Dare To Love Again

By the time we arrived, I was already half an hour late and still took my time making my way inside. I knew she was still there pacing the floor, had seen her fury grow as she tried calling my wife time and again only to have her calls rejected since I’d blocked her number. I have to remember to get my woman a new phone that’s attached to mine.

I studied her for a few seconds more from outside the closed apartment door before using the key I’d taken from Giselle’s purse to let myself in.

“How dare…? You who are you? What are you doing here?” She stopped short in her tirade as she met me at the door.

“Sit down; I’m sure you know who I am; you strike me as the type to do your homework.” I’m sure someone like her understood very well the smile I gave her. “I don’t have time for this. Where’s my daughter?” Since she wasn’t going to be civil and sit her ass down, I took a seat and crossed my leg over my knee, and waited.

Her eyes darted around the room as if expecting Giselle to appear out of thin air. “This has nothing to do with you. I’d think that you of all people would want clear of this. What little sob story did she tell you? You know she’s always been a liar, right? I bet she tried to tell you that her brat is yours. You’d be a real fool if you believed that. Didn’t she leave you?”

This bitch! I didn’t even bat a lash. Just let her carry on as though she were talking to herself. “I heard all about how she came running back to you for help. I didn’t think someone like you would be such a sucker as to take her back after what she’s done.” She was fishing and nervous as hell. This is what I expected, the reason for my surprise appearance.

She hadn’t had time to prepare to face me, to get her story straight, so this floundering mess before me was missing her teeth. The teeth she’d sunk into my wife, making her cower in fear. I knew someone like her would be nothing more than a coward, and I was right, so I held my peace for a little while longer and let her tie herself up in knots.

“Did she tell you about all the men she had running in and out of here since she left you? Or did she play the innocent virgin like she did when she talked you into marrying her?” It was obvious that this woman knew absolutely nothing about my wife, and I’d had enough of her shit. “That’s funny; the men you hired to watch her tell a completely different story.”

“What did you say?” That one stumped her for a bit, but she bounced right back admirably, I might add. “Listen, it doesn’t matter like I said, this does not concern you. This is between my daughter and me. Now, where is she? She knows better than to keep me waiting.”

“You mean my wife? She’s at home with our son.”

“Wife? She’s not your wife; you’re divorced.”

“Think again, and while you’re thinking, think about the fact that you fucked with the wife of Calen Addison the fourth.” I waited for her to let that sink in before the sinister smile dropped from my face to be replaced by a cold hard glare.

“You don’t scare me. I have just as much wealth as your family.” She lost some of the starch from her back and was back to looking around the room like a trapped deer at the end of a hunter’s scope.

“No, you don’t, my wife does. But I’m sure you know that her half a billion is just a drop in the bucket for Addison Enterprise and all our holdings. That’s why you wanted her away from me, isn’t it? Because you knew that there’s no way in hell, you could fight me and win!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Whatever she told you…”

“Cut the shit, lady. I’m not here to play games with you. I’m here to tell you once and for all, stay away from my wife and son. If you come near her again, I will destroy you.” I know she has no plans on obeying that particular order, and I don’t want her to. The next words out of her mouth verified it.

“You can’t tell me what to do with that little bitch and her spawn.” I sat back against the chair unmoved and stared her down.

“I can, and I have. My wife is off-limits, and that goes without saying for my son.” She opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off. “Now, let me tell you how this is going to be. My wife has another year before she can touch her inheritance, but I think you’ve lived off of her long enough. You’re to move off of the Winthrop estate ASAP.”