Only One Night (Only One 3)

I get up now as she stands there, grabbing the manila envelope that I had beside me. “I’m not the one leaving,” I tell her, and I know she is going to fight this part. “You are.” I hold out the envelope for her, and she snatches it out of my hands.

“What the fuck is this?” She opens the envelope, and her house of cards comes crashing down.

“Those are divorce papers,” I tell her as she reads it. “You’ve been served by the way.”

She flips the pages over and over again, bending the envelope, and now pictures fall out, and I look down. “What the fuck? You spied on me.” She bends down and picks up the nude photos of herself.

“We could have done this the easy way,” I tell her. “We could have done it privately and amicable. But”—I shake my head— “you couldn’t just do it. You stayed with me just to be at the top of the food chain. Now look at you. A cheater for the whole world to see.”

“So what,” she says of the photos, pretending it’s not eating her up, but I know her image is everything to her. I know that this is killing her inside, and I know that I did it to her. “So they know I cheated on you. Obviously, you didn’t satisfy me, so I had to go elsewhere. This makes you look much worse than I do.”

“Here it is,” I tell her, putting my arms out. “I don’t give a fuck if they caught you gang banging a whole circus of men,” I say. “This is my out.” I laugh now. “Don’t you see? Don’t you get it? You can’t hold anything over me anymore. Nothing.” I take a big breath. “Not even Jaxon. I’m not going to be low like you and use him as a pawn. I won’t hold your son from you. Ever. I’ll never stop you from seeing him. But until we decide on a couple of things, you can only see him when I’m there. I’m not going to lose him again.”

“You want to ruin it all,” she says. “You are going to ruin it all for her. Everything we built.”

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “That is where you’re wrong. You ruined it all. You ruined it. This, Murielle, is all you.” I’ve had enough of her, and it’s done. I make my way to the doorway past the bags that I packed for her. “Oh, and also . . .” I turn around and look at her as she stands there with the divorce papers in one hand, gripped so tight her knuckles are white. “If you think for one second of going to Evelyn again . . .” I walk to her, my voice going low, and I look into her eyes when I say the next words. “You better fucking think twice.” My voice goes even lower. “I have lots more pictures of you. Next time, don’t fuck your trainer in my house. Next time, it’ll be a home movie.”

“I fucking hate you,” she says the words with clenched teeth.

“Actually, I’m feeling generous. You can have the fucking house.” I look around. “I always hated it anyway. It was like my jail,” I tell her, walking right out the front door and slamming it behind me.

Chapter 30

Evelyn

I can’t stop pacing. I sit down for a second, but then my leg starts to twitch, and I get up again. I have read the article so many times that I almost know it by heart.

I search the web on my computer, on my iPad, on my phone. I search his name, then his wife’s name. I wonder how he’s doing. I wonder how Jaxon is. There is so much going on that my head is spinning.

The soft knock comes, and I run to the door. I open it before looking outside and see him standing there. “Oh my god.” I literally throw myself into his arms. “Are you okay?”

“You didn’t even check to see who it was,” he says, and I lean my head back to look at him or, better yet, glare.

“Your life is literally falling apart, and you’re worried about me answering my door?” He pushes me in and closes the door behind him. Reaching for me, he pulls me to him, bending his head, and takes my lips in a kiss. My lips are half open in shock, and he takes that opportunity to slip his tongue into my mouth. My hands go to his arms, and I move them up to his neck. His kiss is soft as we take our time.

“Fuck,” he says when he lets go of my lips, and my eyes slowly flutter open. “I missed that.”

“Me, too,” I say softly.

“I can’t stay long,” he says. I nod and grab his hand as we walk into the house.