Chapter 11 One Step Forward

• His back was turned to me and he was looking out the window. I thanked the gods that I didn’t meet his eyes. I think right there I would have crumbled. But seeing his back, being reminded that all I would ever see is this man’s back made me angrier. It helped me look back down at the page and fight through the pain that now hammered in my heart.
• Reading over the first couple pages, I went back and started crossing out paragraphs. Fifteen million. They were offering me fifteen fucking million and part of me wanted to be a petty bitch and take them for all their pennies. I couldn’t, though. I couldn’t even take them for more than what I was thinking to help Elliot in the future. Reading through more of it, fifteen million wasn’t even all of it. They also added in a trust of five million, which I crossed out and put one million. That would cover all of Elliot’s college and then some if he wanted to invest in something for his future. Everything else though, I crossed out.
• I came to a fun clause to where I couldn’t tell anyone about our relationship and I crossed that out but amended it myself to say that we could not tell a member of the media; print, video, or otherwise. As much as he didn’t want news of our marriage getting out there, and I had no plans to put it out there, I would not be limited from telling my son about his father or if my son wanted to tell others. We would have that talk when he was old enough to question it, but I didn’t want to be bound by a contract to stay quiet.