Page 21 of Homewrecker

Fine words from a cheater, but she was already spinning on her heel and stalking out into the hall, headed for the elevators. Growling under his breath, Lincoln’s hands clenched into fists, and he started after her, when someone grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

“Let her go. Come on,” Harris said, dragging him back toward their offices.

With a final glance over his shoulder, Lincoln let his brother pull him away. Nita turned to watch them go with concern. Fuck. He hoped all that drama wouldn’t color Nita’s opinion of him.

Once they were safely back in Lincoln's office, he let out a huge breath, jerking his arm away from Harris.

“What the hell?”

“You’re too pissed to go after her, and it wouldn’t do any good, anyway. I’m pretty sure she wanted you to make a scene.”

Scowling, Lincoln moved around his desk to sit down. The safety of his chair made him feel a little more comfortable.

“What are you talking about?”

“Think about it. It’s insurance if she and Marshall are caught having an affair. Not only are you the asshole who won’t make time for her or her family, you’re also the asshole who lost your temper about it. She can point to it and say ‘see?’ and get rid of the blame.” Harris took the seat across from Lincoln as he spoke, his tone measured, but his anger was clear on his face.

Fuck.

Harris was probably right.

“What do you want to bet she stays at Marshall’s the next few days?” Lincoln asked dryly. “Since he’s such a close family friend and all.”

“I’ll get someone to follow her again. The more evidence we have against her, the better.”

“I’m still giving her what she’s due. I don’t care what the prenup says.”

“I’m still going to gather the evidence in case you change your mind. In the meantime, we have to make sure we have everything we need before we force Marshall out of the company. I have a list of all of our accounts where we’ll need to change the password, and everything we’ll need to change to lock him out of our accounts, but he’s still got the full client list and the list of all the potential clients. He keeps it on lockdown.”

As soon as Lincoln got that, he could file for divorce.

At least Rebecca was all grown up and out of the house, so hopefully, it would be a little easier on her. Though he was starting to worry Janet would try to turn Rebecca against him, the way Harris thought she was trying to do with everyone else.

It didn’t escape his notice that she’d waited till Rebecca was gone on her honeymoon to pull this little stunt. That’s why he thought Janet was probably going to Marshall’s, something she wouldn’t have done if Rebecca had been home, since the two of them were often joined at the hip.

What a clusterfuck.

12

Ashley

Social media was bullshit.

Even unfriending Rebecca hadn’t been enough to keep the pictures from her honeymoon off of Ashley’s feed. Then again, she hadn’t blocked Rebecca. She had some sick need to be able to keep tabs on her, even though she didn’t really want to see pictures of her dad and Rebecca on their honeymoon, she also couldn’t look away.

She was doing her best to pretend as if this was a week like any other, but it wasn’t easy.

Checking on her mom every day was made a little better by finding out she wasn’t the only one doing so. Uncle Kellar hadn’t been kidding when he said he was going to be there for her. From the sound of it, he’d been over almost every day, and there was warmth and happiness in her mom’s voice that Ashley hadn’t heard in far too long.

It sounded as though he was keeping her mom off of social media, too, though hopefully, her mom would have blocked her dad by now, but Ashley wasn’t sure.

Unfortunately, not being able to take care of her mom also left her feeling at loose ends. She was glad her mom had Uncle Kellar and hoped that didn’t blow up in their faces when her dad got back. Not that he should get a say in anything they did. Regardless, Ashley had planned to spend the week taking care of her mom. Now that it wasn’t necessary, she didn’t quite know what to do with herself.

She was best-friendless and had no duties as the dutiful daughter.

So, when one of her co-workers said they were going out to happy hour and invited her along, she went. Why not, right?

Except one drink turned into two, then three, and then four, and she was feeling pretty sloppy before she knew it. At least she wasn’t the only one. Elizabeth, the coworker who had invited her out, was keeping up with her with no problem.

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