“I wanted Aston to make a life for himself, and Milly wanted you to be happy. But neither of you did that. After he ended things with you, he thought you’d wait for him. He’d planned to convince his dad you were the only choice for him. But you married Seth and pushed out two babies, so Aston married Cass. His stepmom picked her, and he agreed to it.”
Stunned, I dropped into the chair. My lungs hurt from trying to breathe. “I didn’t know. He was so mean, leaving me like he did, just waiting. Nothing but a phone call telling me he’d moved on like his dad wanted him to.”
“When you showed up at our wedding, pregnant for a second time, he went crazy. He spent a week drinking and destroying everything in his path. The next month, he took Cass to Vegas and married her.”
“We always wanted to get married in Vegas,” I whispered to myself.
“In less than two years, you made a life. He had nothing, so he grabbed what was available. Except the fucker was never happy and worked all the time. He couldn’t hire enough people to be with the kids, and Cass drank all the time. It was a clusterfuck.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We had an arrangement, or did you forget? We didn’t talk about Aston, and he and I didn’t talk about you.”
“Seems like that didn’t really work out. Did he ever ask about me?”
Mike shook his head, his brow furrowed, and closed his eyes.
“What? What are you not telling me? How does he know so much then?”
Rather than answer, Mike kept shaking his head.
“Tell me.” I sat forward again, my head cocked to the side as I watched him.
“He didn’t have to ask. He kept tabs on you.”
“What? How? That’s nuts. I wasn’t his to keep tabs on.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” Mike raised an eyebrow at me and waited for me to clue into what he meant. When I squinted at him in confusion, he explained. “Aston had a private investigator on you, so he pretty much knew everything. When you split from Seth. All the fights. The money issues. Piper’s appendix ... and the hospital stay afterward.”
“No, not Piper,” I whispered to myself, shaking my head. “No, no, no.”
“He’d stayed away from the kids until that incident,” Mike said, trying to calm me.
“I have to go. Tell Milly the wine’s all hers.”
“Bexley, don’t do anything stupid. Stay the night. You’re a long way from home.”
I didn’t answer, just hightailed it out of there, much like Aston had left my house.
A half hour later, I ended up in some motel outside of Tahoe near the highway, and I didn’t even have my box of wine to keep me company.
When I arrived home the next morning and saw Aston sitting on my front step, I was so conflicted.
I wanted to run to him.
At the same time, I wanted to run far, far away.
As soon as I got out of my car, he was at my side.
“You okay?”
Ignoring his question, I held up a hand. “Don’t get too close. I stink.”
He surveyed me, his gaze taking me in from head to toe. “Where have you been?”
“I went to see Mike.”
“Last night?”
