Chapter 19

Misery Morning

They met at their favorite breakfast spot near the airport. Liam landed and Shane met him at the airport. The two of them drove to meet Karma who got there first and devoured a meal as quick as she humanly could since she was ravenous from her night before that involved zero percent food but 100 percent mmm.

Right after eating Karma moved to text Amy but stopped herself more than once.

Let her sleep, she scolded herself.

"Karma!" Shane said, catching her on probably her 5th attempt to quell the urge to bug Amy. Shane swooped into her space and greeted her lovingly as he usually did. Karma stood and gave him a hug.

"Hey," she said, squeezing him harder than usual and feeling as he did the same. Shane knew how hard this had all been for the lot of them.

"Karma," Liam said, feeling sheepish and idiotic. He wanted to apologize but how could he? He knew he'd fucked up too bad. Either he was away from her for months at a time or he was around her and acting like an unattached dick. Needlesstosay, he was definitely over himself.

Karma let him hug her but she didn't feel too great after their most recent verbal brawl. His body was familiar to her and she still somehow craved him but her heart had been broken completely, shattered, and stomped on. It was obvious now that he had realized the extent to his torture. No other knowledge could get him to flee the country. This was all a big change. Usually he just went to Vegas or Hawaii. England though? That one was fucking new.

"Okay," Shane said. "We all know this sucks so lets just do this."

They sat down and prepared to discuss.

Karma secretly wished that Lauren had come too. Lauren wasn't the best with sugarcoating things for people but Karma was sure that Lauren had her back in a crises. It was part of the reason she missed her at times just like these.

"Lauren and I did the honors of drawing up the paper-work," Shane said. "Liam wanted to make sure that you got at least 80% in all this."

"What?!" Karma asked, shocked.

Liam was looking off into space. He had his shades on and he was trying not to be too obvious about how sad he was. His biggest regret was not ending things a long time ago and sparing Karma years of feeling like she wasn't enough. It wasn't her fault. But it was hard for him to take blame or even confess his huge failings since they just felt SO undeniably huge when compared to hers.

"Liam…" Karma said. He needed to explain himself.

"I fucked up Karma. None of this was your fault," he said.

It was interesting to hear after all this time, and so simple like that like maybe he'd just realized or who knows been told what to say? Sadly, Liam's confession didn't make Karma feel better. But she knew at this point that there was no much he could do to go back. He couldn't press rewind and undo his own confusion or his own mess. Just like she couldn't press rewind and give herself a wake-up slap somewhere back in college to stop herself for living entirely for someone else.

What was this bullshit now? Why was Liam trying to give her all of his money? What was the point? He knew she didn't need it...

"I already have more money than I need," Karma said.

"Donate it then. Start your own charity, set up a commune, buy your parents a farm. Fund a pro-bono firm that only helps the hopeless and loses every time. Your parents would love that," He was seriously though, his tone wasn't sarcastic in the least. He actually wanted her to just take it and have a better life and fix as much as she could that he'd fucked up because holy fuck did he feel bad.

"Liam, come on," Karma said, feeling bad that he would even suggest this. "It's too much. I don't- I- I don't need it," she pushed. The last thing she wanted to accept was more pity money. She'd had enough of rich people trying to make up for things by paying for them. It's no wonder a person like Amy was so fucking refreshing. For a while, in the beginning of things, when Liam first started cheating and Karma had no clue about it at all, Liam had showered her with elaborate gifts to over compensate for his own guilt. She was ecstatic at first. It was a dream back then. She was getting all the things she thought she wanted.

But then the bomb hit one horrible afternoon and Karma found out about Liam's first secretary fling.

To Karma it was worse though because a fling implies a one-time thing and Liam was fucking her for the better part of two years on-and-off. As soon as she saw, it all began to add up. Liam was already moody then and distant, acting strange.

She was a fool.

An idiot.

He'd stay late and "work."

Karma just thought he needed more alone time than her to figure things out. She'd been at his side through school and mentored him, because she received better marks, so that actually made sense.

But then she walked in on them once. That pretty younger girl with her skirt up on his desk and him standing between her legs with his pants down around his knees and that look on his face that just meant he was caught.

She was such an idiot. Such a fool.

That was the first.

That hit the hardest.

The first tear in the fabric. The first nail to the glass.

After that she tried to forgive him but he was bad at being patient and moving on from his own messed-up deeds. He blamed her for finding out. And he hated himself but he hated her knowing more. At least, that's what it seemed like to her now that she'd had time to see it all in retrospect and try to make peace.

"I need you take it," Liam said. "I know it's stupid. I know it doesn't make sense. It's not some pity money I just don't want it and I hate having it and I'd rather give it to you than some random asshole on the street."

"But, what does this all mean?" Karma asked. Karma was three steps ahead of him, she always was. He wouldn't do this unless he was planning something big.

Shane took a deep breath in and tried to prepare her for this.

"What?!" Karma asked. She was pissed that they weren't telling her things. She was always the last to know. She did all the work was always the last to fucking know where they were headed with things and what they were doing.

