Gretchen looked around his small office as she waited. He didn’t seem overly impressive or even well established. She wondered what made her choose him to represent her in the divorce, or at all, for that matter. “Did I come to you by referral?”

“You were my aunt’s therapist.” He dropped a thin folder on the desktop. “She’s eighty-four and had surgery to repair some tendons in her hand.” He flipped open the folder and licked the tip of his index finger before filing through the pages. “Okay, Gretchen Mills.” He ran his fingertips down the page as he read. “Shared home that was purchased by your mother, one child, and a hefty savings account you wanted no one to know about.”

“Savings account?”

“Yeah. You didn’t ask for much, just for everything to be done as easily and as quickly as possible, while keeping your child’s best interests in mind.”

“Is that why I wanted full custody?”

“I urged you to fight for that.” His smile was too proud given the circumstances.

“You did? Why?”

“You were very upset after your ex-wife made a comment about taking your child with her if she chose to move away. I explained that your child—”

“Caleb.”

“Caleb would have more stability with you. I directed you to go for the custody clause, and then amend it as necessary as your ex-wife’s plans changed. We needed to beat her to the punch.”

“Beat her to the punch?” Gretchen sat back in disbelief. She and Jax had turned into an angry, tit-for-tat couple. She understood the rationale behind the lawyer’s suggestion, but she couldn’t apply it to the people she knew they really were. “That’s disgusting.”

“That’s exactly what you said the first time, but I kept it in the papers, figuring we would work it out if your ex had a bad reaction.” He placed his glasses down and sat back. “You hired me to make everything work out for the best, not to take emotions into account. And that’s what I did.”

“Did I seem sad? Like I didn’t really want any of this?”

“I’m not sure I follow.”

“Was I unhappy about divorcing my wife and using my child?” she said bluntly.

Mark nodded.

Gretchen closed her eyes. She took a calming breath to quell the faint throbbing between her eyes. “Cancel everything. We’re not getting divorced.” She got ready to leave, not really caring if Mark had any thoughts on the matter.

“I’ll save your file.”