Her face reddened and the muscles in her jaw tightened. “You’re not getting away with this. You won’t leave me to be a single mother while you parade around with that bitch you claim to be your wife.”
Tricia’s eyes went wide when I got in her face. I didn’t touch her, but the scowl on my face gave away my emotion.
“I warned you about disrespecting my wife once. I will fuck up your entire world if you do it again.” I moved back because being too close to her started to cause my stomach to turn.
She disgusted me.
“That isn’t my baby.”
She narrowed her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. “Are you willing to put your career on the line to prove it?”
This chick didn’t know when to quit. “You’re threatening me? Is that what the fuck you’re doing right now?”
I didn’t know if it was the force of my voice or the scornful look on my face that made her back up a few steps. Either way, I knew fear when I saw it in her eyes.
“This is your baby, Ace. And I can prove it. I won’t let you sweep me under the rug like I’m a whore.”
“Your choice of words, not mine.”
She had the nerve to look insulted.
“Stay the hell away from me. And do yourself and that baby a favor and go figure out who the real father is. You won’t fucking like it if you keep this bullshit lie up. I promise you that.”
I glared at her a final time before spinning around and making a beeline for my motorcycle. I was angrier than I had been in a long time. Instead of heading to the ice cream parlor or the urgent care where Savannah worked, I headed home.
There was a punching bag down in my basement with my name on it.
CHAPTER18
Savannah
I glanced at my wristwatch, noting I only had thirty minutes until the end of my shift here at Brightside. It was over two weeks since Ace had returned from training out west. Though his schedule at times felt all over the place, having him around more was a special comfort.
Every night we could, we had dinner at home. All three of us. That night, I’d planned to make a pot roast, which was why I was anxious to get off work. Aiden was going over to a friend’s house after school, and Ace planned to pick him up on his way home from the base.
The ease at which we slipped into a family unit frightened the hell out of me at times. Would Aiden hate me when it ended? Hell, would my heart break wide open, like it had last time?
As much as I didn’t want to slip into wishful thinking that, for once in my life, I would get the happily ever after I’d wanted so badly, the hope was still there, taunting me.
I didn’t know where it happened, but I’d fallen in love with my husband again. Or maybe the truth was that I’d never stopped loving him. The years and separation had only masked it, making me believe I’d quit. But that wasn’t true.
“He’s leaving soon,” I muttered to myself as I walked down the hall toward the head doctor’s office. I forced myself to remember that Ace had orders to go abroad in less than two months. He would be in Germany, halfway around the world, and he hadn’t asked for us to go with him.
Why would he? You’re asking for a divorce, remember?
My belly sank at that reminder. I needed this divorce, but I started to realize that I didn’t want it.
I brushed those thoughts aside and knocked on the open office door. “Hey, Dr. Pierce, you wanted to see me?”
She smiled as she waved me inside. “Yeah, Gwen and I were going over the numbers for the urgent care buy-in.”
A week earlier, I’d met with the two owners of Brightside to discuss the possibility of becoming a third owner of the clinic. The buy-in amount was well into the six-figure range. And I would at least need to put down a portion in cash to get a decent business loan.
Yet another thing I wanted that was just out of my grasp. In a perfect world, I could use the money from my grandmother’s estate to put toward the investment in Brightside, helping it to expand and aid more patients that couldn’t afford appropriate medical care.
“We reworked a couple of things, and Gwen thinks she could slash the buy-in amount by a hundred K or so.” She shrugged. “She’s the one with the MBA and knows all of that stuff.” She rolled her eyes. “I would marry the woman who's an overachiever, being a nurse practitioner and MBA grad.”
I gave her a weak smile that I hoped she overlooked. Even with the lowered amount, I didn’t have the funds needed.
