“Bye, Mom.Don’t look me up again.”
She gasped, outraged.“That’s no way to treat your own mother!”
“Ah, but you’ve told me often enough that you didn’t want to be one.Seems I got the message.”
Once I’d escapedmy mother, I called and spoke to Cruz and Coach about the latest turn of events with Trent and my mother, and they both promised again that Millie wouldn’t be alone.
There was something soslimyabout that man.Well, both Trent and Millie’s father.I couldn’t fathom what crazy plan they had concocted to keep all that money between them, but I knew I wouldn’t like it.
I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to tie up as many loose ends for Mike as possible and ended up racing to the airport, nearly missing my evening flight.I barely hauled my ass through security and made it to the gate before the last boarding call.
I settled into my business-class seat and tucked in my ear pods, planning to listen to another book on parenting, until I realized who’d appeared in the chair next to mine.
Speak of the devil himself.
Deciding it was better to ignore him than act on my impulse, I shut my eyes and turned up the volume to my audiobook.
I made it through takeoff and up to cruising altitude with his elbow bumping into my side.When he tapped my forearm, I continued to ignore him, but I turned off my audiobook as discreetly as possible.I didn’t want Trent to catch me unaware.
“I’m talking to you,” he finally yelled.
I cracked an eyelid, making sure the surrounding passengers were looking, then closed my eyes again.
“Don’t you dare pretend to ignore me,” he ranted.
“Sir, is there a problem?”The flight attendant was a young woman.
I frowned, not wanting her to get involved.My guess was Trent took what he wanted—without thinking through the consequences.
“Thiscretinis ignoring me,” Trent complained.
“He was sleeping,” the passenger across the aisle spoke up.An older man, probably in his fifties.He frowned in judgment at Trent.
“He’s not sleeping,” Trent snapped.“He’s ignoring me.”
“Which is his right,” the flight attendant said.“Why don’t you move up to seat—”
“I’m not moving,” Trent yelled.“I bought a seat specifically on this flight to explain to him that he’s not stealing my bride or my baby.”
Thefuckwas this douche running his mouth about?
Of course Bree was mine…wasn’t she?
No, no, she was.They both were.Trent is lying.He’d hurt Millie, manipulated her.And, yes, Millie had been scared, terrified, but there wasno wayshe’d use me as a shield.
“Did she tell you we’d been together that same day?No, huh?We were working on our relationship.Getting back together.You ruined that and are trying to steal my kid, but I won’t let you.”
The mere idea of Trent touching Millie sickened me.His willingness to use her made me want to hurl.But the idea that Millie would have lied, even if it was to protect herself and the baby, infuriated me.How dare he throw her under the bus for his own purposesagain?
Needing to stay on task—and the task was making sure I looked as innocent here as possible—I cleared my throat.“I’m pretty tired.I was up all night, dealing with a dear friend’s passing.”
Sympathy gathered on the flight attendant’s face, followed by determination.I noted that another flight attendant—a large man—had stepped into the aisle behind her.She looked at Trent.“I’m going to have to ask you to move, Mr.Cox.”
“No.”
“That’s no longer your choice,” she said.She bent down to look into his eyes.“If you don’t follow me, sir, I’ll have to alert the captain—”
Trent stood so quickly his shoulder slammed into the poor woman’s cheek.She reeled back into her colleague, her hand to her face.The man across the aisle gasped and flung the contents of his glass into Trent’s face.Trent sputtered, cursing, and lunged toward the man.But before Trent could reach him, the two flight attendants had Trent on the ground, hands zip-tied behind his back.About thirty phones were now pointed toward Trent, who was howling and kicking.
