# Chapter 7: The Favor That Wasn't Supposed to Mean Anything
Hello everyone, it's me again! How are you all doing today? I hope you've got your coffee poured and your heart ready, because we are diving back into the delicious, complicated world of our girl Hannah and the silver fox who just won't stay out of her orbit. Today I'm walking with you through Chapter 7 of "Seduced By My Ex's Divorce Attorney audiobook free," and let me tell you — this one sneaks up on you. It's quiet, it's seemingly ordinary, and yet it plants seeds that are absolutely going to bloom into something dangerous. So buckle up, my friends. Let's get into it.
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## The Office Debate: A Contract, a Cheerleader, and a Mama Bear
We open right where the tension lives — in Hannah's office, with the donut holes of doom sitting on her desk and her two best friends, Chelsea and Victoria, dissecting her situation like the world's most invested jury.
Chelsea tosses something onto the desk and admits she kind of agrees with the concern, but points out the obvious: Roarke Baldwin has gone to *great lengths* to win Hannah over. That's not nothing. That's a man who, when told "no," simply reached into his bag of connections and built an entirely new doorway.
But Hannah isn't buying the romance. She says it plainly: her bet is that he's still only really interested in sex. And here's where the scene gets delicious, because both friends reveal exactly who they are in this moment.
Victoria's lips dip. That's the concerned mama bear. Chelsea's lips tip *up* even more. That's the strategist.
Chelsea calls it a win-win. Hannah isn't looking for a long-term relationship or marriage, right? So what's the harm? But Hannah, ever the lawyer even when she's the client, sees the trap. She asks the question that haunts the whole chapter: does this mean he's going to win her over by the time this contract is fulfilled, and then what? She sleeps with him, and they both walk away?
What Hannah doesn't tell them — and what she *can't* admit out loud — is that she barely slept last night. She tossed and turned so much that poor Lucy, her faithful dog, eventually gave up and went to her dog bed on the floor. That detail broke my heart a little. Because Hannah is lying awake asking herself a brutal question: is she being paid for sex in some twisted way?
Chelsea, bless her, refuses to let Hannah spiral. She reminds her she doesn't *have* to sleep with him if she doesn't want to. Five favors. He's used one. Four left. She's got this. She plays the role of cheerleader perfectly, even while dusting powdered sugar off her own chest — the woman is living her "I eat what I want" era and honestly, we respect it.
And then Victoria delivers the line of the chapter. She tells Hannah to do as he says with one arm out. Don't let him get too close. She reminds Hannah that she was *cornered* — that the fact he's using his connections over her says everything about what kind of guy he is. Then comes the warning that hangs over this entire book like a storm cloud: *"Whatever you do, don't fall for him."*
Victoria's inner mama bear roars loud, and honey, she has every right to be scared, because we all know how this story goes.
Hannah, of course, insists she can handle herself. And Chelsea, ever the instigator, throws one last firecracker before she leaves: "Shame really, because I bet he knows his way around a woman's body. Foxes know how to hunt." She saunters off with her donut holes, leaving Hannah alone with the Chicago skyline and a question she can't answer — out of millions of people in this city, how does her path keep crossing Roarke Baldwin's?
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## A Phone Call That Cuts Deep
And then Hannah's phone buzzes. It's her dad. If you thought the Roarke situation was complicated, wait until you get a load of this conversation.
Her father calls her "pumpkin," asks about the foundation, and immediately starts poking at her choices — questioning why she's only having successful *women* speak at her female empowerment gala. He calls it "reverse discrimination." Hannah holds her ground. He chuckles and says he's always loved her bullheadedness and that he taught her how to act like a man.
And there it is. The whole tangled relationship in one sentence. Hannah's father loves her fiercely, but he never quite saw her as enough — not as a son, not as the heir he probably pictured. She corrects him: he taught her to be a strong *female*. He just laughs, like that's a cute joke. And Hannah, who spent years fighting these battles, has learned to stop. Some wars aren't worth the cost of your peace.
But then he pivots, and the real bomb drops.
He assumes she already knows. She doesn't. **Todd is engaged.**
He says it casually, like it's old news at the club — the announcement was all the buzz at dinner. Apparently the new fiancée is a nurse at the hospital. Todd took her to Tahiti, put a ring in a shell, wrote words in the sand. Elaborate. Romantic. Everything Hannah never got.
