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Hans had done a lot of reprehensible shit over the course of their twenty year marriage.
But Geralyn had to admit, this took the cake.
Sure there was another reason for the hostile takeover, but even by the standards the woman had set up for Hans this was an overreaction.
Sitting alone in the office, Geralyn was forced to consider her past with the handsome, but obviously amoral, man.
They had met when she was nineteen and eloped the next year just shy of her twentieth birthday, madly in love.
How different the world had been back then. They met through a mutual friend in Munich and for the young, green eyed girl it had been love at first sight; if one believed in such a thing, and at this point in her life, she did not.
And how handsome he was, with dark eyes and a carefully groomed appearance at all times. Only a month older than she, he swept her up with his charm and only a year later they married.
There had been no formal ceremony but she wore a modest white dress to the courthouse and had her cousin act as both the witness and the bridesmaid while Hans's brother, Simon, was the best man.
Geralyn's parents found out from a postcard from Berlin; despite their only daughter being of legal age, they still weren't happy.
The first few years were Heaven, but five years in Geralyn noticed a strange side of Hans began to rear its ugly head.
He became jealous and possessive, not to mention a complete control freak. It was then she realized the Hans always looked well-tended and groomed not because he enjoyed looking nice, but because he was an utter perfectionist.
He also began to run with a bad crowd, the West German Volksfrei Movement, a terrorist group that protested, via radical and often violent means, the vices of greed and corruption that plagued international corporations.
How many times, she wondered, had she gotten a phone call in the middle of the night from a police station in the middle of nowhere or in a major city saying her husband had been "involved" in a disturbance?
Still, even with his neurotic possessiveness and less then savory affiliations, Geralyn loved him and he her.
It was only later in life, when the woman realized that she wanted to do more than sit around with a degree she might never use, that a rift began to form.
It started just after she got a job with a German bank, and she was to be sent on a business trip to Paris with the regional manager.
Hans was furious and at first forbade her to go, convinced that it would end with Geralyn in the embrace of another man. Namely the Regional Manager.
She went anyway.
In Hans's view, every set of eyes belonging to a man were immediately trained on his pretty wife. And this made him both very proud, and insanely jealous, even to the point of going off on his own brother for making a passing comment about Geralyn right before their elopement.
But not all the problems in the marriage were Hans's fault, Geralyn had to admit that quite a few issues came from her end as well.
She was a naturally restless person, constantly on the move and doing something. If given the means and the time, she would find herself jet setting all over the world.
And she also could be very cold and excessively frigid if the mood struck her, a trait Hans discovered in the beginning and didn't mind so much until he joined the Volksfrei movement and found her…less than sympathetic to their goals.
Even going so far as to allow him to rot in a jail cell over night after some particular nastiness and refuse to pick him up from the court house after being released.
When he arrived home tired, sore, and pissed off the next afternoon, he found her sitting in the living room drinking a cup of tea and reading a book in her nightgown, curled up on the couch.
"Hello Darling." She said slyly, glancing up only slightly when he slammed the door loudly and trudged in wearing a rumpled suit and purple bags under his eyes. "Where were you all night?"
That little comment set off the argument of the century, if they had neighbors then surely the police would have been called.
But thankfully, despite all the problems the two had, violence had never been one of them.
Twenty years of marriage and not a single hand had ever been raised against the other.
Cabinet doors, bedroom walls, and glass mirrors maybe.
But never each other.
Reaching forward slightly, Geralyn picked up the copy of the divorce papers once more and scanned them just as she had in the Lawyer's office.
She had acquired enough money in the past years to live on her own without any need for alimony, no children meant no child support or custody battle. And everything not in her apartment outside of a few personal items she would willingly let him have.
She was asking nothing of him, save a signature.
Well, that and the discontinuation of what had started out as seemingly the perfect romance.
It was only when she got away from Hans that she realized what he was, when they were together she wore rose tinted glasses.
He could be sweet, loving, and even kind. He had always made sure that she was happy.
But when she took a step back she understood just how hypocritical he had become, and winced at how he reveled in needless mayhem and violence.
And perhaps if Hans cared to take a few steps back himself he would see a different picture as well.
Before she could think anymore the door to the office opened and closed once more and Geralyn looked up to see Hans enter, looking more than a little miffed.
"Problem?"
He eyed her and frowned at her half mocking tone but refused to let her burrow under his skin. "All under control, Pet." He assured her with a gleam.
