Love to Hate You (Hope Valley #9) - Jessica Prince Page 0,72
minutes out of the way to confront someone,” I said condescendingly. “You’re just embarrassing yourself, because it’s obvious you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
“I’m not her man,” Alex blurted before she could get a word out. He started toward me but was stopped when Micah moved fast, cutting off his path.
“That’s close enough.”
My ex’s face grew red, his features twisting up with anger. “You need to stay out of my way. This is between me and my wife.”
“Your wife?” Krista shrieked.
“For the love of God, I am not your wife!” I cried in frustration.
Meanwhile, Micah moved closer. It was only one step, but it was more than enough to scare the hell out of any regular person. “Gave you one warnin’ already, pal,” he snarled. “That’s all you’re gonna get. You call her your wife one more time, you’ll be eating all your meals through a straw.”
“You can’t threaten me!” he blustered, looking to the uniformed officer. “Did you hear that? This man just threatened me.”
I didn’t recognize the man, but I knew instantly that I liked him when he scrunched his face in confusion. “Huh? Sorry, didn’t hear that.”
“This is outrageous! I’ll be calling your superiors—”
“Alex!” I shouted, cutting him off while sidestepping Micah so I could get this whole thing over with. “Just say why you’re here and leave. This is my place of business, not the set of a goddamn soap opera.”
“Hady Cakes, I want you back,” he blurted. “I made a huge mistake, honey. I didn’t appreciate what I had when I had it—”
“Well no shit,” Aunt Sylvia muttered loudly.
“I still love you,” he continued. “I never stopped. You have to believe me. I know we can get back to where we once were. Remember all the good times?”
“You mean like that trip to Disney you texted me about?”
He smiled wide, his gaze filling with hope as he took a step closer. “Yeah. Exactly! Remember how great that was?”
“Actually, we were just talking about that, weren’t we, ladies?” I glanced back at Dani and McKenna. “You know, I’m curious about something. Did knowing your wife and daughter were just on the other side of the door make it difficult to get off when you were having phone sex with your slut? Is that why your “business calls” took so long?” I scrunched my face into a mock look of pity. “Did you have a bit of stage fright?”
I heard a snort and looked over just in time to see Leo and the other officer duck their heads, but not before I saw the grin on each of their faces.
Alex’s eyes got huge as all the color leached from his face. “I didn’t—that wasn’t—”
“You’d already been fucking her for three months by the time we took that trip, dumbass. I guess you forgot that when you were texting me that little trip down memory lane.”
“Damn,” the officer muttered, shaking his head in disapproval. “That’s a whole new level of stupid.”
“No one asked you!” Alex rasped quickly before jerking back around to me.
“You need to take your fiancée and leave,” I said firmly. “Get out of my shop and my town.”
“Hayden, please. You have to listen to me—”
“No I don’t. You made your choice. The wife and the child you already had weren’t good enough, so you went out and got replacements. That’s on you.”
“She was never pregnant!” he shouted.
The weight of those words slammed into me so hard I stumbled back a step. If it hadn’t been for Micah taking my arms and pressing his chest against my back, I probably would have gone down.
Everything shifted in that moment. The air, the ground beneath my feet, that goddamn organ inside my chest.
“What?” I whispered, finding it hard to breathe all of a sudden.
“She was never pregnant,” he repeated, his voice tortured. “I didn’t know. I thought—I . . . I only just found out there was no baby.”
Krista at least had the good grace to look contrite as I slowly turned my attention to her. “You’re unbelievable,” I started quietly. Then my voice boomed. “God! You fucking bitch! You knew!”
“Hayden, baby—” Micah started, but all I could see was red.
“How many times did we cry together? How many times, Krista?” I shook my head in disgust. “I called you in tears after every miscarriage, after every failed fertility treatment!”
“Oh shit,” I heard grunted, but was too lost in what I’d just discovered to pay attention to anyone else in that room.