Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 59659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
There was a problem, though. We had done everything together. The business, the properties, the loans. Everything was in both of our names.
That led to a messy divorce which lasted for a year and left me giving almost everything up just so I could be done with it. My lawyer’s advice was to sell her the rest of my stake in the company, get the hell out of town, and forget she even existed, as if that was possible. The money I would make from the sale would ensure that I could do anything I wanted, and she would be happy to take it if it meant a quick and final end to the marriage.
I’d called my friends back home and solicited their advice before I made a decision. Then I called all the investors that had worked with me and told them that I was leaving the firm, and that their portfolios would be exclusively Sarah’s. They all seemed to know what that meant. Some of them seemed like they had even been expecting it. I hadn’t known it was that obvious.
I took my lawyer’s advice and sold everything I’d spent a decade building to Sarah, letting her take it all, including the house and most of the cars, while I took cold, hard cash and my pickup. She hated the pickup anyway. She often said that there was no reason for it, since we lived in Baltimore, and it was just me ‘cosplaying as a cowboy.’ There was no playing. I was a Texas boy through and through, no matter how long I’d lived in the Northeast suburbs.
She didn’t bother to go through the possessions I packed in the back and in the trailer attached to it, though. She knew I wouldn’t take anything she wanted to keep. I was a minimalist in a lot of ways, and I had no desire to continue any fights with her, so I wouldn’t be tempted to take anything that she would argue with me about. Plus, she hated most of the things that were ‘my’ possessions anyway, calling them tacky or low-class.
At least I still had my friends in Texas. As a matter of fact, now I had all my friends in Texas. Camden never left, but in the last few years, Graham, Ryan, and Mark had moved back. Mark was the most recent to come back, ending up hooking up with Camden’s sister Carmela, which I thought was hilarious. She had been doe-eyed over him since she was in pigtails.
Ryan and Graham had found partners, too, leaving Camden and me as the only bachelors of the group now. I had no intention of changing my status for a while. After a decade of marriage, I was quite content to spend a little time answering to no one but myself.
On the rare occasions that I had gotten away from work over the years, I went back to Murdock to visit. Granted, the last time I had been down there was a bit ago, but with everything going on in my life, I figured at least a semi-permanent living arrangement in my old hometown might be just what the doctor ordered.
Plus, I had a good lead on a business venture down there that I had already put a move on. By the time I got back into town, not only was I going to be a Murdock resident once again, but I was going to be a business owner, a pillar of the community, and a person who was ‘making a difference.’ Plus, all those other platitudes the local paper was likely to throw on me for spending as much cash as I was in the local economy and providing a bunch of jobs.
I filled up the gas tank and then checked on the trailer. The last time I stopped at Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, right outside of Knoxville, I had found that my recliner had turned sideways. If I hadn’t figured it out when I did, it would have likely crushed the collection of baseball cards I’d had since I was a kid and a lamp my father had given me that was my grandfather’s from the forties.
Thankfully everything was still intact back there, and I sighed with relief. I had a long way to go from here. I was just past Little Rock, Arkansas, and about eight hours left to go with stops. As it was getting dark already, I had half a mind to stop at a hotel once I crossed into Texas and crash for the night, but I wanted to get it all done as fast as possible. I had already stopped for the night in Tennessee. I didn’t want to extend this trip any longer.
As I got back into the driver’s seat of my truck, I checked my phone. A message had come in from Ryan. He had been keeping tabs on me while I drove, offering to come get me if I needed any assistance. That was classic Ryan. Always the Boy Scout. He made sure he was always looking out for all of us.