Chapter 6 - The Mistress Deflects
Madison didn't stick around long.
A week into the nightmare, she realized David was no longer a wealthy, powerful partner. He was an unemployed, broke man living in a cheap motel in New Jersey with his mother and sister.
I arranged a meeting with her at a high-end coffee shop in Tribeca.
She walked in looking nervous, wearing a cheap hoodie and oversized sunglasses. When she sat across from me, she couldn't even meet my eyes.
"I didn't know," Madison whispered. "He told me you two were separated. He told me you were crazy and that he was just waiting for the papers to clear."
"Save it," I said, sliding an envelope across the table. "I don't care what he told you, Madison. You saw a shiny object and you tried to take it. But I'm not here to yell at you."
She looked at the envelope. "What is this?"
"It's a cashier's check for fifty thousand dollars," I said. "And an ironclad Non-Disclosure Agreement. You will never speak to the media about David. You will never post about him online. You will take this money, block his number, and disappear."
She opened the envelope, saw the zeroes, and gasped.
"Why are you paying me?" she asked.
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"Because I want him to have absolutely no one," I said, my voice dropping to a whisper. "I want him to wake up tomorrow and realize that every single person in his life was only there because my money paid them to be."
She signed the NDA without hesitation. David's prize didn't even wait for the ink to dry before she ran.
