“Fuck, it is him. Something is definitely going on between them, something that would have dragged his ass out of his shitty studio warehouse to actually work on something as shallow as an exhibit in his eyes. He has money, he doesn’t need fame or recognition, and his father has all the power in the world to have his son be as self-centered and egocentric as he is. There’s only one thing he truly wants for all of this.”
“Her,”I said, desperately trying to control my anger. I was practically brimming with rage, but I had to keep my composure. This was some fucked-up kind of love triangle… well,love square.Except Gavin didn’t love Rosenna, or if he did, he had a pretty shitty way of showing it, and Beckham and I were both infatuated with her.
But she chose him. She chose someone else again, passing me over for the second time. I was practically seething in rage, and Gavin was angry that his little cash cow or gold mine of a wife, for lack of better words, was slipping through his control.
“She’s mine. She’s my fucking wife, my fuckingpossession, and she’s going to fucking pay for betraying me like this.”
“Gavin… Let’s think about this.”
“Think about what? Think about how she’s going to take everything from me. How she’s going to use Garcia to fucking ruin me?” he seethed.
After a moment of silence, I rubbed my chin. “At first… you’re going to give her everything she’s asked for.”
He furrowed his eyebrows. “What?”
“Rosenna wants a family. She wants a baby. Talk to her about it before it’s too late. Gauge her mindset, and if she’s not too far gone, you’re going to give her that baby to tie her to you for life,” I replied, feeling the need to spite her out of my own jealousy for not being with her. She was slipping from Gavin’s control, but worse…she was slipping through mine, too.Well, not if I had anything to do with it.
“She’s never going to go for that now. That was years ago,” Gavin disagreed, but I shook my head.
“Never say never. Give her everything you can, and if she refuses…then we’ll just have to take everything she has.”
“She has Vincent Garcia and his son backing her, Brent. I’d be lucky if I was slapped in the face with losing the house if we divorced.”
“No. You’ll be lucky when we seize all of her assets and make a convincing court case that grants you alimony for the next twenty years.”
He seemed conflicted for a moment before his eyes held complete understanding. However, there was still something bothering him.
“The Garcias aren’t just going to let all of this slide.”
“You’re absolutely right, and with their money, they can get the best attorney possible, but lucky for us, if we play on the right side of the law… It’ll be almost as if you never lost your wife to begin with.”
A week later, I found myself parked outside the restaurant Beckham suggested—where Gavin and Rosenna were having dinner.
It was the night of Gavin’s grand fucking confession. His last-ditch effort to keep his wife on a leash.
I leaned back in my seat, watching through the window. Rosenna took a slow sip of her wine, looking drained. She wasn’t buying it. Not fully.
From my car, I rang Gavin’s cell, and he answered it.
“Brent, talk to me.”
I clenched my jaw, noticing Beckham in the corner of the restaurant, watching them silently. “Either you’re a fucking idiot, or you’re just oblivious that Garcia is in the restaurant now.”
The words landed like a punch, but his voice stayed smooth as he continued,“What do you mean they found an escape clause? The contract was infallible.”With the legal jargon he used to deter Rosenna from suspecting a thing, I let out a tired sigh in response.
“I know you want to see if she’ll say yes, but I don’t think she’ll budge. Not while he’s there, at least.”
“How long until the revision window closes?”
“We need proof of the affair. Get out of there so we can see what he does next.”
“We can make it by midnight… I’ll be there soon.”He ended the call, and soon enough, he walked over and sat beside me in the car. His caring husband façade immediately shut off as we watched Beckham walk over to run his hand over Rosenna’s shoulder to comfort her.
She didn’t flinch. Didn’t pull away.
Wiping away her tears with his thumb as he stood behind her, we watched as she spoke softly, and after a moment, he wrapped her hair in a fist before pulling her head back to look up at him.
Gavin’s jaw ticked as he looked at her in utter disgust. “I’m going to take every fucking thing she owns, whether the little whore likes it or not.”
