“Afternoons at the club. I’d chat up clients on the golf course while they’d play tennis. I was no absentee father”

IN

court, Rivi is hyperaware of every single gesture she makes. Every movement can imply defeat or anxiety, a blow for the other side or the potential for them to gain the upper hand. Every inflection of her voice might tell a story that she doesn’t want to share.

She feels the same way right now, sitting opposite Garrett Boyd in her office. She smooths her skirt, then worries it’ll look unprofessionally nervous. Did his old lawyers sit with easy confidence? Were they powerful men accustomed to being around powerful men, treating them like equals? Or were they obeisant and fawning, feeding Boyd’s ego to keep their jobs?

Stop, she tells herself. You haven’t even taken him on yet. If she lets herself be intimidated by a billionaire, then she’ll be no use to him, anyway. Boyd wanted her for her work, not for how steadily she holds eye contact.

“Did you have a positive relationship with your sons before this?” she says aloud. In her experience, families that go to court against each other are dysfunctional to begin with. And when a difficult relationship with a father is thrown in, the children wind up pitted against each other. Even Rivi herself had kept her distance from Gabe for years after—

But she isn’t thinking about her own life. It’s surprising that two sons, jockeying for the primary role in their father’s business, might unite and turn on him instead.

“Yes. Of course. I gave them everything they ever wanted.” Boyd sighs, leaning back against his chair. He seems perfectly comfortable, his woodgrain-brown cane resting on his knees and his shirt a little rumpled.

“I divorced their mother when the boys were young, and they moved in with me full-time within a year or two. And I was busy — of course, I was busy — but I made time for my boys.” His pale, keen eyes go fuzzy and distant. “Rides on the yacht on weekends. Island vacations. Afternoons at the club. I’d chat up clients on the golf course while they’d play tennis. I was no absentee father.”