Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 59659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
“And who the hell is this?” she asked.
“His business partner,” I was able to force out. My heart was pounding in my chest. It felt like my throat was being clenched by an iron fist, but I had to ask the question that was burning in my mind. “And who are you?”
“I’m his wife.”
The words came out dripping in venom, and I felt it run through my veins as they sank in. His wife. His wife. Now I understood. I understood why he didn’t want to talk about why he’d left Maryland. He was married. Of course. It made so much sense.
I backed away, taking a few steps so that I was behind the arm of the couch. There was a clear path to the door now, but it went between them. I was working on the courage to take off through it.
“Ex-wife,” Victor said. “She’s my ex-wife, Melanie.”
“Oh, so is this some kind of fuck-buddy situation?” Sarah thundered. “Did I interrupt you getting your dick wet while you were screwing me over too? How’s that for a threesome, huh?”
“Just shut up, Sarah,” Victor said. “Your nasty mouth doesn’t hurt me anymore. I’m done with you. I have papers to prove it. Get out of my house.”
“Your house?” she shot back. “Seems like you’ve been paying for it with an account that still has me listed on it. Sounds a lot like this is my house too. And my God, Victor, what have you sunk to? A two-bedroom hovel in Murdock? You didn’t even go back to your parents’ house?”
“I don’t need to explain anything to you,” Victor said. “Get out.”
“Not until you tell me what you think you’re doing blowing my money on this store. And this whore.”
That was all I could take. Blowing past both of them and out of the door, I made a beeline for my car. I could hear Sarah laughing as I escaped. They were yelling with the door open as I reached my car.
“Jesus, Victor. What the hell are you doing?” Sarah asked.
“Leave Melanie out of this,” Victor said.
“Melanie?” she shouted. “Is that your little bitch-whore’s name? I didn’t think you had it in you anymore.”
“I always had it,” Victor shot back. “Just not for you. Not for a long time.”
Her voice rose as she began to argue back, but the sound was muffled now as I slammed the door of my car. I could see Victor look out at me and take a few steps out of the door, but I jammed the engine button and slammed on the gas. I glanced back only once in the rearview mirror, watching as he sank back into the house and got in Sarah’s face again. They were full-throated shouting at each other, and I was mortified.
Embarrassed and angry, I just wanted to drive. I wanted to drive until I ran out of gas. I wanted the hell away from Victor and the hell away from Murdock.
Emotion took over, and I pulled off to the side of the road and let the tears fall. Slamming my palm on the steering wheel a few times, I let out a cry of rage at the entire situation. At Sarah. At Victor. At myself. I’d let myself fall into this. I could have held off. I could have said no. But I did this.
Victor had led me into this situation. He had screwed me over in multiple ways now. He took my company from me. He built me up with false hope about how I could get it back. He’d made me believe we had something special between us when he was clearly still entangled with someone. Now he might have also gotten me entangled with her if what she said was true about her ownership of anything he bought with that money.
I cried and cried, deep sobs coming out as I sat there. It was traumatic, not just that Victor lied. It hurt, but it wasn’t shocking. It was how Sarah spoke to and about me. It was how Victor had led me into that and I’d walked so willingly toward it. I was so stupid.
Finally, the tears started to dry up, and I sat in stony silence for a while. I was so angry I could barely see straight, and the hurt was still there in my heart. I was done crying. I just wanted to go home.
My phone started ringing, and I realized I had shoved it into my pocket and not put it on the dock on the windshield. It was probably Victor, which meant I wasn’t going to answer it. I almost just left it in my pocket and let it ring, but I decided to pull it out anyway.
Looking at the screen, I saw that it was Amy calling instead. Momentarily, all my emotions paused in confusion. What could Amy want? It was early in the afternoon. She should be in the beginning of her shift going twelve to eight.