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But that still didn’t give her license to disrespect him. “We aren’t going to do this right now.”

“Do what?” Joy asked. “Tell the truth? Did you cheat on your first wife, William, in the name of these easy affairs with married ladies you enjoyed having? Because if they knew you were married, then they would know a real relationship with you was off the table. They’d know it just like you knew it with Diana Davenport. Wouldn’t they, William?”

William wouldn’t answer her. He just stared at her. And that only enraged her even more. He had the nerve to be upset with her for questioning him? After what he’d done?! “Answer my question, William,” she said angrily. “Did you or did you not cheat on your first wife?”

William still refused to answer.

“Gotdamn, you, William, answer me!” Joy screamed it out as tears appeared in her eyes. “You answer me!”

“I told you we were not in a committed relationship when that video happened, and that’s all the fuck I’m going to say about it!”

“That’s all you’re going to say about it? You humiliate me all over the internet and that’s all you’re going to say about it? Fuck you, William!” She was furious. “Fuck you!”

William lost his cool, too, and jumped up, grabbed her by the arm, and slung her up against him. “Don’t you ever talk to me like that!” he yelled at her.

“I’ll talk to you any way I damn well please. Let me go!”

She was fighting to get out of his grasp. And when she did, she pushed him away from her as hard as she could and ran for the exit.

William knew he should have just let her leave. Forget her ass! He could have any woman he wanted. Why was he wasting his time and all of this negative-ass energy with her? He should have just let her ass go!

But he couldn’t. He was hurrying for that door right behind her. And as soon as she flung it open, he rushed up behind her and slammed it back shut. It was so dramatic that Max and Bobby, still waiting upfront, started to come back there to make sure Joy was okay.

But as soon as William slammed the door back shut, he placed his arms around her waist and held her there: her back to his front. He couldn’t bear the thought of her leaving him.

Joy wanted to collapse in his arms. She didn’t want to run away! But the pain, like fire, was searing her. William meant everything to her. If he let her down, what was she going to do?

But if he wasn’t who she thought he was, she would leave him and never look back. She was never going to let him or anybody else gaslight her into believing what was right in front of her.

Including the fact that that news lady said he slept with that woman two weeks ago, not nine or ten months ago.

William wanted to collapse against her, too, from the sheer weight of all that was on his shoulders. Diana’s marriage was in the balance, and her career too. His corporation was in the balance, and his role in it too. And his marriage. His Joy. All because of his recklessness!

His ex-wife said it best when he was fighting for custody of their daughter. He was too irresponsible, she told the judge, to be a good and present father. Too irresponsible, she said. Which was another word for too reckless. But the Judge sided with William anyway and gave him custodial custody. He picked up his little girl from her mother’s home to begin her life in her father’s home, and three hours later she was dead because of him and his decision to not have in-car security with him. And his inattentiveness during a high-speed chase. All because of his recklessness.

“It was a horrible marriage, Joy,” he finally said to her.

Joy was near tears already, but she stopped sniffling when he started talking. She had to hear him say it.

“I only married her because I slipped up and she got pregnant. I never loved her at all.”

That wasn’t her question, and no manner of emotion was going to allow her to let him manipulate her. “Did you cheat on her?” she asked him again. That was her question.

William closed his eyes. “She cheated on me. And then I cheated on her.”

Joy’s heart sank.

“We cheated on each other, Joy. It was a loveless marriage that wasn’t a marriage at all. I stayed as long as I did for the sake of my child. Then it was a bitter divorce. I should have never married her.”

Joy’s eyes widened. Because she had been wondering the same thing about him with her. “Should you have married me?” she asked him.

It took William a second to process what she had just said. When he realized what she meant, he quickly turned her around to face him. Her large, sad, beautiful greenish-brown, hazel eyes melted his heart. “I love you, Joynetta. I married you because I love you. My love for you have me doing things that I’ve never done for a woman in my life. There’s no comparison. My first marriage was a trainwreck.”

Joy felt as if their marriage seemed to be heading in that same direction, but she had her answer. William cheated on his first wife. What would stop him from cheating on her? And the fact that he now claimed that he would never break his marriage vows to her, but yet he participated in another woman breaking her vows for him. And he broke his marriage vows to his first wife.

That bothered her. What kind of morals did William truly have? Was this man she always viewed as a man of integrity have any morals at all?

And why had he been behaving as if he was having second thoughts about their marriage if he loved her so much?