I glared across the table at Atilla the Hun, not really, but I imagined doing it. For the next few seconds, I had a lovely little daydream in my head. I imagined that I’d grabbed Cody and ran when I saw her in that room earlier. That I’d had the good sense not to let her get anywhere near him because mom and grandma Astor are child’s play next to Kitty.
While I was preoccupied, she brought out the canon. She tossed a leather bonded folder down in front of him, and my tummy lurched while my chest tightened. “Grandma Davenport, that’s not a prenuptial agreement, is it?”
“Of course, it is but don’t worry, dear, we’ve been very fair to him. If things should go wrong and he’s not the one at fault, he’ll be more than handsomely compensated for the first five years after your divorce.”
I grabbed Cody’s hand and got up to leave. “We’re not signing anything. Come on, Cody.” My two grandmothers looked at each other. Grandma Astor said, “I told you she wouldn’t go for it,” and Grandma Davenport gave her five bucks. That’s right, five bucks. They bet five bucks on whether or not I would sign a prenuptial agreement or have Cody sign one.
“I’ll sign it.” My mouth fell open at Cody’s words as the whole room went silent, and that ringing in my ear grew worse. I have a map that I’ve kept since I was about thirteen years old. On that map, there’s a red circle around the furthest place on earth from my place of birth. I’m going there as soon as we get out of here; just watch.
LISA
His declaration that he’d sign caused a bit of a stir, and once again, there were shared looks among the elders. My eyes were too hazy to read the room, and my mind wasn’t grasping much of anything anyway. If I’d been more prepared, maybe I could do something, but this whole thing gave me the sensation of being on a runaway train whose engine had failed.
Cody, on the other hand, seemed unfazed and not at all aware of his environment, something I had never noticed about him before. I always pegged him for the smart type, he’s never displayed any signs of mental damage, but here he was just going along with their craziness. Maybe he’d had too much exposure to this bunch already? Who knows.
“Don’t you want to read it first?” Grandma Astor finally spoke up. I guess the meditation hour was over. I can’t plot against her in my head right now, though; I have a forest fire to put out before it burns the whole city down. I looked at the leather folder as if it were a snake getting ready to strike.
None of what just happened here makes sense. And why wasn’t Cody’s parents saying anything? Were they too afraid? I hope not. If we make it out of this room intact, I plan to spend the rest of my life with him, to someday become his wife. If they alienate them now, it might take a lot of work to win them over again.
I can’t imagine how they must be feeling, watching their son being treated like this and was too ashamed to look at him or them. I felt bad that I’d brought Cody here and wished I had the nerve to get up and walk away with him in tow. But years of ingrained family honor held me captive in my seat.
They’re my family, though, mine to deal with. Why should Cody and his parents be subjected to the same nonsense I’ve been trying to escape all my life? And which one of them came up with this mess and thought it was a good idea? Are they trying to sabotage my relationship? That’s the only reason I can think of for all of this to be happening. They were doing this to send him running.
What man in this day and age like to have his life planned out for him by people he doesn’t even know? And why is he being so complacent? I thought he had more sense than this. His sense of danger is nil.
“I don’t need to read it. You’re protecting her, right? That’s what we’re all here for. It doesn’t matter either way because I’m not leaving Lisa, and she’s not leaving me, so whether or not I sign that makes no difference in the grand scheme of things. But, if it’ll give you peace of mind, I’ll sign whatever you want because all I want from you is her.”
Okay, that was nice, sweet even. But you can’t do sweet with this bunch; sweet to them translates to soft, maybe even weak. I wish I’d had more time to warn him, to prepare him, but I thought I had until Thanksgiving at least before I had to subject him to this. The fact that no one was saying anything only made me more nervous, added to the fact that Cody had no idea what he was dealing with and was acting as though he was in a room with rational-minded people.