Total pages in book: 52
Estimated words: 47819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
I think I’m going to throw up. Apparently I wasn’t quite good at hiding my inner thoughts because his smirk changed to chagrin. “So, let’s talk about this guy you think you’re going to marry. This is my town. I have a certain reputation and standing here as you know. I don’t think it would look very good to have my wife and kid living with some stranger now do you?”
That’s it. “Were you always an asshole? How did I miss that all these years?” Instead of fear I felt anger, but not the old anger of betrayal. This anger stemmed more from the fact that I was now realizing how much of my life I had wasted on someone like him.
I would never regret giving birth to my daughter, but everything else about our union seemed so farcical now. If I were the fighting type I would really give him a piece of my mind, but even now my only thought was for Alana and what it would mean to her if I didn’t at least try to get along with this jackass.
“I don’t think you want to talk to me like that, remember I still hold the upper hand when it comes to our daughter and there’s nothing stopping me from going for custody.”
I got that old burn in my tummy. He’d used this same argument when he threatened me not to contest the divorce. It was true that because I’d sacrificed going for any kind of career after college that I didn’t really have much of a financial foot to stand on.
Most of the town thought I’d been lucky to land the town’s golden boy in the first place, and no one ever saw any wrong in him as far as I could remember. So he’s kept me hostage with threats of taking my child.
I swallowed hard as I felt the sick taste of defeat creep in. “Why are you doing this? Didn’t you get what you wanted?” He took a step closer; I guess he scented victory because the look on his face said he’d already won. I wish like hell I could wipe it off his face once and for all, but I had to think, couldn’t make any rash decisions here.
I was pretty sure there was no way I was gonna leave Dane, or more like he wasn’t ever gonna let that happen, but when it came to Alana there wasn’t much I wasn’t willing to give up. There has to be some way to get out of this mess.
“Joanne is...” He shrugged his shoulder as he came to a stop in front of me. When he trialed his finger down my cheek I actually had to fight back the sick in my throat. Was he insane?
“I still miss you sometimes.” I pulled myself away from his touch and called myself ten kinds of fool for even being here.
“Mark quit it. There’s nothing there, you’ve moved on and so have I.”
“Not with that Dane character you haven’t. Did you really think I’d let you move on with someone like him? Move into a better neighborhood than mine? How would that look? yeah I heard about your little house shopping, but that’s never gonna happen. Why don’t you go for that Trevor guy, he’s always had the hots for you I think.”
That’s when I knew my ex-husband was either sick in the head, or extremely delusional. Trevor was one of those player types who lived off of everyone he could get away with schmoozing.
I checked my watch and saw that way more time had passed than I’d expected. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I knew that my days of cowering from this one were at an end.
“Look I have to go, this was pointless.” I turned to head back to my car but he stopped me. “I’m not playing around with this, there’s no way you’re moving on with that guy. I suggest when you get back to the house that I’m paying for you call him up and break things off or I’ll have you served with papers tomorrow.”
I slammed into my car, a mixture of fear and anger churning away in my stomach. Did most women go through this mess after a divorce? He was the one to leave, why should he have any say in what I do with my life now?
“Crap, please let Dane be late coming over.” Somehow I wasn’t sure I was going to be that lucky.
Chapter 19
DANE
I did my usual routine of slipping through the hedge beneath her window and climbing in, but she wasn’t there. “Where the fuck?”
I stopped and listened. The house was quiet, too quiet. There was no one breathing here except me.
I felt my heart kick before I controlled that shit and eased my way out of her room and down the hall to Alana’s room. There’s no way my enemy slipped by me to get to them. Her tracker said she was here, but there was no sign of her.