"Hans? May I ask you something?" She crossed one leg over the other and spoke in a business like tone, as if conducting a deal.
"Of course."
"How do I seem to you?"
Hans blink and shrugged. "Meaning?"
"Have I changed since we last saw each other? Do I seem different to you?"
Hans leaned back and looked her up and down, critiquing every inch of her before glancing to her eyes again. "Yes, you have changed." He stated blandly.
"How?"
Hans thought on the question and set the radio of the counter, "You're much harsher than I recall for one, however you're almost much bolder as well."
A two faced compliment, how well she knew them.
"And yet you love me still?"
Hans glanced at the radio, fiddling with it absentmindedly before smiling a little sheepishly. "Absolutely, I do. As much as you might hate it."
For a moment she almost believed him and folded up the paperwork, setting it on the desk.
"And what about me?" Hans prompted her, "Has your darling husband changed so much that it warrants annulment?"
Geralyn looked away from him, staring slightly behind him and to the side. She didn't want to hurt him, but she couldn't lie either.
"It's not the changes I object to." She murmured, "It's what I see know that I didn't see before."
"And what do you see?"
She regarded back to him, green eyes now hard as the jade they resembled, "Twenty years ago, if I were to make a list of a million impossible things that could never in a billion years happen…You being ejected from a terrorist organization then preforming a violent hostile takeover at my work on Christmas Eve, murdering my boss, and holding half my employees hostage for 640 million dollars…would have been right at the very top."
She quirked her lips into a small, acrimonious smile. "I would have been wrong, wouldn't I?"
Hans listened her with a blank, unreadable expression until she finished. Thinning his lips into a line he swallowed every mean spirited thing he wanted to say and sat up straight.
"I'm sorry, was that a question?" He inquired, "If you would have made a list of a million impossible things, then yes…in this case you would have been wrong."
"Well?"
Hans sighed and looked around. "I guess I just don't know when to quit, do I?"
Suddenly frustrated by this bantering Geralyn snarled a little and scowled at him. "Why are you here, Hans?"
Once again entertained by her agitation Hans smirked, taking in her taunt face and flashing, narrow eyes "Must you look so cross?" he teased. "I've come to say I want your love again, but I can't say it to a face like that."
"Don't say it at all, and just sign the damn papers." She hissed and Hans grimaced once more, disenchanted at the lack of progress he was making.
"I told you I have no intention of signing them." He reminded her coldly.
"Then I'll go through with it without you."
"Can't" Hans simpered, "you need legal evidence I even got the papers in the first place. Until then the entire proceeding is at a standstill."
She gawked at him, a mixture of angry, disappointment, and scorching hatred whirling in her eyes like deadly whirlpool.
He was absolutely correct, she hadn't used an official service to serve him the papers, so there was no documentation that he ever got them.
And the proceedings couldn't go on until she had evidence he viewed the papers, or his signature.
God Fucking Dammit.
Overwrought with vehemence she shot to her feet and dug in her pocket furiously. "Here!"
"What are you doing?" Hans queried, watching her curiously and flinching slightly in surprise as she flung something at him and heard it bounce off the desk with a metallic ping.
"You're so eager to get those millions, consider this a down payment!" She barked at him and made for the door, making him spring to his feet.
"Where are you going?"
"To my office and away from you!" She shouted, not truly caring who heard her and calling the attention of the armed guard who jumped a little when she yanked open the door and the hostages who took a sudden interest in the commotion.
Hans darted after her as she stalked halfway down the hall but froze when she heard the machine gun being cocked and sighed before spinning around to find the guard aiming the rifle directly at her torso.
With irritated poise she opened her arms expectantly. "Go ahead, shoot, save me the trouble of the divorce proceedings."
The guard was taken aback by her seemingly fearless confidence and looked at Hans for authorization to take the shot. But instead the leader of the group stared at the platinum haired woman with a mix of emotions before shaking his head silently.
Turning once more, Geralyn blew down the hall and entered her office quickly; slamming the door spitefully as she did so.
Hans reentered the office and sat at the desk with his head in his hands.
He didn't know who was more vexing, this unknowing party crasher or his darling wife.
Heaving a deep breath he frowned as a metallic glint caught his eye from the ground and he bent down to pick up a small ring of gold which had landed slightly under the desk.
Turning the symbol over in his fingers he growled and slammed his fist down on the table
Fuck.