Page 53 of Almost Paradise

“I’ve already been there. I’m not going back.”

“Okay, well how about you kiss my ass then?” I stand from the chair and pick up the dirty dishes.

“Can I? It’s not like I haven’t done it before. I’ll be happy to revisit that,” he says. Ray groans and shakes his head. “Do you need me to help you pack?” He cuts me off on my way to the sink.

“What I need you to do is get out of my face,” I warn.

“Or what?” he asks, lowering his voice. He takes a step closer and the scent of his cologne almost overtakes me. I stare into his eyes, refusing to cower. “Or what?” he asks again, stroking the side of my cheek with the back of his hand. I step back and go the other way to the sink.

“I’ve got it,” Ray says, taking the salad bowl from me. “Go figure out what you’re going to do. Yell if you need me to beat his ass.” He says the last part loud enough for Drake to hear, but Drake doesn’t react.

I walk past him to go to my room, and Drake follows me. He’s on my heels, and I have no time to slam the door in his face. He barges his way in before looking around and opening the closet.

“What are you doing?” I ask him.

“I’m helping you pack since you refused last night. You don’t live here anymore.” He finds a suitcase in the back of the closet and throws it on the bed. It pushes the pillow away, revealing the rings I took off earlier. He freezes when he sees them, then he grabs them and reaches for my left hand, but I push him away. He doesn’t move. He grabs my hand and forces the rings back on.

“Next time I’ll flush them down the toilet where they belong.”

“I’ll get you another set,” he says as if it’s no big deal. He opens my top drawer, grabs all the contents, and drops them in the suitcase. He does the same with another drawer, but I kick the suitcase off the bed and across the room. “I’ll carry you out of here over my shoulder. I don’t care, but you’re coming home.”

“That prison is not my home. This is.”

“Wrong.” To prove his point, he drops more of my clothes in the suitcase. “A penthouse is hardly a prison.”

“Just so you know, Paradise, I’m taking half of your fortune when this is over. You should have had one of your shady lawyers draft a prenup. And you can forget about a post-nuptial agreement. I’ll never sign it. For all your fancy pants education, I thought you’d be smarter. Guess not, dumb ass.”

His smile is almost predatory. If I thought losing half his money would have given him pause, I was wrong.

“Is that your ace card? If you take half my billions, you know what I’ll be? A billionaire, baby girl. Do your worst. You want a fight? I’ll give you one. All we’re going to do is make our lawyers rich.” My smug smile drops, but I take a step forward and throw a punch at his midsection. His hand wraps around my wrist before I can make contact.

“Don’t call me that,” I warn. “Let me go.”

“I’m never going to do that,baby girl,” he whispers right before he drops my wrist.

“You won’t have a choice. There’s such a thing as no-fault divorce. Audrey’s told me all about it.”

“Audrey?” he asks with a dismissive snort. “I bet she got her law degree out of a Cracker Jack box.”

I rub my wrist, hoping to erase his touch, but I can’t. “Asshole,” I mutter under my breath. “And stop going through my drawers.” I try to push him out of the way, and when that doesn’t work, I close the drawer he has opened.

He yanks it open and grabs a handful of my underwear. I block his path to the suitcase and slap his hands. Some of the contents fall to the floor. “Don’t touch my underwear, you pervert,” I hiss.

He ignores me and bends down. Just as I’m going to kick his hands as hard as I can, I hear little feet running to the room, so I put my foot down and take a step back.

“Mommy, I want to go sleep on my ‘Piderman bed. I want to send pictures of it to Kyle.” He had Kyle on FaceTime this morning and showed him his room. Kyle stands in the middle of the room, grinning wide and showcasing his missing two front teeth. I straighten up and run a finger over Kyle’s thick eyebrows. I lean down and kiss his head.

“Carter says I can sleep in it with him.”

“Let’s go, buddy,” Drake says. Carter jumps into Drake’s arms. “I’ll let you use my phone to take those pictures for your cousin. I’m just helping Mommy pack some of her things.”

I smile at my son, but my smile is so fake, I feel my face might crack.

“I want a bath in the big tub,” Carter announces. The big tub is the one in the master bedroom.

With Carter still in his arms, he manages to close my suitcase, pick it up with one hand and walk out of the room.

“Come on, Mommy,” Carter shouts.

---