Maria remains silent.
“How did you find out about us?” I ask, already knowing the truth from Billie but wanting to hear the full story from Maria. We were always so careful not to be caught.
She just shrugs. “I saw her getting into your G-Wagon in your parking lot. Billie had a suitcase, and you were clipping Blake into the back seat. It looked suspicious at best, although I didn’t hang around to see anything more. What I saw made me sick to my stomach. When I questioned Billie this morning at breakfast, I knew I’d made the right call to express my concerns to Scott. Her mortified face told the whole story of what’s been going on between youboth.”
I decide not to ask why Maria was outside my apartment building. If she planned to visit me, I’m glad she never got the chance.
“What did you say to my girl?” My voice is dark, so low that it’s almost nonexistent.
“I confronted her about you and then pointed out that she was, in fact, a rebound.”
“It’s a good thing you’re a woman, Maria. Because if you were a guy, you’d be through the fucking wall by now.”
She squares up to me, loving the toxicity brewing between us.
This is where my ex-wife flourishes—playing psychological games, engaging in verbal wars. I’m so fucking done with her bullshit.
“Stay away from me. Stay away from Billie.” I bite the inside of my cheek. “And definitely stay away from Blake.”
I’m halfway out the door when the mask completely falls, Maria’s true narcissism rearing its ugly head. I’ve never heard an insidious tone like it, and I hope I’ll never hear it again.
“I fucked my way through a whole roster of male flight attendants while we were still married.” She chuckles as she moves toward me. “Sometimes two at a time.”
If she was hoping to land the final punch with her admission, she should know that the slap stung more.
“But I guess there’s nothing you can do about that now, you know”—she glides her fingernails down my sweatshirt—“since the divorce has already been finalized.”
I’d laugh if this woman wasn’t so evil.
Dropping my face down to hers, I let her see the kind of smile I only ever wear when I think about my girl. “Incorrect. There’s nothing I can do about it because I simply don’t give a fuck anymore. I guess that’s what happens when you fall in love for real.”
Reaching up, I pluck a framed wedding photo from the wall, open the back, and pull out the print. I tear it straight down the center as Maria watches on in horror. Not that this photographcarries any sentiment for her. It was only ever an image in its truest form.
I hand the empty frame to her, and she looks down at it and then back up at me.
A smug grin plays on my lips. “Now you have the space to hang your next victim.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
BILLIE
“Ican’t even look at you right now, Scott.”
As I sit at the top of the stairs, it feels like I’m ten years old all over again, listening to my parents argue over money.
When I was a kid, my mom and dad rarely fought, but whenever they did, it was nearly always about bills and how they were going to scrape enough together to make it through the month.
Today isn’t any different. Mom is pissed at Dad for exaggerating the value of his shares so he could hide the money he took from Emmett to help repay my student loans and fund the apartment he is determined that I’ll move out of immediately.
I can’t believe that, all along, Emmett was paying for everything.
And truthfully, I don’t know how I feel about that, other than being mad over the fact that he didn’t tell me himself.
After I finally escaped from Rise Up and an oblivious Mom dropped me back home, it took around an hour for the moving trucks to arrive, closely followed by Dad with bloody knuckles and a face like absolute thunder.
He insisted that I allow the moving guys to take my stuff.When I refused, his rage boiled over, and he spouted off about how Emmett had gifted the family money to basically care for me and Blake.
That brings me to where I am right now—ignoring calls from my boyfriend because I don’t know what to say to him while listening to Dad beg for my mother’s forgiveness.
