Page 67 of The Wedding Planner's Manny
“Fine! You can have your stupid divorce! But I need a place to crash for a couple of days until I can find my own place.”
“You seriously think I'm going to let you stay in this house?” The nerve of her! “I don't know why you even came back.”
“For the children!”
I shook my head at her. “You didn't come back for the children. I know you too well. Your art career didn't work out, did it?”
“It's not easy to get your breakthrough as an artist, okay? No need for you to sneer at me! All I'm asking is to stay with my children for a few days. You'd be heartless to say no.”
“I'm not being heartless. I'm protecting our children from your abuse. There's nothing to tell me you won't abandon them again and I'll never forgive you for doing it the first time. I don't know iftheywill. You have a lot to answer for.” It felt good to finally be able to take her to task for her crimes, but at the time, I derived no satisfaction from it. Not when I thought of all the damage she'd caused, some of which could never be repaired. Not truly.
Laura huffed and a gust of wind whipped her hair as she spoke on. “How am I supposed to answer for it if you won't let me stay here?”
“By not leaving Oceanport again at the first sign of opposition,” I suggested. “There's a great bed & breakfast up on Main Street. You can crash there. The kids can visit you.”
“You're really going to make your wife stay at the bed & breakfast? You're a wedding planner, Ethan.
What will the people say?”
A bout of laughter rolled from my lips. She'd missed so much by not being here. Served her right. “I stopped caring what the people are saying the moment I started sleeping with my manny.” The rumorshadhurt my business a little bit, but not so much that I couldn't recover in time. When I thought of all the years I'd spent making life decisions based on other people's opinions, my newly acquired attitude of not giving a fuck was nothing but liberating.
Laura's mouth fell open and she looked at me as if she had no idea who I was anymore. She recovered quickly, though, straightening and crossing her arms in front of her chest. “You might not care about the rumors, but I know something you do care about.”
“Yeah? What's that?”
A triumphant smile stretched her lips as she spoke. “The kids. You want a divorce? Fine. Just know that I'll be fighting you for custody. If you don't let me stay, that is.”
She couldn't be serious. No way. “No judge in the world is going to give you custody after leaving like that.”
“Are you sure? I'm the mother. And you abused me.”
“I never abused you!” What the hell was she talking about?
“Can you prove it?”
I swallowed. “You wouldn't really tell a judge that—” I stopped myself when I saw the gleeful expression on her face. She totallywould, and we both knew it. Laura loved to create drama, and she wasn't above cheating to get what she wanted. In our senior year of high school, she'd mixed laxatives into her best friend's lunch before a cheerleading competition because she wanted the spot on top of the pyramid for herself.
“What's going to happen from here on out is really your choice,” she said.
“You know I'd win in the end.”
She shrugged. “True, but do you really want to put the children through the legal battle?”
I ground my teeth together. God, I wanted to punch someone. Preferably her. “Two nights,” I growled.
“Then you find somewhere else to stay. I recommend it for your own health and safety.”
“Fine.” She smiled. “Shall we go back in? I haven't been able to talk to Nathan yet.”
She turned around and headed back into the house before I could even respond. Groaning, I got my phone out of my pocket and fired off a text message to my oldest son.
Lock your door.
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R H Y S
W hen Ethan came back into the house, I could tell from the expression on his face that his conversation with his ex had not gone well. He looked like a thundercloud ready to electrocute anyone who didn't run and seek shelter from the oncoming storm. I was having the children build a city out of Lego in the family room—and hoped that no one decided to go Godzilla on it when I excused myself for a minute to go talk to my boyfriend.
