Widow's Undoing (Ruthless Sinners MC 4)

“Yeah, keep spewing your lies.” He rolled his eyes as he spat, “I shouldn’t be surprised you want to fuck around with trash like him.”

“You don’t know anything about him.” I was about to try and defend Roman’s honor when it hit me. I’d never told him anything about Roman, and I felt pretty certain the boys wouldn’t have mentioned anything about him. There was no way he would’ve known anything about him unless he’d actually seen us together. “How exactly did you even know I’d gone out with him?”

“I already told you...I saw you two coming out of the coffee shop the night of Sean’s basketball game.”

“Um-hmm. I remember.” I stood back and crossed my arms. “But how did you know I was still seeing him?”

The blood drained from his face as he stammered, “I...uh...I saw you in the driveway the other night.”

“Oh? What were you doing out by my place at that time of night?”

“That’s irrelevant.”

“No, I would say it’s very relevant. You have no business being at my house unless you are there to pick up or drop off the boys. It’s in our parenting plan, remember? So, stop snooping around my house and whatever else it is you’re doing.”

“You can’t tell me where I can and cannot go, Frankie.”

“And you can’t tell me who I can and cannot date.”

“The hell I can’t!” The vein in his neck started to pulse with rage as he snarled, “I will not have you bringing your garbage around my boys.”

“You’re one to talk.” I dropped my hands to the counter and leaned towards him as I whispered, “Your boys saw what you had hidden in your drawer, Marc!”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about all your perverted tendencies. The audacity of you leaving that stuff in a place where the boys could find it!” I couldn’t believe how good it felt to actually stand up to him. “If anyone is garbage, it’s you! You’re sick, Marc. You always have been. Either get your crap together, or I’m taking you back to court.”

“If we go back to court, I’m getting full custody of my boys!”

“You can certainly try, but you better be ready for a hell of a fight.”

“You’re crazy if you think you can beat me!”

“This conversation is over, Marc.” I took my cleaning rag and started wiping down the counters. “It’s time for you to go.”

I couldn’t believe it. He didn’t respond. The man was actually rendered speechless. After several moments, I finally pointed to the door and said, “There’s nothing left to say. Just go, Marc.”

Looking defeated, Marc didn’t say a word as he turned and walked out of the shop. When the door closed, there was a soft round of applause from the table in the corner. I turned and found several of my regulars smiling and giving me a thumbs up. They were a group of young mothers who came by for lunch every Tuesday and Thursday after taking their kids to the park. Embarrassed they’d overheard our conversation, I eased over to them and said, “I’m really sorry about that. I had no idea he was going to bombard me like that.”

“No need to apologize,” Cindy assured me. She was a beautiful blonde and had the most adorable six-month-old. She was all smiles as she told me, “We were all very impressed with how you handled yourself.”

“I’ve had a lot of practice,” I scoffed.

“Well, it paid off,” Shelley replied. She was Cindy’s best friend and also had an adorable toddler. “You really put him in his place.”

“I hope so.”

“So, what about this new guy he’s talking about?” Tracy, another one of the young mothers asked. “How come we haven’t heard anything about him yet?”

“We’ve just started talking.” I could feel my cheeks start to blush as I told them, “But I think he’s pretty great.”

Cindy pulled back a chair and said, “Well, get over here and tell us all about him.”

I was a little hesitant at first. I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to talk about my personal life with them, but they’d never had any problem sharing their lives with me. It seemed they always had some story to share, so I took a quick glance around, and when I saw there were no customers in line, I sat down and told them all about my last few weeks with Roman. The more I talked about him, the more I found myself missing him. It had been almost a week since I’d last heard from him. He’d told me to be patient, but it wasn’t easy when I missed him so much. That in itself was enough for me to know he was worth waiting for.

I’d given up on many things in my life—one of them being love. A real, undeniable love. Now that I’d found it, I had every intention of holding onto it. I just prayed there was still something left to hold onto.