Page 33 of Falling for the Hot Billionaire

“I found that if it is one of your acquaintances, I think we both know which one it is. It likely wasn’t a business one.”

I worried what he was going to say. When he said the name of my ex-wife, it wasn't clear if that was true or not. Could Monica have done something like that? She had not liked me moving here and if she found out that Justine lived next door to me, I wouldn't put it past her. To be honest, there wasn't much that I would put past her at all. She was just like me in some ways. She would go above and beyond to get what she wanted. She had already gone to quite some extremes to make Justine share the pain. She had lodged several complaints against her trying to get her fired. Sadly, I wouldn't put this past her at all, but I liked to believe that she was better than that, that she wouldn’t do something like that, but who was I kidding?

My next stop after talking to Jacob was to go see Monica. I really didn't want to believe that she would do something like that, but Monica did have a tendency to go the extra mile when she thought she had been wronged. She felt like I had wronged her and probably didn't blame me but the woman who had gotten me instead. When I thought about it, it really wasn't that hard to see her doing it. I wished it wasn't the case, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew it to be true.

Monica did not seem surprised to see me, though her face crumpled up a little bit when I started right off with the real reason I was there. There was no reason to play games.

“Do you really think that I'm capable of such a thing?” She couldn't even bring herself to make a straight face when she asked.

“I definitely think you would. Just tell me, Monica, did you burn that house down next to mine?”

“You mean the one of your lover’s?” she asked with a smile. She hadn't admitted to it, but that was probably as close I was always going to get to an answer. I just couldn't believe that she would do something like that. What the hell was she thinking?

I asked her as much and she scoffed. “Do you really think that I was going to lose you and not have my revenge? I swear it's like you don't even know me at all.”

“I must not know you, because I never would have thought that you were capable of such treachery. That wasn’t revenge. It was arson, and you could have hurt someone, or worse.”

“I am capable of anything to keep you. I would burn down this whole town.”

I couldn't feel flattered over this. There was just no damn way. She had torched someone’s house down and what was I supposed to say to that? Now I felt like a mess, and she was just smiling about it.

“What happens if the police get involved? You can go to prison for this, Monica.”

She waved me off. “You know that people like us don’t go to prison. Besides, you'll never find enough evidence. Everything burned up in the fire.” She had the biggest smile on her face, and it was then that I couldn't believe that I had been with her so long. Why hadn’t I seen it?

“You know, I keep thinking that I’ve seen as low as you can go, but then you just go lower, don’t you?”

“Oh, stop. Don't act like you wouldn't have done the same thing if that's what you wanted. You seem to think that I don't know you, Tyrell. Everybody knows how you really are. You’ll get bored one day soon and be on to the next one.”

“Yeah? I will have you know that I have been more than generous to you. You don’t even deserve it.”

“I don't deserve what? We were married and you didn't have an explanation for the divorce. You just wanted one all of a sudden. We hadn’t even been married a year, with you in a coma for months. You never gave us a chance, Tyrell!”

I chuckled; I couldn’t help it. Monica looked at me as if I had cut her, but it was just my misplaced humor.

“You were cheatingon me while I was in the hospital in that coma! What did you expect?”

“I don’t think anybody would actually blame me for that.”

I told her that she was wrong. I blamed the hell out of her and maybe it did have something to do with the nurse coming into my life and changing the way I saw things. She showed me that I deserved more. I wasn't going to lose that. I wasn't going to lose Justine, and I told Monica that she better get a decent lawyer.

“Why, are you going to rat me out?”

“I might. If it comes down to between you and Justine, I will do what is necessary to get her free. They are trying to blame her for it and I'm not going to let that happen.”

“You’d really throw me under the bus for her?” Monica asked with astonishment. I swear she lived in her own little world.

“In a heartbeat.”

That got me a dirty look and to be fair, I probably could have said it better. But I wasn't going to let it happen. Nothing bad was going to happen to Justine because of me any longer. Not from the decisions I made or the enemies I’d picked up along the way. Justine didn’t deserve any of it. She had gone out of her way to keep me safe, and this was how I repaid her? I felt like shit about it. Honestly, I couldn't believe that I had chosen to go down such a path, but I kept telling myself that I was going to fix it. It was the only way that she was going to forgive me, and I didn't even know if it would be enough. Either way though, she didn't deserve this, and I was going to go out of my way to make sure that she got everything she deserved.

It was hard going down to the police station and talking to an officer about my ex-wife and my new lover. It even sounded strange to call Justine that. We'd only done it once, but it had meant something. I had to figure out a way to get Justine to forgive me. I might not deserve it, but I wasn't going to be able to go on without her. I could see the mistakes that I’d made. I just had to fix it.

25

Justine

Five months later

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