Tony removed a manila envelope from his briefcase. When he pulled out the photos, she instantly recognized them for what they were. The top photo was of the Franklins’ big front living room window with its stunning view from the twenty-seventh floor. There were her brown legs, as well as Adam’s head between them and Blake leaning over her with his penis in her mouth.
She cried out, filled with shock and outrage. “You have been spying on me!”
“And now I know everything about your perverted behavior since you left me. What are you thinking, doing this? Do you know how disgusting it is?”
She recoiled. “What I do is none of your business.”
“It is my business what you do in my penthouse.”
“That’s mine now,” she bit back.
“No. Everyone there knows that you are my ex-wife. It makes me look so bad that I was married to a whore.” He spat the word as he looked Sophia up and down scathingly. She could smell gin on his breath.
“You need to back off. I’m about to call security.”
He shook his head. “You will not do that. Instead, what you are going to do is this. You are going to pack your things. And you are going to leave my penthouse. I don’t care where you go or who you move in with. Move in with those brothers for all I care. I get my penthouse back because you no longer deserve it.”
“I'm not going to do that Tony, and you can’t make me.”
He snorted. “If you don’t vacate that place immediately, and your family will receive these in the mail. Do you know what they will do when they realize what a little whore you are?”
Sophia’s heart nearly stopped. She prayed that Tony didn’t know about her pregnancy. He appeared not to. “Don’t do that,” she whispered. She hated how weak he made her feel, like some subservient, driveling fool with no backbone.
“I need you to get out now.” He spoke without mercy, as if she was not even human, as if they had not been married for seven years and in love even longer than that. Had he ever cared about her? Or was she always nothing to him, just a pawn for him to control? How had she never seen how he used people and moved them about like chess pieces without any regard for their feelings? He was even this way with his mother. He was an awful person and she hated him with all of her being at that moment. “You can’t do this. That place is mine now. Legally. You signed it over.”
“And now you will sign it back over and you will get out.” Or.” He waved the envelope of pictures menacingly.
“Don’t you dare threaten me. We are not even together. Why do you care so much what I do?” she seethed. He had upset her to the point of tears and she was trembling. But she was starting to get angry and indignant as she realized just what he was trying to pull.
“When you made your vows to me, you promised to be mine forever. You broke those vows. And you will pay for that.” While his words denoted his sense of hurt and betrayal, he did not reveal any real emotion. Sophia hated that about him. If only he would budge and show one little bit of love, affection, or hurt, maybe she could forgive him. But he always expressed this inhuman coldness that chilled her to the bone. He could never humble himself for her.
He would never change.
“You broke your vows first,” she replied, matching his coldness. “I don’t know why you can’t get that through your head.”
“I never left your side,” he argued.
“You did. Many times. Every time you were with that bitch in the penthouse, you left my side and betrayed me.”
“You have a duty to me and you failed it,” he snarled. “Get out of that apartment or I will destroy your life. You’re lucky I don’t do it anyway, just to punish you for being the slut that you are. I am an instrument for God’s will. But I am also a good man, so I will leave it to Him to handle you and your sins. As a Christian I know that karma is real for I have seen it work many times. And God will definitely get His retribution. You will pay so hard for what you have been doing, and you will wish that you had never left me. Just you wait and see.” With that, he stormed away, leaving Sophia by herself to feel shell-shocked and horrified.
Feeling completely numb, she went home and lay down. Wine was out of the question, though she really wanted it. She had to fight the urge to sob. Not only was she mortified that someone had learned her secret, but she was also terrified that everything might fall apart now. So much for happily ever after and a peaceful, healthy pregnancy!
She didn’t want to imagine what might happen. But horrible thoughts kept biting at her mind, distressing her. Should she succumb to Tony and let him get his way, as usual? Should she defy him and suffer the terrifying consequences? Or should she find some other solution? No other solution seemed apparent to her but she desperately searched for one.
She realized that she needed her one…err, two sources of solace and comfort, her boyfriends. They would be able to help her. They were also billionaires, with great attorneys on their side. All of this might get better once she spoke with them. And maybe they could think of a solution that she couldn’t think of herself.
Sophia already knew how much she loved them and relied on them, and she realized they were undeniably important facets of her life. This ménage was better than she had imagined and she would be damned before Tony could ruin it for her.
Chapter 12
“That son of a bitch,” was the first thing out of Blake’s mouth. His face turned red and his forehead wrinkled in fury. He hit the counter, clearly overcome with rage.
Adam also seemed angry. Perhaps angrier. But he withheld his feelings and began to pace back and forth, his hands held tightly behind his back.
Sophia sat on the couch, where she had delivered the news about her ex-husband’s threats. “Stop, you’re making me nervous,” Sophia snapped. She never meant to snap but her nerves were worn thin.
“Sorry,” he muttered, stopping his frantic back and forth. Then he commenced to bite his nails. Sophia had never seen him do that before. Usually he was so cheerful, so composed. He had not even been this distressed when she had announced the news of the baby.
