for the Christmas tree farm.”
Nicole had always been better at contracts and fine print than Amanda. When they had signed those papers, Amanda had been deeply in love with Nicole and had never imagined that Nicole would ever betray her in such a way.
“You know what? Fine! You want the money? Half of the profits are yours. I’ll have my lawyer draw up the paperwork.”
“There you go again, thinking that you can solve every problem by throwing money at it. I don’t want your money, Amanda!”
“Then what the hell do you want! You said you wanted half of the value of the Christmas tree farm.”
“Exactly. I want you to sell it, and I want half of the profits from that sale.”
“I’m not going to do that! This farm has been in my family for generations. It’s part of my heritage.”
Nicole shrugged. “Then you can buy out my half. The property agent I spoke to estimates the net worth is two million dollars. If you give me one, I will sell my half to you.”
Amanda could only stare at Nicole in shock. She certainly didn’t lack for money, but she was far from having a million dollars. “You can’t be serious,” she said weakly.
“I’m completely serious. If you want to take this to court, we can.”
Amanda knew what the outcome of that would be. In cases of joint property disputes, the courts typically ruled that the property was sold and the profits from the sale split accordingly. She couldn’t let that happen. She’d do anything not to lose her farm. It meant too much to her. It was more than just a source of income. It was her home, the one place where she could find peace when the world got to be too much.
“What’s wrong, Nicole?” Amanda forced herself to soften her tone. “Are you in some kind of trouble? Do you need money? If so, I can help you. Just please, don’t do this to me.”