quarantine in love • chris evans (bwwm)

fifty-seven

"Everything looks fine. It's more than fair and generous," Andi's attorney, Leslie, spoke into the phone.

It didn't take but a day for Chris's lawyer to draft a prenup and send it over to her people. And after acquiring a list of assets from both he and Andi, their lawyers began communicating going back and forth to secure an agreement as soon as possible.

"The biggest thing I see here that's not exactly 'standard' is the stipulation that if anything happens, separation or divorce, he will have to pay $300,000 in alimony for every year you were married, starting after year 3. So say you separate after 9 years, you'll be walking away with 2.7 million dollars."

Andi shook her head, although her attorney couldn't see. "Take that out. No alimony."

"I'm afraid his lawyer made it clear that it's non-negotiable."

"I'm not signing that. I don't want his money."

"Andrea," Leslie sighed, "there is absolutely nothing wrong with collecting alimony, especially if children are involved."

"I don't want his money," Andi repeated with an eye roll.

Though she wasn't surprised that Chris tried to sneak something like that into their prenuptial agreement without saying a word about it, she felt bewildered. She was confused as to why she would even need alimony considering the fact that she had enough money to support herself and her family and didn't understand why something like that would even be included in their prenup.

"Tell them to take it out of the agreement or I don't sign."

"I might be able to get it lowered a bit since you'll still walk away with the properties you acquire together as a married couple. This agreement designates they will be one hundred percent yours; he'd have no claim or ownership in them."

"I'd rather just sell and split the profits 50-50."

Leslie let out a frustrated breath. "You're killing me here."

"I don't understand how this agreement is fair for him?"

"The person you're marrying is eight times richer than you," she began. "He will be okay even if he loses 2 houses and a couple million dollars. It'd barely make a dent in his accounts, I can assure you of that. While your ten million dollar net worth is more than enough for any person to comfortably live on, you are entitled to some of his funds both during the marriage, and god forbid you divorce, but after the marriage as well."

"But-"

"It wouldn't be fair to you if he got to walk away with the 80 million dollars he had before the marriage on top of the millions he'll inevitably make during the marriage AND then a claim on every property you acquire together."

"It sounds fair to me."

"It sounds fair to you that after a divorce, the houses your children grew up in and loved will be forcibly sold, no matter how much they wanna stay, because mommy wanted to make things fair for their richer than life father?"

"I didn't think about that."

"I know," Leslie responded matter of factly. "It's my job to make sure you're protected. I'll ask to lower the amount from $300,000 to $100,000 a year. If not for you, for your future children."

"Okay."

"I'll get back to you as soon as it's ready to sign."

"Great, thanks Leslie," Andi mumbled into the phone before ending the call.

After almost a week of back and forth calling between her lawyer, Andi was growing tired of dealing with her. Because marriage had never occurred to her before Chris, she'd wrongly assumed the process of drafting a prenup would be quick and easy. However, she was wrong.