“I’ll talk to her,” he acquiesced.
“Thank you, but I don’t want to come and visit you while she’s there. Rachel makes me feel nervous and uncomfortable, and I can’t relax at your house. Every time I do something, she complains about me, so I just spend all my time in my room to avoid any arguments. Then you come home from work, get ready, and go out again and leave us alone. I’d rather spend time with Mom and my friends and my family in Hambleton. I don’t get to spend any time with you while I’m at your house anyway, so what’s the point of us being there?”
I approached Gabby and slipped my arm around her waist. “Good job, baby,” I whispered.
My heart went out to my girl because I knew better than anyone how it felt when the person who was supposed to love and protect you put you beneath everybody else. I never wanted her to feel like she wasn’t enough, because she was. She was certainly too good for this shit. She was everything.
Turning to Evan with eyes cold as ice, I ordered, “Leave.”
He took a step toward us, but Donovan sprang forward and clapped a hand on his shoulder, then in a low voice he bit out, “Don’t fuckin’ touch my woman.”
Evan’s expression quickly morphed from wounded to furious. His lip curled, and he jerked his shoulder free from Donovan's hold, glaring at him likehewas the one trespassing and upsetting the kids. For a hot second, I thought he’d try to take a swing, but then Gabby’s eyes welled with tears, and she whispered. “Please, just go.”
My ex’s shoulders slumped, and all the fight left him, but still, he turned to me and sneered, “Happy now?”
“No, I’m not,” I replied. “I never wanted it to come to this, which was why I went out of my way to defend you and make excuses for you, but I’m not doing it anymore. From now on, you reap what you sow.”
“You can’t keep them away from me,” he argued. “I won’t let you.”
“I’m not keeping them away from you, Evan,” I corrected. “You are.”
“They’re kids; they don’t get a choice in this,” he retorted. “Not until they’re eighteen.”
“They do get a choice when your girlfriend’s bullying them,” I shot back. “Doesn’t your kids’ well-being mean anything to you? Or is it all about Rachel?”
His lips thinned angrily, and he made for the porch steps. He glanced back over his shoulder. “You’re fucking loving this.”
I ignored him; it wasn’t even worth a reply because if he thought I enjoyed my kids seeing us fight in the street like fucking lunatics, it proved he didn’t know me at all, and he probably never did.
“My lawyer will be in touch,” he spat, turning to stomp down the porch steps and get into his car.
“Jesus, you were married to a walking, talking cliché, babe,” Donovan muttered. “Did you have a brain fart?”
I couldn’t help giggling.
Trust my guy to make me laugh when it should have been the last thing I felt like doing after what had just gone down.
My arm tightened around Gabby. “You did so good, baby,” I praised.
Her eyes followed her dad’s car as he sped down the dirt track toward the main road. “I needed him to know, Momma. What he did hurt me, but I ran away before I could tell him how I felt. But then I thought, why shouldn’t he know? How can he make things right if I don’t tell him how he made me feel?”
“Proud of ya, little Gabby,” Atlas told her, still standing sentry at the bottom of the porch steps. His eyes shifted to Donovan. “Good job on not knocking him out.”
“Go inside, Gabs. I want to talk privately to Donny and Uncle Dan,” I requested softly, suspecting the conversation we were about to have wasn’t one that should be witnessed by Evan’s kids.
She leaned over and kissed my cheek before disappearing inside the house.
I waited until the door clicked shut, then turned to the guys. “What do you think?”
“We gotta play this smart,” Donovan said thoughtfully, his stare going to Evan’s car, which by then was a dot in the distance. “If this goes to court, you’ve gotta be clean. Plus, I may have some unresolved feelings about him, but he’s still the kids’dad, and he should see them, but there’s gotta be terms attached. Problem is, I don’t trust him not to play dirty. He wasn’t happy that I was here, and he hated not getting his way. He’s an arrogant ass who thinks the world owes him something, and that type can be tricky as fuck.”
“Been feelin’ that for years, bud,” Atlas agreed. “But I gotta say, my patience is wearin’ thin. He plays dirty. The asshole tried to fuck Rosie over with the divorce and squirm outta payin’ his fair share for the kids’ upbringing. I had to sic Colt on him to uncover all his accounts to pull him back into line, and he’s been a cunt ever since. The measure of a man depends on the kind of father he is. Asshole could afford to take financial responsibility but tried to snake those kids regardless. Tells me everythin’ I need to know. And what man makes a single woman and two small kids drive to a different state to see him? And now his teenage son has to make all the effort. Hated that bullshit from day one.” My brother’s eyes slid to me. “I think I need to call Colt again, Ro. That shithead’s gonna play dirty, mark my words. We need ammunition ‘cause if he gets his way with the judge, I’d have to put a bullet in him, which would hurt DJ and little Gabby.”
I grimaced because I knew Atlas meant every word.
Evan was a slippery son of a bitch, and he’d play dirty to get his own way purely because he was a big baby and he hated losing.
It was ironic that he’d come up against a mother who would do anything for her kids, including owing favors and markers left and right.
