“I just want to make sure that you’re doing okay after getting hit over the head,” she stated. “You know it’ll break my heart if anything happens to you.”
“I do,” she agreed, “and that, believe me, makes me feel tons better to know that you worry about me, but I’m okay. So nothing to be worried about here.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that,” she replied. “Do you know Peggy?”
“Yes, she works in the kitchen. Why?”
“Oh, I was just wondering. I’m trying to figure out how to get a few moments to talk to her. Whether she’s the friendly kind or maybe not so friendly.”
“Peggy is pretty friendly. Honestly, she’s often here in the common area, trying to get away from the kitchen for a few minutes. If you want, I can ask her to come down and to have a cup of tea, and you could casually pop on by.”
She laughed. “Well, I was thinking about casually popping on by anyway, so that just might work.” Their call ended, and she looked down at the animals. Goliath lay on the kitchen table beside her, disgruntled that her plate was empty. She hadn’t even offered him a piece of cheese or anything. She reached over and stroked the beautiful golden fur. “Sorry, bud.”
He just glared at her, hopped off the table, and sauntered into the living room, where he threw himself down in the hallway. She sighed, as Mugs stared up at her, his tail wagging like crazy, as if waiting for his treat. “Wow, I really just ate that and didn’t even think about you guys, did I?”
She got up, walked over, sliced a piece of cheese, split it into thirds, and gave one to each of them. Thaddeus looked at it, his head cocking from side to side, and then picked it up with his beak and walked in front of Mugs, who followed him, trying to get it away from him. But Thaddeus wasn’t having anything to do with that. He flew up to his roost in the living room, and both Goliath and Mugs sat on the floor, staring at the bird, while he crowed with this thing in his mouth, finally managing to eat it.
She distributed the rest of the cheese and watched all of them and their antics, while eating the cheese, then asked, “You want to go to Nan’s?”
Mugs barked and did circles, chasing his tail. Goliath stood, just to throw himself on the ground again, this time with his tail twitching as he stared at her.
“Well, Goliath, you can stay here, if you want.” Doreen walked over at Thaddeus to get his reply. “Thaddeus loves Nan,” he cawed at Doreen and hopped onto her shoulder and rubbed against her cheek.
“Well,” she added, “Doreen loves Thaddeus.”
He cuddled up against her neck and whispered, “Thaddeus loves Doreen.”
She smiled, grabbed the leashes, but Goliath was just looking at her like, Don’t bother. She shrugged, hooked up Mugs, opened the kitchen door, and stepped outside. Just at the last second before the door closed, Goliath raced through and out the door. She quickly set the alarms and shut the door, remembering Mack’s warning about the intruder last time. The whole intruder thing just bothered her because there was absolutely no reason for anybody to come into her house to get something.
As she headed down to the river, she stopped to look at the water, finding a sense of peace that it always brought her. It was really shallow though, so theoretically, if she weren’t on her way to see Nan, she could sit here and spend a few hours. She looked down at Mugs. “When we get back,” she promised.
And, with that, she started in the direction of Nan’s. The animals were well accustomed to this pathway. They’d probably dug in a lot of this groove just with their own footprints. As she walked, she looked at all the fences and the beautiful rocks and just admired the area itself; it was so pretty. She really loved it. If they put a proper pathway in here, it would ruin it for her. It would also make it a lot more accessible to other people.
A certain number of kids and strangers were always wandering through the area as it was, but to have it as a proper pathway for the public would be hard for Doreen. She wanted to see more of Mother Nature every day, not less. And she was doing pretty well with that, considering her walks with the animals and her gardening, whether her own or for others. I need to check on Millicent’s garden, she reminded herself.
With that thought, she looked down at her phone, wondering if she should contact Nick, Mack’s brother. She quickly sent him a text, asking how her divorce settlement papers were going. But instead of getting a text back, he phoned. She wondered as she answered, “Hey.”
“I’ve been trying to get a hold of you,” he stated. “I was really surprised when I got your text.”
“Mack said something about that,” she noted. “I haven’t been avoiding you.”
“No, because you’ve been leaving me all kinds of messages, so I gather we just haven’t connected.”
“I guess so,” she agreed, “and, once I get on a case, you know I can get really focused.”
“You mean, obsessed?”
She snorted. “Yeah, you’re Mack’s brother all right.”
He chuckled. “I am, indeed. Now the question is, have you got a moment?”
“I’m on my way to Nan’s,” she said. “And we’re meeting up with somebody else, so I have just the duration of this walk.”
“Ah,” he noted.
“Where are we at with the divorce?”
“Your husband’s refusing to deal with the property division.”
“Of course he is,” she stated, with a sigh. “So where does that leave us?”
“We can have it presented to a judge and see what he says, and I think, if we get that far, your husband would cave in because, by law, you should get half of everything.”
“Seriously?” she asked. “You know he’ll never let that happen.”
“Which is one of the reasons why I wanted to bring it up. Do you feel like you would be in danger if we did this?”
“Absolutely,” she cried out. “You don’t understand what he’s like. I mean, as far as he’s concerned, what’s his is his, and I’m no longer his, but, boy, oh boy, he sure will control what I get.”
“The thing is,” Nick explained, “the way the divorce works in this province, you are entitled to half of everything.”
“Even if I don’t want it?”
“No, you may not want it in theory, but he’s not giving you a very good option.”
“And that’s because he doesn’t think we’ll go through with it. That I’m just bluffing or don’t know the law or whatever.”
“Exactly,” he stated in a cheerful voice. “So I suggest that he keeps on thinking that, and I will file to have this settled in court, and I know that you’ll still get a fair shake before a judge, even if it’s not quite half. And your husband will have to fight long and hard to not give you that much.”
“Interesting,” she murmured. “You know that I never wanted half, right?”
“I know that, but you must have something to live off of. And you did a lot to aid your husband’s business during your marriage. Plus, you were married for a long time. You assisted him in his business dealings for fourteen years.”