Zero Cent Settlement

"Your wife is sleeping with my husband." The woman across the table said it slowly. One word at a time. She didn't blink. "Swap numbers with me. We team up on them.

We make sure they both walk away with nothing." I put out my hand. "Deal." Chapter 1 A stranger walked into my office, asked for me by name, and told me my wife was cheating.

My brain hadn't caught up yet. She'd walked into my office an hour earlier and asked for me by name. Set it up like a client meeting. Coffee, ten minutes, nothing formal.

Then she sat down across from me and opened with that. My wife and I had been married a little over a year. Fourteen months.

I still had the seating chart from the reception in a drawer somewhere. So no. I didn't buy it. Then she gave me the second half. The man my wife was sleeping with was her husband.

The mug stopped halfway to my mouth. Coffee slid over the rim and burned across two knuckles, and I set it down without wiping my hand. My wife. Her husband.

And now she was here, across from me, in a coffee shop three blocks from my office. Why come find me. What did she want out of this.

I looked at her and let the question sit on my face. "Exactly what you're thinking," she said. She lifted her cup, took a sip, and set it down without a sound. "So?

What do you want to do about it?" Like she'd already run the numbers on me.

Then she pulled out her driver's license and slid it across the table, face up, the way you do when you've decided the other person needs proof before they'll keep listening.

Josephine Kessler. Thirty years old. Two years older than me. I pushed it back and looked at her instead.

Pale skin, dark hair falling past her shoulders in loose waves, a shine to it under the window light. Tall. A plain black dress, cut so well it didn't need anything else.

One string of pearls. A diamond on her hand that caught the light every time she moved her cup. Nothing loud about any of it. That was the point. Money that old doesn't shout.

I'll say it plain. Josephine Kessler was gorgeous. And I still had no idea what she wanted from me. Chapter 2 I pulled in a breath and made myself slow down.

Then I asked the only question that mattered. "You say my wife is sleeping with your husband. Do you have proof?" I'd never met this woman before today.

A stranger walks up with a story like that, my first thought isn't heartbreak. It's a setup. "Of course I have proof. It's early proof.

I'm still building the file." She took another sip. Every motion small and unhurried. "Show me," I said. "Sorry.

No." "Why not?" "Because what I have is proof my husband is cheating." She set the cup down and lined the handle up square with the table edge. "If I hand that to you, it doesn't matter what you do with it.

The second it comes out, he knows I know.

That puts me in a worse position." I hated how much sense that made. "And if you won't show me anything, how am I supposed to believe a word of this?" She shrugged. "Believe me or don't." Then she leaned back. "You want proof about your wife, you go get it yourself.

I'll be honest with you. I came to you because I want him to pay. This offer happens once. All you have to tell me is whether you're taking it." I didn't answer.

Whatever was showing on my face, she read it fast.

Her eyebrow went up, and she added a sweetener. "Come with me right now, and I'll think about letting you see what I've got." That eyebrow wasn't an invitation. It was a dare.

I turned my cup a quarter turn on the table. "I don't know you," I said. "You show up out of nowhere, you run this whole thing at me, and I'm supposed to just go along with it." She tilted her head. "So that's a no." "Not exactly." I drank some coffee. "You have to give me a reason to trust you first." Truth was, I only wanted one thing right then, and it was the truth about my wife.

And no matter how that came out, I had zero intention of doing what this woman was suggesting. Not one version of it. I was stalling. Nothing more.

She'd already admitted she was holding something, so I kept the door open and waited for her to put it on the table. If she was telling the truth, she wasn't hard to read either.

Woman finds out her husband is cheating, woman wants him to bleed for it. That's not a strategy. That's a wound talking. So the calm across from me might not mean anything.

Maybe underneath it she was doing something reckless. I couldn't tell. Across the table, she hadn't moved. Not her hands, not her eyes. And I still didn't know her.

For all I knew, the whole thing was a trap with my name on it. She went quiet for a long moment. Then she unlocked her phone and handed it to me. Photos. I swiped through them.

