VERSUS (Second Chances 2)

His need to control me broke us apart, but it didn’t stop his obsession.

“You and Clark were over after the accident?” Dylan asks gently. “You didn’t leave Chicago that summer?”

I shake my head. “No. I stayed there until we moved to Boston for school.”

“We?”

“My dad went with me.” I smile. “He got a job at a high school there coaching ball. He loved it.”

The corners of Dylan’s lips curve up. “Football was his life.”

It was. My dad lived and breathed the game. If he wasn’t on a field, he was watching a game on TV.

“Did he follow you to Buffalo after you passed the bar?”

I’m quiet for a second. “After I got married, my dad moved to Buffalo. Kurt used his connections to land my dad a coaching job at a high school there.”

“You and your ex settled there after you were done school?” His brows perk.

I know it can’t be easy for him to mention my ex-husband, but he’s part of my past.

I’ve tried to forget about Aron, but I can’t.

I’ll do whatever I can to keep him behind bars for as long as I can.

“I took a job in Monroe County.” I don’t bother adding that Aron opened an office there as a General Practitioner once I was settled into my job.

“What am I missing?” He narrows his eyes. “Kurt’s practice was in full swing by then. You could have handled divorces in the big city instead of in a small county, and you would have been closer to your dad. Did your ex-husband have work there?”

I swallow. “I wasn’t handling divorces. I was a prosecutor.”

Chapter 51

Eden

I glance over at the cardboard boxes next to my front door.

One has bedroom scrawled across the side. The other is labeled kitchen items. I packed them before I got in my car to drive to Manhattan.

“You were a prosecutor?” Dylan punctuates the words with an arch of his right eyebrow. “What was that like?”

Stressful. Difficult. Exhilarating. Fulfilling.

“I loved it,” I admit. “I was excited to go to my office every day.”

“Why did you make the switch from that to working for Kurt?”

I skim my fingertip over my top lip. I answer in the simplest terms. “Money.”

Aron and I split with an agreement in place that we’d both walk away with what we brought to the marriage. I fought hard for that. I didn’t want to accept anything from a man I no longer had an ounce of respect for.

With that came a feeling of freedom and independence. I’ve never regretted the decision to turn down the large settlement he offered me.

I never wanted to be in his debt in any way.

My decision was right for me, even months later when my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer, and I faced the first of many medical bills.

Kurt saw that I was drowning so he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.