Hannah's pit of her stomach shouldn't feel like this. She shouldn't care. She signed those divorce papers with relief. But she can't stop the wave of nausea, because here's the thing that guts her — *she* got proposed to at the club on a Friday night fish fry. And now this man is flying his new woman to a tropical paradise... on Hannah's dime.
Her father tries to comfort her in his own clumsy way, insisting Todd is a jackass and his parents are dimwits, which honestly is the kind of unconditional loyalty that makes him endearing despite himself. But the real sting lies underneath: the prenup. Todd walked away with way more than he deserved, because Grandpa's old-school will left him a piece, and now the man who broke the marriage is using that money to romance his new bride.
Hannah grumbles that Todd wasn't that great a man, and her dad — the same dad who just told her to be a strong woman — cheerfully agrees and adds that if Todd had been *her* lawyer, she'd have been kissing his feet. Hannah refuses to accept that. She won't even accept the idea of ever changing her name again, because becoming a Crowley a second time was hard enough the first time.
And seriously — can we talk about how quietly devastating that detail is? When you go to change your name back, everyone smiles. They ask about the wedding, the proposal, the honeymoon. Then you tell them you're divorced, and their faces fall. They don't ask any other questions. Because what would they even ask? How long did it last? Whose fault was it?
Her dad delivers one last pep talk — reminding her that Uncle Harrison took five tries to find the right one, that next time they'll just tighten the prenup, that she shouldn't punish every man because Todd was after his chunk of gold. Then his golf buddies call his name, and he's gone.
Hannah leans against the glass and stares at the skyline. Todd's engaged. And despite everything — despite her relief, despite her anger — a tiny, ugly question lodges itself in her chest: *What makes her so special? More special than me?*
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## The Text Exchange That Changes Everything
And then, as if the universe heard her thinking about complicated men, her phone buzzes again.
**Roarke: Ready for favor number 2?**
Cue my eyebrows shooting to the ceiling. Hannah fires back, demanding to know how he got her cell number. He responds with that maddening confidence: *feel lucky I haven't used it until now.* And when she asks what the favor is, the answer completely throws her.
He has to go out of town this weekend. A family emergency. He needs someone to housesit.
Hannah, understandably, is floored. He's going to burn an entire favor — one of only five — to have her water plants and feed a fish? But no. It's not about plants. He has a kitten. A new kitten who's just getting comfortable. He asks if she's allergic.
And here's where I had to pause and clutch my chest, folks, because Hannah's inner monologue is *brutal*. She thinks: *Shit, say yes, Hannah. Say you'll go into anaphylactic shock.* She even starts typing the lie. Deletes it. Types it again. But for a reason unknown even to her, she can't hit send.
**Roarke: I'll take your silence as a no.**
She pushes back, calls it a boundary issue. He calmly asks whether she finds the request demeaning in some way. She fires back: *Aren't you afraid I'll snoop?* And his response sent a shiver through me:
**Roarke: Quite the opposite. I'm hoping you do.**
*Excuse me?* Who is this man? When she asks, he answers with pure, effortless charm: apparently her own employees have dubbed him the silver fox, but she can just call him Roarke. He even throws in a winky face. A *winky face*, from the divorce attorney who quietly dismantled her marriage.
He keeps probing — asking if she still keeps tabs on him. Asking whether she thinks she had him followed. Hannah doesn't answer, because part of her *wants* to say yes. This round-robin of deflection and innuendo is growing exhausting, and she knows it.
But then the actual negotiation. She has a dog and doesn't know if Lucy gets along with cats. He asks if it's a puppy, boy or girl, then proposes: bring the dog. If they don't get along, he'll give her a number to call for someone else. Deal?
She agrees. It's a simple favor. It doesn't require her to even be around him. And yet — and here's the sting — that thought shouldn't disappoint her as much as it does.
Ugh. *Hannah.* We see you, girl. We all see you.
He tells her he'll have a key dropped off, texts the address, and asks her to keep it confidential. Many people don't like him, and he'd rather they not know where he lives. There will be a note on the kitchen counter with directions.
And Hannah's thought as the chapter winds down cut me like a paper cut: *So professional, like he's going to use me as his servant instead of his sex slave. That thought shouldn't disappoint me as much as it does.*
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## The Revolving Door
The final scene of the chapter is pure, quiet comedy with a layer of something heavier underneath.
