At the Stroke of Midnight (Naughty Princess Club 1)

He opens and closes his mouth several times, trying to come up with something to say. I’m tired of waiting and tired of his bullshit. I start walking away when he finally decides to speak again.

“Will you please keep your voice down? My parents might hear you! I’m sorry for everything, okay? I was a fool. I never should have left you. But it’s going to be fine, I’m going to fix everything,” he tells me as I keep walking and he follows behind me. “My father already fixed that mess with the man at that club, so that’s one less problem to worry about.”

My feet immediately come to a stop, and I whirl around to face him.

“What did you do?” I whisper angrily as Ariel and Belle flank me on either side.

“What did I do?” he asks, anger filling his voice. “What did you do? I found out all about your little stripping business and the man you’ve allowed to stay under my roof with our impressionable daughter. What kind of an example are you setting for her? Like I said, Dad took care of it. He spoke to that guy and told him your husband was home and he needed to back off and give us time to be a family again.”

My heart drops into my stomach and my hands start to shake with so much rage and hurt that there’s no way I’m going to be able to contain it. Everything that happened the night I went to PJ’s house comes crashing back into my head all and once, and my body starts to sway. I feel Ariel wrap her arm around my waist to hold me steady.

“I can’t come between a family, Cin.”

“Don’t you dare change for him. You stay the same sexy, independent, amazing woman you are, do you hear me?”

I remember everything he said that night, and now it all makes sense. Now I know why he’s been avoiding me. Now I know why he left me alone in his bed after I’d drunkenly shown up at his house. I remember everything he said, and I also remember everything I didn’t say.

“How could you?” I snarl at him.

Pulling my hand back, I let it fly, punching my fist into his arm.

“Ow! What was that for? What has gotten into you, Cynthia?” Brian complains, rubbing the spot where I just hit him.

“Pull the fucking stick out of your ass, Brian!” I tell him.

“That’s my girl,” Ariel says, giving me a pat on the back.

“That strip club is an amazing business that employs single mothers, like me.”

“You’re not single, you have me,” Brian replies, softening his voice. “That man was a bad influence on you and our daughter, obviously. Look at the way you’re dressed, and the way you’re speaking to me. It’s unbecoming, Cynthia.”

Ariel’s arms fly right back around my waist and hold me back when I try to dive toward Brian and punch his stupid, chlamydia-eyed face. One of my sparkly shoes flies off of my foot and lands God knows where as I try and jerk myself out of her arms.

After a few seconds of struggling, I finally give up the fight and shrug out of her hold, limp-walking right up to Brian on the one shoe I still have on.

“You son of a bitch,” I growl. “You pathetic, stupid, son of a bitch. How dare you make a decision like that? How dare you stick your nose into MY personal business like that?”

“I’m your husband!” he shouts, obviously no longer caring about the crowd that is watching everything go down.

“You WERE my husband, and it was the most miserable thirteen years of my life! You made the choice to leave. You made the choice to serve me with divorce papers and run away with your little bimbo babysitter. You abandoned your daughter and left us with nothing, and now you have to live with those mistakes.”

I feel more alive right now than I have in the last week. I forgot how good it felt to stand up for myself.

“Yes, I met a man who owns a strip club, and he’s been the best influence I’ve ever had. I met a man who makes me feel alive for the first time in my life.” I swallow back the tears that have started to blur my vision and keep going. “I’m so, desperately, breathlessly, heart-stoppingly in love with a man who lets me be who I want to be, never judges me, never looks at me with anything but pride, never makes me feel like I’m not good enough, and would walk away from something pretty fucking amazing just because he thinks he’s doing the right thing.”

I can’t stop the sob that flies out of my mouth, missing PJ so much that everything hurts.

“You would honestly pick him over me?” Brian asks in disbelief, clearly not hearing one word I just said to him.