Page 10 of Starting Over with You
He is speechless for a moment. “What?”
I laugh. “Yeah, Missy saw you out with yourfamilyat Disneyland when she and Skyye were there. She FaceTimed me, wanting to confront you, but I said no. That I would handle it.” I shake my head, wishing I could unsee him holding the blond woman from behind, rubbing her belly with his big hands as their two boys bounced beside them, waiting to meet Mickey. Missy wanted to murder him right there, but I talked her out of it. If my niece Skyye hadn’t been there, I don’t think my sister would have listened.
“So, I waited, and I’m glad I did because you were obviously using me.”
He shakes his head. “You’ll ruin me, Kenni, please. Just one more year. We don’t even have to live together. I’ll give you half—that’s way more than you were originally supposed to get.”
I let out a hollow laugh, my voice low and full of warning. “I owe you nothing. You broke my heart. For what? Sex?”
I notice his hands fist tightly as his nostrils flare. “No, it wasn’t the sex. It was the fact that she cares about me.”
I blink. “Stratford, I loved you.”
“No, you loved our boys.”
“Yes, I loved them too, but you were my heart.”
“I wasn’t,” he says, shaking his head. “You always chose theboys over me. It was when we were supposed to go to California for that retreat that I met Jackie. You were supposed to go with me, but the boys wanted you to go to that showcase. You chose them.”
“They were nine! They asked you to stay too, but you said the retreat was more important.”
He shakes his head. “No, they only wanted you. Everyone loves you more than me, and I was tired of it.” I stare at him in disbelief, but he’s not done. “I am so much more successful. I am smart and a lot of fun. You are nothing, yet everyone wants to be around you. Not only the boys, but my coworkers, my parents. You steal all the air out of the fucking room, and I was tired of suffocating.”
I feel like he’s knocking the air out of my lungs. This man is a fucking piece of work. “Nine years, you’ve been cheating on me,” I say, needing the truth. “And you want me to give you one more?”
“I felt trapped,” he admits, his eyes pleading with mine, and I’m utterly disgusted.
“So, cheating and starting a new family would make everyone love you?”
His eyes are full of anger, and before, I would have tried to soothe it, but not anymore. “No,” he bites out, looking up at the sky. “I wouldn’t have cheated if the money weren’t involved. I would have just left you.”
“Well, this has all backfired on you, huh?” I say with a laugh, but there is no humor in the sound.
A tear rolls down his cheek, and I want to smack it off. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this,” he says, his voice rough.
“What, me finding out?” I scoff, glaring at him.
“No, with Jackie. It just got out of control.”
“Yeah, God forbid you keep your dick under control,” I deadpan.
His eyes flash to mine. “I never meant to hurt you. I would have ended it way before if I didn’t need the money. You have to understand.”
“I don’t have to understand a fucking thing,” I snap, my eyes burning with tears. “You’re not sorry it happened, Stratford—you’re sorry you got caught. Yet you still haven’t apologized,” I remind him, my eyes daring him to look away.
“That goes unsaid,” he says so calmly, I want to throttle him. I confront him, and this is how he acts? Like I shouldn’t have found out.
I wasted years on him.
I shake my head, completely overwhelmed by this conversation and hating that my son heard him on the phone with his other family. It doesn’t matter. Stratford is nothing to me any longer. My boys will always be mine and will always love me. I know that, deep in my heart. Just as I know this man will never be anything to me other than the sperm donor of my perfect boys.
Boys I raised.
I step into his space and hold his gaze. “Well, this may go unsaid, but I’m gonna say it anyway.” I slam the papers into his chest. “Sign the papers, continue being a good dad, and then do what you do best.” I shove the pen into his chest next, and with pure venom in my voice, I sneer, “Forget I was ever your fucking wife.”
CHAPTER
FOUR