The taxi drops Hannah off in front of Roarke's address. She tugs on Lucy's leash — and Lucy's butt slides along the concrete. This is not the protective German Shepherd Hannah thought she was buying. She tugs again, and Lucy finally stands and prances across the pavement... until a man spins through the revolving door. Lucy's paws halt. She sits back down, all four paws gripping the sidewalk for dear life.
Hannah begs. Lucy doesn't budge.
So Hannah gets real with her. She tells the dog she doesn't want to go in there either, but they're doing it for the girls. Two days, and then they'll be back home. And she admits something to us that she probably wouldn't admit to Chelsea or Victoria — she figured bringing Lucy was a *strategic* move. If the dog chases the cat, it's an easy out. Favor number two, complete, no contact required.
But then a worse thought creeps in: what if she *can't* fulfill this favor, and he says it doesn't count?
She shakes herself out of it. *What are we, in high school? He can't bully me.*
She kneels down, her overnight bag sliding off her shoulder and smacking the sidewalk, and she looks Lucy in the eyes. She promises her that once they're through those revolving doors, it's just like home.
Lucy's head tips down.
Yeah. She's not going for it.
And that's where we leave them — a woman staring down a revolving door, a dog refusing to cross the threshold, and a man who keeps setting traps so elegantly they look like invitations. Favor number two hasn't even begun, and already Hannah is walking into a space he has *chosen* to let her into. His home. His kitten. His secrets. His note on the kitchen counter.
The fox isn't just hunting anymore. He's leaving the door unlocked.
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## Reader's Impressions & Star Rating
You know what I love about this chapter? It refuses to be loud. There's no dramatic confrontation, no storming out of a room, no explosive argument. Instead, it does something far more dangerous — it gets *quiet*. It lets the poison settle in.
The Todd engagement reveal hit me harder than I expected. Because it isn't really about Todd. It's about the fact that Hannah is still measuring herself against a woman she's never met, asking herself, *what makes her so special?* That's the kind of wound no prenup can protect you from. The comparison game is a rigged game, and seeing Hannah get blindsided by news her ex has been moving on while she's still putting the pieces back together — it felt painfully real.
And then Roarke. Oh, Roarke. The man has weaponized ambiguity. He asked for a favor that isn't remotely sexual, which is exactly why it's so disarming. He's given Hannah something she wants without her having to name it — access to him without the pretense of a romantic setup. And that line, *I'm hoping you do* (when she asked if he was afraid she'd snoop)? That was a door being deliberately left open. He *wants* to be known. He *wants* to be found out. That's a chess move if ever I've seen one.
I also have to shout out the friends. Chelsea's powdered-sugar-covered chaos and Victoria's protective roar give the chapter a warmth and a lightness that offsets the emotional gut punches. And the dad? Complicated, flawed, lovable, frustrating — a man who taught his daughter to be strong but can't quite see how much of that strength came from surviving *him*.
This chapter builds so much without ever announcing what it's building. That's skilled writing.
**⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4.8 / 5 Stars**
The only thing holding it back from a perfect score is that I wanted just a *little* more of the emotional fallout from the engagement news — but honestly, the restraint is what makes it linger. Sometimes the wound that doesn't get a big scene is the one that stays with you longest.
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## Next Chapter Prediction
Alright, time for my favorite part — guessing what's coming next. And I have thoughts.
Hannah is *clearly* going to spend the weekend in Roarke's house, Lucy's stubbornness notwithstanding. Once she gets through that revolving door, she's going to step into his world — his books, his space, his routine, and a kitten that's probably going to immediately adopt her. And I'd bet my last dollar that she snoops. He *invited* her to snoop, which means there's a reason. Something in that house is designed to be discovered — something that reframes how Hannah sees him.
I also think Roarke's "family emergency" is going to matter. Is it real? Is it a setup? What kind of man hides his address from the world while deliberately handing the key to the one woman who's supposed to be off-limits? I predict we get a glimpse of whatever Roarke is running from — a family history, an old wound, an enemy — and Hannah suddenly realizes the silver fox has shadows of his own. The sexual tension is going to spike the moment he comes home and finds her elbow-deep in his life. And Victoria's warning — *don't fall for him* — is going to echo louder than ever, because by the end of next chapter, falling is going to look a whole lot easier.
Buckle up, friends. The revolving doors are just the beginning.
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