Page 59 of If You Love Me

I released her by raising my hands in surrender. She walked back over to the group with me following close behind. Jaime fell back to walk next to me.

“I take it you know what happened?” he asked.

“Iona’s ass sent her divorce papers, man.”

“What the fuck? Why would she do some shit like that?”

“She’s been pushing me to file, and I haven’t. I kept telling her it was too soon to drop something like that on Evenie.”

“Let me ask you something, Tyrion.”

“Go ahead.”

“Do you really wanna marry that girl now that Ev is back? Think about this, my nigga. As long as I’ve known you, it’s been you and Ev. It’s never looked right seeing you with anybodybut her. I ain’t said shit because you looked happy after being miserable for so long.”

“I love Iona, I just…”

“You’reinlove with Evenie. You’ve always been in love with her, and you’ll always be in love with her. There is no woman you will ever love as much as her. You know that, and I know. I get it. You want to be the good guy that honors his commitments. Your biggest commitment is walking ahead of you. That’s your wife. You don’t forsake her for anybody or any reason.

“I know Iona was good to you and lil bit, but the shit she’s pulling now is only going to get worse. She’s gonna be the type of petty to always remind Evenie that she won. If you think this shit was disrespectful, you ain’t seen nothing yet. My advice? Cut this shit off and win your wife back… if you’re lucky.”

He slapped my shoulder before catching back up to the girls. I palmed my forehead. He was right. If I let this go, Iona would get too comfortable with the disrespect. It was bad enough I let it get this far.

I had to make this right.

If I had to fight to the death of me… I’d make it right.

The restof the day went by in a daze for me.

All I could think about was getting to Iona and praying that I didn’t wring her fucking neck for this shit. She’d never given me the type of vibes I was getting now. It was jealousy mixed with a little bit of crazy. It was the fact that she went behind my back, forged my signature, and did exactly what she wanted to do like I wouldn’t have found out.

When I dropped Evenie off, I asked for the papers. She’d gone in the house and brought them out. When I looked throughthem, my anger only surged. She’d really taken it too far. I’d left the Longs’ house and checked her location so I could pull up on her. Ironically, she was at my place, which I made a beeline for.

When I pulled up in my driveway, I frowned at the U-Haul backed up to my door and Iona’s car parked along the street. Two men were moving things inside, and I was more than a little confused as to why they were doing so.

“What the fuck?”

I grabbed the manilla envelope and jumped out of my car. “Excuse me!” I called.

The men stopped and looked at me. “Can I help you?” one of them asked.

“Uh, yeah. You can help me by putting this shit down. Don’t move another piece of furniture into my house.”

“Your wife—”

“That woman is not my wife. Wait here.”

I left them standing there confused as I walked into my home, anger seeping through my core. That anger was only fueled by what I saw as I looked around. She’d added pictures of us to the walls. There was a pile of my things on the kitchen counter that I could only imagine she was getting rid of to make space for her things.

“Iona!” I yelled, slamming the door.

I heard the sound of her footsteps on the hardwood floors before she appeared in a pair of paint covered sweats and a tank top.

“Hey, babe—”

“What the hell is this?” I asked, motioning to the living room.

“Oh, this! Well, I’ve been thinking. Instead of waiting until after the wedding, I decided to go ahead and move in now. I’m just doing a little redecorating—”

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