A man in his early thirties, maybe thirtytwo. A woman beside him. The two of them walking into a hotel. Every single shot was taken from behind. Not one face.

Chapter 3 Something dropped in my chest. Backs only. No faces. And I still knew her. The set of those shoulders. The way she carried her purse high on her arm. That was Bethany.

That was my wife. "Why are there no faces?" I asked, as Josephine took the phone back. "I told you. It's early." She slid the phone into her bag. "I'm still building the file.

But even from behind, you can tell, can't you." I nodded and kept my mouth shut. "Well?" She tipped her head toward the door. "Let's go." I stood up and walked out ahead of her.

Except I wasn't going anywhere with her.

On the sidewalk I turned left, toward my office. "Hey." She came after me. "Where are you going?" "Back to work," I said. "Obviously." "Are you messing with me?" She stepped in front of me and stopped, close enough that I had to look down at her. "No." I shook my head. "I never agreed to anything.

You asked if I was turning you down. I said not exactly." Her jaw tightened.

Then, fast, it smoothed over, like she'd put the look away in a drawer. "Look." She lifted her chin at the coffee shop window. "Don't we look good together?" I turned and looked.

Her hand was already in mine. Two shapes in the glass, soft at the edges. She was fiveseven, and the twoinch heels put her at fivenine. I'm sixone. Four inches between us.

In that blurry reflection, we did look good together. I pulled out a cigarette and lit it. Took a long drag.

Shook my head and said nothing. "What's the head shake for?" "You already know." Smoke went out sideways, away from her. "A few pictures of somebody's back.

Say I'm certain it's my wife. She'll still deny it. Say you're certain it's your husband. He'll deny it too.

Am I wrong?" "Where are you going with this?" "You said you're still building a file." I looked straight at her. "So let me ask you something.

What are you building it for?" "To divorce him." No hesitation at all. "And the reason for the divorce?" "Are you serious right now?" Her patience thinned out. "Because he cheated.

Cheating is the one thing you don't come back from." That's when I smiled. "What is funny about this?" Chapter 4 She stared at me, and the heat came back into her face. "Don't get mad," I said.

Ash fell off the end of my cigarette. I let it. "I understand wanting him to pay. I do. But think it through. You can't stand cheating.

You just told me it's the one thing you don't come back from. So if you and I do something today, you'd be turning into the exact person you can't stand.

Because then you'd be the one cheating." I dropped the cigarette and ground it out under my heel. Then I walked. Two seconds of nothing behind me.

Whatever she'd braced for, it wasn't that. Then heels on concrete, quick, and she was at my shoulder. "Wait.

Are you telling me you don't want him to pay at all?" "I do." I didn't slow down. "I can't stand cheating either. It's the one thing you don't come back from.

Which is exactly why I'm not turning into someone I can't stand." "Don't run off." She caught my arm and pulled. "What are you going to do, then?" "What do you think? Same as you.

Build the file.

Then divorce her." I went back to the table, sat down, and opened my hands. "You know how the courts work now." She said it slowly, like she was setting a plate in front of me. "She could be sleeping with half the city.

You file, and you're still going to lose." I didn't argue, because she was right. That's just where things are. Read anything online for ten minutes and you'll see it.

A man isn't a person in a courtroom. He's a paycheck with legs.

Take it to a judge, let a judge split everything, and the fact that she cheated doesn't stop her from walking off with half of what I built. "So do you have a plan?" "No." I said it flat. "But I don't care what it costs me.

Once I have enough, I'm done with her." "I want him to walk away with nothing." She held my eyes when she said it. "He already cheated," I said. "Once the feelings are gone, all that's left to count is money." I gave her a small smile. "We're both adults.

Nothing wrong with your math." Then I stopped and thought about it. "You could actually get there.

It won't be easy." "I know that." She nodded. "I'm asking whether you want the same thing." "Of course I do." Not one second of hesitation. "But let's be honest about the difference.

Yours is hard. Mine is basically impossible." "Swap numbers with me. We team up on them.

Anything new either of us finds, the other one hears about it." She had her phone unlocked in her hand before she finished the sentence