That a company had finally shown interest in investing in his firm after all he had been through was the silver lining to him.
The phone chimed once again, and he groaned and sighed in frustration as he slowly looked up from the files before him and unlocked his phone.
'Hey, Max. Did you forget my deposit?' The two messages read, and Max squinted as he read them once again.
'Who the hell is this?' He wondered.
At first, he thought it was his lawyer, but he remembered he had fully paid for the services and the only thing left for his freedom was for Victoria to sign the divorce papers.
'Who are you?' He sent a quick message, and for a while, he could see the other person typing.
'Ben Chaver,' the response came back, and Max's phone almost fell from his hands.
Ben Chaver! Wasn't the man in police custody for kidnapping? How was it possible that he was texting Max?
"To hell with your lame ass texts," Max sent a message, sure that the sender was playing games with him.
"You've got twenty-four hours. Leave the first installment at the warehouse, whose address I will send shortly," the next message read, and Max instantly sensed danger.
He made a quick call to Simeon and was informed that they had let Ben out on bail.
"How dare you? What if he kidnaps Travis again or someone else's child?"
"He wouldn't do such a thing. He is on the police radar."
"He did it before."
"For the money, plus he isn't the one you should be worried about."
"I promised him money in exchange for my freedom, and he just sent me a message claiming the same. You need to apprehend that man and let him rot in jail," Max said on hot breath, too furious that the police were treating the case so lightly.
" Just because he did something wrong once doesn't make him guilty all the time. To humans is err. If he tries anything harmful, let us know, but for now, you have nothing to worry about," Simeon said before hurriedly disconnecting the phone to handle another case.
"Son of a b*tch!" Max cursed.
For the next twenty minutes, he tried concentrating back on his work, but he had a bad nagging feeling about Ben that wouldn't just go away even after making sure Travis was okay.
Perhaps it's because he still couldn't do away with his hatred for Ben after finding out he had tried to kill Travis slowly by poisoning his food. But, the man had vehemently denied knowing anything about that.
"I don't know, I swear on my mother's grave. I used to bring in the food from my boss' place and just give it to the boy. I didn't know what he was doing or why. I was just interested in little cash," Ben had defended himself.
'If you try coming close to my son or me, I'll kill you with my bare hands,' he cursed as bile slowly rose within him. For a moment, he had almost believed that Ben was innocent, but he now couldn't help but think that Ben had just released them so that Travis doesn't die in his hands.
His office line rang, and Zarinah was on the other line, telling him that a lawyer was in to see him.
"Let him in,' he said though he knew he was already in a sour mood and that perhaps, knowing Victoria had signed the papers, would lift his spirits up.
"Mr.Ryder. Come on in," Max said as he extended his hand for a handshake.
"Thank you, Max. I passed by your wife's lawyer a few minutes ago. She hasn't signed the papers yet," Ryder said as he looked Max in the eyes, and Max sighed heavily and deeply.
"She doesn't look like she will sign them," he pointed out in a low voice, and Ryder nodded in agreement.
"What options do I have?" Max asked desperately, and Ryder looked at him with compassion. He was a divorce lawyer, but nothing broke his heart like handling divorce cases. If it were up to him, he would talk to people against divorce, but it's also how he got his daily bread.
"I don't want to take the court way. That will air dirty linen in public. It will make the kids hate me more than they already do, and I can't stand it. But I also can't stay in this scam I call marriage anymore," Max asked desperately, and for a while, Ryder looked at him, feeling compassionate and sorry for him.
"Just talk her into it. You can offer to pay high alimony. Just tell her something that will make her bulge," Ryder said, and Max's mouth fell wide open as he looked at Ryder in shock.