"Liam wants to quit law," Shane said.

There was no easy way to put it.

"Are you FUCKING kidding me?!" Karma nearly screamed.

A few heads turned around them but luckily it was loud enough anyway in the restaurant so a swear word being uttered in a somewhat LIVID tone was still sort of buried amongst the clinking glasses and the laughter and the loud talk.

"He doesn't like it," Shane said. "He's never liked it." His parents wanted it. He never did.

"Oh, what? And I have?!" Karma was so pissed she could just start throwing shit.

"Karma-" Liam tried to check her. But he stopped himself and bit his lip instead. He had no right.

"No way." She said. "You do not get to quit and leave me here. You and me can be done. We can get a divorce. But you cannot leave me with your fucking firm Liam Booker. You made me this. This is your shit, not mine."

"I did nothing," Liam lied. "I never told you to be a lawyer."

"LIAR!" Karma yelled, slamming her fist down on the counter and feeling a wave of rage that honestly scared her once it had passed over her like a violent cloud.

"Karma," Shane warned in his sing-song voice.

Karma suddenly understood why they were meeting in public rather than just meeting at the mansion or at home. Liam wanted for her to NOT be able to make a scene. Liam wanted to just drop some bomb and drive off.

"If you leave I'm folding the firm," Karma said simply. She was done arguing with children and playing their game when she could easily just be the adult in the room. It was done. If he was going to act like a kid and throw another unnecessary fucking wrench into her well-oiled life she wouldn't have it this time. No fucking way. This was his name. This was her name. This was Shane's name. They were all in it or it was done. She'd decided it for them all. No more Karma does everything. A partnership would have to be a partnership or it just wouldn't be.

"What?" Shane asked.

"I'm sick of doing all the work. I'm sick of it," Karma had more than decided. All she could think about was what Lauren would suggest to her in private if the two of them were alone. This would be it. Lauren would not be used like this and Karma was done with it. She wasn't going to carry all the balls and make all the goals for a team that rarely showed effort. If they wanted to win they'd all have to play again. She had nothing to lose. She was getting Liams money, he'd be sure of that still, and she had NOTHING to lose.

"If you announce that you're leaving, I'm done," she said. "I'm leaving too."

"You guys, come on," Shane said nervously. "You can't both leave."

"I did this for him," Karma spat, speaking to Shane but pointing to Liam. "And he did ask me. He begged. We were just dating in college and he begged me because it was hard and he hated it and I suggested that maybe I could and he wanted me to do it so he begged."

Liam tried not to react. He had begged. But he had also forgot until reminded.

"Karma…" He said. "Fuck!" He growled. "What do you want me to say?! I'm a fucking idiot okay?!" He was so frustrated. "Do you think I feel happy about fucking up your life and wasting your time? I wanted to make you happy. I wanted you to love me."

"You did," she said. "And I did," she pushed. To her it wasn't a waste of time. She loved him. She did what she thought was right. What hurt her the most was that she knew she'd do it over again, she was too stupid to not be in love with him.

Her love couldn't save him from feeling worthless. It just couldn't. He had to do that himself and he was bad at it. He ignored it. He pushed it onto other people and blamed them. He was realizing it AGAIN. That's what it was about. That's what all of it was about.

"We just…"

"We don't work, I know," she said, tears tumbling out of her eyes.

This conversation was so overdue.

Karma wanted to be partners still.

She didn't want to be in love with him but she wanted to be partners. Maybe in a year or two she'd want something else but right now they were doing so good for each other success-wise, they were setting themselves off for good lives no matter what they'd ruined in one another on accident.

"We built this together, Liam," she tried to stop weeping. It was embarrassing and annoying and she hated it. "It's a good firm."

"We can lease it out? Keep the name, become distant advisors?" He was still trying to bargain on something she wouldn't move on now that she was set. His biggest mistake with Karma was the lies. He'd stopped being her friend. All she ever wanted was for him to always be her friend. That was it.

It took him a while to get there, but Liam finally realized that now.

"What about Shane?" Karma laughed without meaning to and Liam did too. Liam took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. He'd been crying too. How could he forget how simple it used to be?

Shane was like their kid somehow. It was a joke. A good one. Karma was funny. Liam missed how funny she was.

"I'll do whatever you want to do," Liam said, at a complete loss with himself.

"Then stay," she urged. "At least for a little while…" She wasn't ready to say goodbye to the firm. It'd be wrong to end it like this. If they left each other like this they'd never get to a place where they could be comfortable around each other again. She didn't want to be strangers after all they'd been through. "You're a good lawyer when you wanna be," she joked.

"Not as good as you," he reminded.

He even blushed. It'd been ages since he'd smiled at her and said something kind.

FUCK. She heard herself scream in her head.

"K, well. I gotta get outta here," Karma said, standing quickly and making herself scarce. She'd connected with Liam again and for once that did not involve anger.

She rushed out to her car, placed herself inside and cried terribly hard.

How strange that it actually took Liam being nice again to fucking break her?