Page 19 of Ruin Me Sweetly

BITCH!!!

No one can take my place.

“Have you considered paying her off?”

I shook my head, unable to tear my eyes from the screen.

“She’s too far gone to be reasoned with,” I said, glancing at him and waving a hand toward the monitor. “This is beyond delusion. You know how many flings she had. Did she show any remorse?”

He shook his head.

“Hack into her phone, her car GPS. Whatever it takes to ensure you know where she is at all times.”

“Already done. Though she doesn’t always take her phone with her.”

She was adapting. Already thinking ahead.

All that anger and hatred should have been aimed at me. Bella had nothing to do with our marriage falling apart. Had Sadie actually read the prenup, she might have thought twice before flaunting her affairs. She hadn’t needed or wanted me during our marriage, and now, conveniently, she’d decided she loved me again. How convenient.

“I don’t understand women.”

“Any man who says he does is a filthy liar,” Michael said, standing.

“Words of wisdom.”

“And I’m not even charging you for them,” he said, pulling my office door open. “Remain vigilant.”

“You charge me for everything else,” I muttered, just as he shut the door.

We both knew what I was willing to do to keep my budding new family safe. Money couldn’t magic this problem away.

Sadie Christina Rochester had been a well-liked socialite when we met. The media captured our image every time we stepped out together. I’d enjoyed having someone as beautiful and vivacious as Sadie on my arm. The relationship naturally progressed to marriage. My legal counsel at the time had convinced me to protect my assets.

Over the years, I realised we held two entirely opposing opinions on what it meant to be married.

So seeing her email on my screen came as a shock. The audacity of that Jezebel trying to claim me was astounding.

Michael had uncovered the debt piling up from the divorce lawyer she’d chosen to pit against me. Yet she refused to work, spending her days instead on social media and harassing others.

She was not as resilient as Bella.

Isabella. Even her name flowed beautifully.

Mia Bella.

I tapped my phone, and she appeared on my wallpaper. Soft, asleep, unaware that I had infiltrated not only her life and home, but her womb too.

I opened my calendar notes.

Check for pregnancy.

I scrolled further down until I reached Saturday, the 6th of March.

Wedding day.

I’d become tired of coming home to an empty house long before I divorced Sadie. I longed to hear the sound of children in that home.

I sighed, tracing my finger over Isabella’s cheek on the screen.