“You two are legally separated. The papers are all signed. He can’t get you on anything. This isn’t infidelity. You know what this is? This is extorsion, plain and simple.” Blake shook his head. “We can’t let him get away with this.”
“But he has some pretty strong leverage,” Sophia protested. “He can ruin my life. You know all about how my family can’t learn about this.” She was distressed and both brothers could see that. They sat down next to her and put their arms around her to soothe her.
Their touch calmed her down a bit and her heart rate slowed. “We have to figure out what to do,” she pled.
“I’m going to speak to our lawyer. I’m sure we can do something. He can’t push us around,” Blake told her in a firm voice.
“Yeah, we have one of the best lawyers in the city. We will get this taken care of. Don’t worry about a thing.”
“I’m worried that he will take vengeful action,” Sophia said softly. “If we go after him legally, he can still send them those pictures.”
“He had no right to spy on you. So we can prevent him from ever sharing those photos,” Blake said with conviction. He almost made Sophia feel better.
“Does he know that you’re pregnant?” Adam asked.
Sophia shook her head. Then she paused. “He didn’t mention it. But since he’s having me followed, who knows what he knows. I think he would have mentioned it, right?”
“He better not threaten the woman having my child,” Blake spoke fiercely.
“Or mine,” Adam said passive-aggressively.
“It could be mine just as well as yours,” Blake argued. Obviously his temper was getting hot.
Adam’s did, too. He began to fight with Blake about who fathered the baby again.
Sophia slammed her fist on the table. Then she began ranting in a long string of Spanish. While she seldom spoke Spanish except when dealing with the elders
in her family and some of her cousins who still lived in Mexico, she let it out when she was drunk or lost control of her temper. Now both men stared, transfixed by the tomato red of her face as she cursed like a sailor in words they did not comprehend.
Like a bomb, she had gone off. There was no more patience left inside of her. She had been through too much of late.
“Sophia, honey, calm down,” Blake finally said, when he realized that her temper was only gathering steam. He sat beside her and put a protective hand on her back. “Please. I hate seeing you this upset.”
“I’m sorry this happened to you. But we will deal with this creep. Don’t let him scare you. He has no right to push you around and this place is yours. We will take care of this, don’t even worry.”
Blake immediately got on the phone with their long-time lawyer, who had worked even for their father when he had founded Franklin Enterprises. He answered promptly and cheered, “Hey! How’s my rockstar client?” in a crackly voice.
“Hey, Dan. We have a legal question for you. And as always, this is protected by client-attorney confidentiality. We can’t have anyone knowing about this.”
“Oh, boy, what trouble have you boys gotten into?” Dan groaned with a sense of humor.
“Well, honestly, it’s about a girl.”
He laughed. “Of course! I should have guessed it.”
“And she’s right here. So watch your mouth, Dan.”
“Oh!” Dan fell silent, waiting.
Together, Adam and Blake finished each other’s sentences as they told Dan the bare bones of their story with Sophia and her most recent encounter with her ex. After a few moments of silence, he responded, “So this lady is officially divorced?”
The brother turned to Sophia with raised eyebrows and handed her the phone. She spoke up awkwardly, “No, not quite fully divorced. But legally separated with a signed separation agreement. Yes they both had their own lawyers prepare the agreement.”
“Sophia, do you mind sending the separation agreement with me? If you can fax it over I can look over it. Then I can figure out what we can do.”
Sophia retrieved the papers and they faxed it from the fax machine in their home office upstairs in their penthouse. An hour later, he called back and they put him on speaker. “So it says here that you two signed a prenuptial agreement with an infidelity clause. You were entitled to half of everything with evidence that he cheated. And you had evidence, all those text messages. Yet it says here in the settlement that you only took one piece of property. Why didn’t you take him for half of everything, Sophia?”
Sophia hesitated. The brothers were watching her expectantly. “Vengeance isn’t God’s way. I didn’t want anything of his except this penthouse. I didn’t want to break him or get money. I wanted to make my own money and live free of him in this property.”
“Hmm. A selfless client. That’s interesting, Sophia, and I commend you but I don’t understand you. If it was me, I would have gone after him for everything he had and then some.”
“OK, so what does this have to do with his threats?” Adam interjected to bring Dan back on track.
“Well, nothing, really. But you two are legally separated and that penthouse is yours. So all he is doing is blackmailing you. It's really a criminal matter and very good grounds for a lawsuit.”
“Look, he’s a lawyer and I am positive he would make this very difficult in court. That’s another reason I settled with him instead of going after his assets,” Sophia explained. “And…I want to keep this private. I really don’t want those photos splashing across the media. My family can’t know about…our situation.”
“I see. Well, I’d say the best thing to do is to go to the police and then we can serve him with a ten million dollar lawsuit.” Dan cackled. “I sure want to get this guy. He sounds like a real creep.”
“What could we do to get proof about the blackmailing?” Blake inquired. “Because he just spoke to Sophia in private.”
“And no one overheard you two?”
