Page 1 of Shaw

Chapter One

Julianne Scott didn’t want to drive into the city, especially on a beautiful July morning in northern California. She usually spent the time before her shift jogging on the beach, or walking through the park. Since summer break had started, the playgrounds would be filled with two of her favorite things, happy kids and smiling moms. Her attorney, however, insisted that she and her husband attempt one last sit-down before they went in front of a judge.

The conference room for the meeting looked cramped and dusty, and smelled like disinfectant spray, dry-rotted carpet and, oddly, candy apples. Julianne tried to ignore the stink, but she’d always hated being stuck indoors. Places like this made her skin shrivel, too, as if invisible spiders were about to drop down and crawl on her. Everyone who had come here to bicker over their stuff had probably left lots of bad vibes.

My stuff, she reminded herself. Not ours. Not his. Mine.

“One of my investigators told me that lifeguards make six figure salaries down in LA County.” A thin, nervous man with silvered brown hair, Paul Whitley wore a nice navy-blue suit that didn’t quite fit his scarecrow frame. “Why are you working for so little, Ms. Scott?”

Although he knew she was different, the attorney never talked down to her. Once people realized she had limits, most didn’t even try to be that nice.

“After this is over I’ll get a better job.” If she didn’t end up living under a bridge, Julianne hoped. “How long do you think it will take to settle everything?”

“Counsel has already advised me he will be filing three motions on Monday.” The lawyer pushed his thick horn-rimmed glasses higher on his nose. “It seems we’re in for a fight. In your situation, it’s probably better to give Mr. Fumagalli what he wants sooner rather than later.”

What he meant was the only thing she had left to her name, which she had promised her parents that she would not give up for any reason. “How is that better?”

“I’m the cheapest attorney in Napa County, which is why you hired me,” Paul said. “We’ve worked out installments for my services, but settling the disputes in a contested divorce can be very expensive. Even if we win, you’ll likely be forced to sell your land to avoid bankruptcy.”

“Why don’t I buy the farm?” Mitchell Fumagalli said as he came into the conference room, smiling as if he were filming a toothpaste commercial. He sauntered over and sat down across from Julianne. “Not that I mean I’ll die for you. Sorry, honeybuns, but I plan to live forever.”

These days her soon-to-be ex-husband dressed like a wannabe mobster. He evidently bathed in his cologne lately, too; the expensive stench of it rolled across the table in such a thick cloud it made her eyes water. This morning he’d slicked back his curly hair with an oily pomade, stuck a big diamond stud in his left ear, and added a red silk cravat with his gray sharkskin suit. If Julianne had passed him on the street she wouldn’t have recognized him.

Had he been this tacky before they’d gotten married? she wondered.

The Mitchell she’d dated had been a big, robust outdoors type who had smelled of soap and lived in jeans, knit pullovers and hiking boots. He’d claimed to be a nature lover, too, and seemed happy just to hang with her. Had he done that just to fool her? Had their romance been some sort of con job right from the start? Why hadn’t she seen that?

You really are the dumbest blonde of all time, Julianne.

“How about I give you ten thousand cash?” Mitch said, still grinning. “You can rent yourself a nice trailer. Maybe even a double-wide.”

Since Julianne had left her husband, he spoke to her as if she were nothing but a trashy idiot. She should never have told him about how much she’d struggled with handling everything after her parents had died. He’d used that and everything else he knew to make her out to be a gold-digger.

“I’m not selling my land.” She started gathering her paperwork so she wouldn’t jump across the table and punch him in the nose.

Her ex looked over at the door as an expensively-dressed, older man came in. “Hear that, George? Julie doesn’t want to sell me the land she said I could have for free.”

She clenched her teeth to keep from responding to his lies, and instead added to her list of new nicknames for Mitch. Cheater. Liar. Poser.

“That is regrettable,” George Armstrong said as he sat down across from Paul Whitley. “My client is willing to settle this entire matter amicably, as long as Ms. Scott does not renege on her agreement with him on compensation for his many expenditures on her behalf.”

Con man. Money-hungry sex-crazy jerk-face.

For the first time in her life Julianne imagined herself killing someone and herself at the same time. The fastest way would be to run down Mitch in the street before crashing her van into a telephone pile. That way she could end all her troubles and stop him from cheating another woman in the future. The only thing that kept her from trying was a strong suspicion that she’d swerve at the last minute before crashing, and end up brain-dead but on life-support.

If he pulled the plug. Making money mattered more than anything to her ex.

“Focus, Julie.” Mitch slapped his hands on the table, making a loud sound that startled everyone but Julianne. “I don’t want to drag this out any more than you do. Quit being greedy and give me what I’m owed.”

What he was owed… Wait. He was calling her greedy?

“You took the house, my car, my phone, all my clothes and shoes, and every cent we had in the bank,” Julianne reminded him. “I got the sixty-one dollars in my wallet and what I was wearing. How does that make me greedy?”

“Come on, honeybuns, you know I footed the bill for most of that stuff. What was left I had to sell to pay for my father’s funeral, and treatment for the syphilis you gave me.” He used the nail of his pinky finger to pry something out from between his front teeth, and then flick it onto the floor. “I regret every dime I wasted on you while you were using and abusing me.”

Just when she thought he couldn’t get more disgusting, he did.

“You’ve been blowing your paycheck for the last year, Mitchell,” Julianne said, trying not to shout the words. “Also, I’ve been checked by the Health Department, and I’m clean. You got the clap after I left you.”