I turned my attention back to Samuel-the player-Tucker. “I don’t need to be thankful that some walking petri dish finds me undesirable,” I fired back. “As I already made clear to both supposed lawyers present, this isn’t something I have to do. I’m perfectly fine being a lonely, spinster, cat lady who leads a double life as a crazy-cool author of dark fantasy, mommy porn. I do not need you or your approval, and quite frankly, said approval, coming from you, would be worthless. When everyone, and I do mean everyone who doesn’t want to use you for your supposed wealth, thinks you’re a piece of shit human, why would I care to be seen on your arm?”

His jaw might as well have been parked on the table. I wasn’t sure what part of my little speech shocked him more, but I knew what caused the sparkle in his friend’s eyes. “You write porn?”

I rolled my eyes at him and then noted my father’s embarrassed red hue. “Sorry Dad, I know that was a bit over the top, and honestly, I tried to do this thing for you and the business.” I glanced around at all the men in the room who were just staring at me. “But really,” I pointed at Sammy-the-playboy again, “that’s what you gave me to work with, and I won’t look like the idiot woman who has zero standards about the man she’s with. I just can’t do it. Besides, what if my fans realized who I was married to and saw the shit I put up with? It would kill my credibility.”

Granted, I had no fans, because I had yet to publish, but in my hypothetical world where I actually sold the book that I was working on one day, it might matter. The men in this room did not need to know that though. So, I moved closer to the door, ready to make my escape before the elder Mr. Tucker called out to me. When I turned around, he was giving his son a death glare.

“Mina, I understand your concerns. What can we do to convince you to go through with this?”

I laughed. He had to be joking, right? “Seriously? No offense, Mr. Tucker, but there doesn’t appear to be any fixing your son’s shitastic personality. I think it’s better this way. Maybe you can sucker some other girl into an arranged marriage with,” I glanced at Samuel again and cringed, “that.” My whole hand moved forward and swiped the air in the general direction of his son, as if I could wipe it clean.

“Who the hell are you to judge me?” Samuel asked, finally looking angry as he rose to his feet. While he wore a suit, it was completely disheveled and looked like something he’d picked up off whatever hotel room floor he’d landed in the night before.

I smiled at him and then moved closer to the table, across from where he stood. I took the iPad I brought with me back out of my bag and slapped it onto the table, none too carefully. I would hate myself for that bit of carelessness later. Then, quietly, while the men in the room watched, I pulled up all the pictures I’d saved for just this occasion, including the ones that were removed from Insta for their inappropriate nature. Then, I maximized the first one to fit the entire screen and started flipping through them one by one. I went slowly too, so that each of the men, whose eyes were glued to the screen, could see every little detail of his debauchery.