Sneaky Lilly Bentle

Lilly Bentle looked at the scary prenuptial agreement in her hands and felt confident and anxious. She worried if she and her lawyer could pull it off yet felt confident that she was taking the right steps.

She walked over to the window and reflected on her peaceful surroundings. She had always loved southern Savannah with its pleasant southern facade hiding a rapidly flowing river of drama underneath. It was a place that encouraged her tendency to feel suspicious.

Then she saw something in the distance, or rather someone walking down the path, barely visible by the mounds of white snow. It was the figure of Reese George. Reese was her husband. He had a greedy streak that he hid well. He came

from money, not a lot of money, but enough to make him want more. He was handsome and had been one of the most eligible bachelors on town before marrying Lilly.

Lilly tensed. She wasn't expecting him. She glanced at her own reflection. She was a sneaky, slightly devious woman, in her thirties. She was a wine drinker with big blue eyes and pretty mouth. She preferred dark red wines. Her friends saw her as vulnerable and a bit naive, little girlish even, but a few suspected that she was also smart. Once, she had even protected an abused child from a powerful, manipulative parent without getting caught in the fall out. That was hard to pull off. Powerful people have a long reach and any connections they don’t already have, they can make with their money. Lilly was innocent enough not to be suspected of involvement. After all, many people said she looked like a little bunny rabbit. Like a bunny, she was vulnerable and innocent.

But not even a sneaky person who had once protected an abused child from a powerful abuser, was prepared for what Reese had in store today.

The snow flurries were like ocean waves of white, making Lilly relaxed. She was the type to love thunderstorms as long as she was safe inside, especially by a fireplace.

As Lilly stepped outside and Reese came closer, she could see the excited glint in his cunning eyes. The cold wind whipped around them. Reese tucked his coat tightly around him with a scarf wrapped around his neck. The heat inside the house whipped out the door quickly, Lilly held her sweater tightly to her body. She didn’t step aside to let him in.

"Look Lilly," purred Reese, with a glare that reminded Lilly of greedy bear. "It's not that I don't love you, Jenny and I are better suited to one another. You owe me our divorce settlement."

Lilly looked away, even more excited and still fingering the treacherous prenup agreement. "Reese, do you remember when our Pastor Paul told us, it doesn't count if you are already planning defeat," she asked. 

He grunted, hmmpf. "Sure," he waited. "What does that have to do

with anything?" 

"We agreed not to plan our defeat. Pastor Paul told me not to have a prenuptial agreement and since my lawyer refused to let me not have a prenup, Pastor Paul told me to be generous. You and I talked about not making you look bad by having you take a lot from me in a divorce, because it could make you look like less of a man." 

“And yet you were generous, half of your worth, right?”

They looked at each other cunningly, astutely, with anxious feelings, like two creepy, curly cats sneaking around each other. The bachelorette party had been a turning point for Lilly. With music playing, drinks flowing, she overheard things

from the girls who had too much to drink. They thought she was gullible not knowing about Reese and Jenny. The girls whispered to each other that Jenny was still after Reese and Reese had only chosen Lilly because she had money. 

Lilly studied Reese's cunning eyes and steely solid build. Eventually, she took a deep breath. "I have a copy of our prenup," explained Lilly. "You don't seem to be entitled to as much money as you think."

"No!" objected Reese. "You lie!"

"I do not!" retorted Lilly. "Look, here's a copy right here." Lilly stepped back as Reese came forward into the house and took the prenup from her hands. "What do you mean? This is not what I signed! How did you pull this off!?" Reese was no longer arrogant

and entitled, but angry.

Lilly might be gullible, but she isn't stupid. During the engagement party, she excused herself and called her lawyer who was not above a little trickery himself. During the panicked phone call, Lilly gushed out the details she heard the girls whispering. Her lawyer listened patiently and assured her he had her covered. They could meet up the next day, as the wedding wasn't

for two more days. Lilly wanted to go ahead with the wedding, not just because so much money had already been spent and she loved her dress, but she wasn't really sure she could trust what the girls were saying. She and Reese had married, but it came to pass about 1 year later that he wanted a divorce, and he was getting back with Jenny. 

Reese was enraged, his mind a tornado of confusion. "How could she pull this off," he wondered. 

Lilly could almost hear Reese's arrogance shatter into pieces. What Reese didn't know was that Lilly met with her lawyer the day after the bachelorette party where her lawyer showed her new pages of the prenup with Reese's signature and initials on them. In the new pages, Lilly kept all of own her money and Reese got none

of it. He kept his own money, and Lilly kept hers so Reese and Jenny would not benefit from the treachery of plotting the divorce before the marriage to Lilly even happened. Lilly’s lawyer was a dear friend, he had a few tricks up his sleeve and knew now to make signatures appear on pages. His granddaughter was the little girl Lilly helped rescue.

Reese, looking like a greedy, angry bear, glared viciously at Lilly, she momentarily feared for her life, but he turned in a slash and hurried away into the distance.

Not even a glass of wine would calm Lilly's nerves tonight.