We knew that the longer we waited, the more we could get on him. In the meantime, I suffered through endless wedding planning with my mother and his family too, occasionally. I hated the lot of them and this wedding meant nothing to me, so I put our two mothers in touch and let them have at it.
I did make a few requests though. I wanted a princess-cut dress and shoes I could walk in. I wanted off-white, pearlescent, and a long veil. Other than that, I didn't care. I didn't want anything I actually liked associated with him, but I did want to choose what I wore. I would give myself that at least.
They would settle the venue and catering, we'd finalize forms and write wills. The worse the infraction, the harder we would hit in our gains.
Eventually, we did bring on a lawyer to help us with the division of assets, appreciating stocks, transfer of funds, and other financial nonsense that made my head spin. The lawyer didn't ask too many questions regarding my motives; I was his public fiancé with consensual access to his finances, as far as they knew. So I feigned blissful family planning, trying to seem like his diligent wife as I bargained my way towards some hefty payouts.
I mentioned that his personal finances often got in the way of his business ones, and that he was relieved that I was taking on such an important task. He always had far too much on his plate, so there was no need to bother him with yet another taxing matter, I told them.
Things we're starting to heat up, both within New Orleans and between our players. It had become the three of us versus the three of them, and now it was our time to strike.
He had called me incessantly when I first left, trying to figure out where I'd gone. I shut off my location sharing a long time ago and Noël was hired so informally, he never had an address on file for them. If he ever asked Noël about themself, he might've known what part of town to look in, but his arrogance got in his way again.
About a month after I left, we had gathered more than enough evidence to put him away for a good couple years, maybe even a few decades. He was not truthful or careful, which made for easy ammunition.
So we decided to give him a call back. We were pretty sure he was out of state at the moment so we felt sufficiently comfortable in gaging the extent of his anger. He didn't answer, but we decided not to leave a message, as we were positive he would want to know why we called.
And, sure enough, we got a text forty-five minutes later telling us we had interrupted his meeting.
"Good," I replied.
He asked us what we wanted.
We told him we wanted to meet with him.
He asked why.
We said he'd have to go to find out.
He asked when.
We said the second he was back in New Orleans.
He then asked where and we inquired if he remembered the hotel we went to for our first event together.
He said he remembered.
We said, "See you then."