“Not enough to know what he was saying,” she admitted guiltily. She thought of the two women walking by and her wish for privacy. If only she had let someone hear so that she could have a witness. But it was such an embarrassing matter and she certainly didn’t want that all of the office! People had enough to say about her since she was new.
“Then the best you can do is have another conversation with him and get him on tape. Or get something in writing, an email maybe. Otherwise, I can’t really help you.”
After they thanked Dan and got off the phone with him, Sophia sighed. “I wish I had proof. But he’s not stupid. He knew not to give me any evidence.”
“We can get proof,” Adam declared suddenly.
“How?” she demanded. She was clueless about how to go about this. And the idea of a court case with Tony seemed like a nightmare, especially after she had visited a few of his victorious courtroom triumphs.
“We will go to his office. All three of us. We will be recording and get him to repeat the threat. Then we will let him know that we will get him for blackmail.”
“Maybe we can also get the photos somehow,” Blake suggested.
Sophia laughed nervously. She hated the idea of a stand-off with Tony. He still had an intimidating effect on her, as much as she stood up to him. The idea of going there with her two new boyfriends also made it seem like a very foolish idea.
But the more the brothers discussed it, the better the plan seemed. After all, they would be at his office, where he could not make a fool of himself or assault them. And maybe they could talk him out of his plan without having to go to the police or to court. Just the threat of a criminal complaint or a lawsuit might make him back down. He didn’t want trouble, he just wanted to bully Sophia. If they proved that he couldn’t bully her, then he would lose all leverage.
Sophia began to realize that maybe him telling her family what she was doing was not the worst thing in the world. No, she didn’t want that to happen at all. She certainly didn’t want those photos out. But as of now, tony probably thought it was just an empty threat and that it would be enough to force Sophia out of the penthouse. He didn’t plan to act on it. He might if she resisted, but he had probably not reached that stage of planning. Surely he would be decent enough to not show them the photos. If they found out the truth, well, this was who Sophia had become and she couldn’t let her family ruin the life that made her so happy now.
She had already began to formulate her own plan as the brothers plotted how to bring Tony down.
The next day, they met to onferin the lobby of Tony’s office building. It was a very cold day, quite close to Christmas, with icy wind sweeping down the sidewalks. Sophia looked stunning and exotic with heavily kohled eyes. The brothers both kissed her, doing it almost like spiteful a slap in Tony’s face, before the three commenced going inside.
“Tony, you have visitors,” Allison, his secretary mumbled into the phone when they declared themselves. She knew who Sophia was immediately and refused to make eye contact with her. Sophia had seen some of her racy texts to Tony and knew that something had happened, though she had not bothered to factor that into the divorce. The real issue had been his escort mistress who had lived at the penthouse. Still, Sophia felt like laughing at this woman, who was not half as attractive as she was.
“Who is it?” Tony snapped. “Allison, how many times do I have to tell you. You know I hate it when you don’t declare the client names.”
“It's your ex-wife.” The secretary put emphasis on the ex part. Sophia shot her a sniveling smile.
Tony walked to the reception area and was met with stares from the three lovers who were waiting there for me . “Please follow me,” he said finally, not looking at all pleased.
The five of them walked silently to Ton's office. While they were walking, Blake discretely reached into his jacket pocket and turned on his audio recorder. Allison, stared after them as they entered his office, her mouth hanging open
. Sophia was sure that she started listening at the door. At least Tony had a heavy door for privacy and confidential consultations.
“So,” Tony practically growled, as he settled heavily into his seat. He had gained some weight, Sophia noticed. “I sense that you are here to negotiate. But I want to make it clear that I am not open to negotiations.”
Really? Because in my world, everything is open to negotiation. I think there is a more delicate way to deal with this.”
“No,” Tony shook his head. “It’s quite simple. Sophia vacates the penthouse, or I show our families the photos of what you three perverts like to do.”
“So what do you hope to accomplish with this, Tony? What is this all about?” Blake went on. “I just don’t see what Sophia has done to you.”
Tony surveyed her coolly and didn’t speak.
“I think that this is all about spite and vengeance. It isn’t about the penthouse at all. You are just mad that I left you. Are you aware that I’m pregnant? Yes, I’m having a baby. It turns out that the fertility issue was never on my side.” Sophia felt the dig of her words and instantly regretted them. Perhaps that was too mean.
Tony indeed looked moved. “You little slut,” he growled.
“Don’t call her that,” Adam snapped.
“You are both fucking her! You don’t think she’s a perfect lady, do you? Good ladies don’t do that.” He slammed his fists on the desk. “Well have fun giving a bastard child a life. Get out of that apartment, or these photos will be everywhere. I might just send them to the newspapers, too.”
“Actually, you won’t.” Blake produced the recorder from his pocket. “First we are going to sue you and your law firm for blackmail. And if those photos get out into the newspapers, we will sue you for harrassment.”
Tony’s lips curled back as his eyes latched onto the recorder. “Well, you sure think you’re clever.”
“We can just avoid some trouble if you hand over the photos,” Adam said. “Let’s escape all of these lawsuits and just drop this whole business. Sophia is no longer your wife so it’s time to move on.”
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