bought for our future, it seems along with a failing marriage, we may as well have a place that isn’t a home.
As soon as I’m in the lobby, I’m using my special penthouse suite badge to get to where I’m staying. It’s a long sixty-floor journey, but it takes a lot less time than you’d think. When the elevator stops, I’m met with a hallway leading to hell. With a few paces toward the double doors, I’m face-to-face with her and immediately notice her glacial stare.
My worst enemy.
The biggest liar of all.
My goddamn wife.
“Where were you?” she accuses, ice lacing her tone like it does the windows when snow falls. Crossing her arms, I watch the hand that brands her as mine grip herself tightly as if it’s the only motion keeping her from raging out.
Our daily routine consists of not getting five feet before she’s grilling me and I’m spitting treacherous words in return. Round and round we go, killing each other with every lie we’ve spun. Does it hurt, Joey? Knowing you’re this fucking dangerous to me... because I didn’t know or I’d have never fucked you three years ago.
She started this war, not me. The only difference between her and I? I’ve decided to win.
She played dirty, only realizing too late that I play the dirtiest.
“Running,” I bite back, glaring at her. Her hands hold her hips like I’ve done many times. Her rich auburn hair is straight and as silky, long enough to pull but not as long as hers. Even though I hate my wife, she’s stunning. She’s fucking sexy even while she disgusts me with every fiber of my being. And God, the things I’ve done to her even while hating her... yet here we both stay.
I stare at her, mesmerized, while also lifting my nose in the air as if she’s lesser than me. With her petite but generous curves, tiny nose, and whiskey amber eyes, I’m enthralled. She’s a fiery siren waiting to hunt me down and steal my soul after she drags me beneath the black sea.
Too bad there’s nothing left for her to take.
Once upon of a time, she could have been everything to me. She was.
Fool me once... never again.
She can fight all she wants for this dead, binding relationship we have, but she’ll never own another piece of my heart.
When we met, I thought she was the perfect distraction. Now I know better; she’s the catalyst of everything I once held dear. And we’ll destroy each other eventually.
With my answer hanging in the air, she’s giving me the most disdainful look. She wanted this. Wanted me. Used me. Destroyed me.
“Is that all you were doing?” she nearly hisses. The venom spewing from her lips is enough to have my haunches up. She doesn’t get to accuse me. She doesn’t get to question my whereabouts. She doesn’t get anything from me.
“Whether that’s all I was doing or not, it’s none of your damn business. You lost that privilege when you fucked up this relationship,” I all but yell.
She closes her eyes almost in pain, but she doesn’t know my pain. She doesn’t feel what I’ve felt since that day changed our lives.
“I care,” she says, her tone bereft of all the anger she threw at me moments ago.
“Bullshit!” I call her out, knowing her true intentions, knowing she was never here for us.
She lets out a ragged breath, huffing like a child unable to get what she wants. “You’re still my husband, Tobias.”
“And you’re my biggest mistake, Joey,” I spit.
“I love you,” she barely whispers.
“I fucking hate you.” My words deliver the last blow as they usually do. It’s my only response before walking into the master bathroom, undressing and heading into the shower, hoping to clean all the dirt, regret, and grit away.
Maybe I’d call Bry and get some much-needed frustration worked out. I need to unwind, and my wife isn’t the one to do the job anymore. It only entangles us further, damaging what’s left of my soul.
Chapter Twenty
Past
Toby
I stare at you with temptation. Why is it something so beautiful and fierce came into my life when I needed it the most? That’s what you are, a cirrus of glowing fireflies with the capability of harm but instead chooses light.
You giggle. Your eyes alight with a glimmer of something I haven’t felt in years. It’s a reminder to be young at heart, even if life ages us. I love the way your smile is a little crooked,