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I groaned inwardly. We’d learned to be polite to each other at big family events and the occasional holiday, but I knew every mood of my ex-wife. She was happy because she was like a cat with a mouse. There was something she wanted to hold over my head.
What joy.
I rounded on her and drained my glass of champagne. “I don’t have time for this.”
“I don’t think I ever had time for your bullshit,” she said. Then she arched her head over her shoulder and made sure the door shut behind her. It left us alone on the silent balcony. “What did you think you were trying to pull?”
“What?”
Mel strode over and glared into my eyes. In her heels, she was almost eye to eye with me; a reminder of having fallen once for a model with a love for stilettos. “Do you really think I’d never find out? You’re fucking lucky that I took care of things before that tramp you were with could ruin everything between you and Tammy.”
“You found out about Selena?”
“You were hardly discreet. For fuck’s sake, sneaking off to a bedroom during Tammy’s birthday party? Really? It’s a wonder half the party didn’t figure out right then and there what you were doing. Or, you know, who you were doing.”
“What the hell did you tell her, Mel?”
She laughed and sipped her drink as if we were making casual party conversation. “The truth: that you’ve had dozens of girls in your life, to put it mildly. That you’ve broken hearts before.”
“I’m sorry about what happened… That I worked so hard. That I cheated.”
“I don’t care about that. I’m actually happy now, but how do you think I was going to put Tammy back together, yet again, you selfish bastard?”
“We were waiting for the right time to tell her,” I hedged.
“The right time to tell her she was going to be a big sister because you knocked up her whore of a best friend?”
I dropped the glass in my hand and cursed when it shattered. “What? She’s what?”
“Pregnant. You can’t even bother to use a condom. You used to be less risky.”
“She was on the pill.”
She finished her drink. “Then apparently the little strumpet is more of a conniver than you thought. I saw the test myself; she was using it in a spare bathroom of my house during the party.”
“Fuck.”
“Exactly,” she said. “You must be so proud of yourself. Don’t worry, to save Tammy’s sense of self, I sent her away.”
“What does that even mean?” I asked, grabbing her shoulders.
She pulled away from me as she sent a death glare my way. “Don’t pretend this isn’t easier for you. I paid her off, Brandon, and now your whore can go and be far away from all of us. Who knows if she even kept the child. For a cool million plus, I’d do a lot of things.”
I couldn’t swallow. The thought that I had a child and that something might have happened to it already was too much to bear. “You’re a monster.”
“I’m protecting our family… What’s left of it.”
“Fuck you, Mel. You’re a selfish bitch, and you had no right to do this.”
“Just like you had no right to have the most clichéd midlife crisis ever and drag our daughter into it. Just give it up, Brandon. Selena wanted the money, not you. So just ignore her. You know I am.”
I shook my head and stomped toward the sliding glass door and the gallery.
“I know you’ve messed with my family for the last time, Mel.”
“Where are you going?”
“To West Virginia. Right now.”
