Forbidden Red

Chapter 5

Gesturing for the couple to take a seat, we get straight to business.

"Aaliyah has informed me that both of you have wished to file for a divorce and have everything sorted out in terms of assets and equity." I state.

"Yes, we have," states Mrs. Anna Adair "and as our lawyer there are a couple things we want to discuss with you before we start with this meeting."

I nod my head gesturing Anna to proceed as I take a sip of my water.

Anna looks over at Mr. Adair and he gives her a slight nod to continue. "Um so me and Alex aren't married yet." She finally says fidgeting with the A on her necklace.

I almost choke on my water.

"Wait what?!" I exclaim putting my bottle down. "But the magazines, news outlets, and everything say that you have been married since last month?"

Am I losing my mind?

"They do and that is because we staged our wedding." Says Anna looking back at Mr. Adair. "Love, tell her all about it." She says touching his arm.

I turn my head towards Mr. Adair, a weird sensation tingling in my chest.

The moment our eyes meet again, I feel like the world is frozen and the only ones here in this moment are just the two of us. I can no longer hear the annoying clicking of my clock on the wall or the cars outside.

What is happening with me?

"Mr. Adair, can you please tell me what is going on." I say breaking our eye contact and looking directly at the door behind him.

"You probably already know how Anna and I met." He says his deep husky voice sending shivers down my spine.

Gosh, he's voice sounds even better the second time.

"Yes, I've heard." I say sitting up straighter ignoring the shivers in my body and my untamed thoughts. 

His hazel eyes bore into mine as he says, "I proposed to her last year and she said yes, however, things started to escalate after that. Her family, especially her dad, wanted her to get married within a couple of months and get divorced so she could have half of whatever I owned and it would also go to him."

I listen attentively to the story while noticing how Anna grabs his hand into hers. A weird sensation makes its way back into my chest, and I'm starting to think it's because of the falafel wrap.

"We weren't planning on getting married until two to three years later. Her dad started threatening her and turned violent. She came home one day with a bruise on her face and I lost all patience after that. I had resources and...people...that I could have used." He continues adding emphasis on the word people and I gulp knowing exactly what he meant.

Removing his hand from Anna's, he fixes the cuff on his blazer while staring at my 'Lawyer of the Year' plaque hanging on the side wall.

"But..." he pauses his eyes fixing back to mine.

"But?" I ask.

"But," Anna chimes in "we found out that my dad..."

Her eyes start to tear up. I quickly grab the Kleenex box and hand it to her so she could wipe her tears as I quickly blink the tears back myself. I've been through a lot of people crying in my office, but it never made me less immune to it like my other colleagues.

Adair takes her hand back into his and says "But he was killed three months ago. We staged our wedding to find his murder."

My eyes widen in shock as I take in the reality of the case. "Killed? How do you know he was killed?" I ask.