Shadowfires. By: Dean R. Koontz

twelve and a half million to be rid of him!”‘ “I’m not going to tell

anyone what we settled for,” Rachael said.

“Bullshit.”

“If you think I’d ever talk against you or gossip about you, then you

know even less about me than I’d thought.”

Eric, twelve years her senior, had been thirty-five and worth four

million when she’d married him. Now he was forty-two, and his fortune

totaled more than thirty million, and by any interpretation of

California law, she was entitled to thirteen million dollars in the

divorce settlement-half the wealth accumulated during their marriage.

Instead, she insisted on settling for her red Mercedes 560 SL sports

car, five hundred thousand dollars, and no alimony-which was

approximately one twenty-sixth of what she could have claimed. She had

calculated that this nest egg would give her the time and resources to

decide what to do with the rest of her life and to finance whatever

plans she finally made.

Aware that passemby were staring as she and Eric confronted each other

en the sun-splashed street, Rachael said quietly, “I didn’t marry you

for your money.”

“I wonder,” he said acidly and irrationally. His boldfeatured face

wasn’t handsome at the moment. Anger had carved it into an ugly

mask-all hard, deep, downslashing lines.

Rachael spoke calmly, with no trace of bitterness, with no desire to put

him in his place or to hurt him in any way. It was just over. She felt

no rage. Only mild regret. “And now that it’s finally over, I don’t

expect to be supported in high style and great luxury for the rest of my

days. I don’t want your millions. You earned them, not me.

Your genius, your iron determination, your endless hours in the office

and the lab. You built it all, you and you alone, and you alone deserve

what you’ve built. You’re an important man, maybe even a great man in

your field, Eric, and I am only me, Rachael, and I’m not going to

pretend I had anything to do with your triumphs.”

The lines of anger in his face deepened as she complimented him. He was

accustomed to occupying the dominant role in all relationships,

professional and private.

From his position of absolute dominance, he relentlessly forced

submission to his wishesr crushed anyone who would not submit.

Friends, employees, and business associates always did things Eric

Leben’ 5 way, or they were history. Submit or be rejected and

destroyedthose were their only choices. He enjoyed the exercise of

power, thrived on conquests as major as milliondollar deals and as minor

as winning domestic arguments. Rachael had done as he wished for seven

years, but she would not submit any longer.

The funny thing was that, by her docility and reasonableness, she had

robbed him of the power on which he thrived. He had been looking

forward to a protracted battle over the division of spoils, and she had

walked away from it. He relished the prospect of acrimonious squabbling

over alimony payments, but she thwarted him by rejecting all such

assistance. He had pleasurably anticipated a court fight in which he

would make her look like a gold-digging bitch and reduce her, at last,

to a creature without dignity who would be willing to settle for far

less than was her due. Then, although leaving her rich, he would have

felt that the war had been won and he had beaten her into submission.

But when she made it clear that his millions were of no importance to

her, she had eliminated the one power he still had over her. She had

cut him off at the knees, and his anger arose from his realization that,

by her docility, she had somehow made herself his equal-if not his

superiorin any further contact they might have.

She said, “Well, the way I see it, I’ve lost seven years, and all I want

is reasonable compensation for that time.

I’m twenty-nine, almost thirty, and in a way, I’m just beginning my

life. Starting out later than other people.

This settlement will give me a terrific start. If I lose the bundle, if

someday I have reason to wish I’d gone for the whole thirteen million..

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