“I’m pissed, Dee. This isn’t okay, and it won’t happen again, you hear me?”
Her eyes widened.
“But you always come when I call.”
He nodded, flaring his nostrils. “Past tense. It stops now. No more. You’ve cried wolf one too many times and I’m done. I have a life, I have shit to do, responsibilities. I don’t owe you anything. You took the best years of my life and left me broke. We aren’t friends.”
Each word made her flinch as her jaw hung open.
“I’m supposed to be visiting Mom. The nurse said today was a good day, she doesn’t have those very often anymore, and I’m here withyou. We’re done, Dee.” He nodded again. “I’m done.”
She rolled her lips, her eyes flaring. “Fine. Sign the fucking papers and we never have to see each other again.”
He had so many questions. Was she planning on selling at last? They’d agreed to sell up and split the money fifty-fifty. It would be enough to clear his debts and bail him out of hot water. But every time he brought up the subject, she gave him excuse after excuse.
He wouldn’t want to see her homeless,right?
Despite her meeting him at the office, her precious Tim now had no job, no home, and no prospects. He was living in their marital home, with Elliott’s ex-wife, while Elliott lived in a shitty one-bedroom apartment with damp in the walls because his parent’s house was too far away from his job. Fucking Tim.
“I’ll read them, sign them, and drop them off when I’m done.”
“Don’t take too long.” She slid a thumbnail between her teeth. “We need to get it sorted out, ASAP, mmkay?” Blowing him a kiss, she turned and sashayed out of the diner.
Was she fucking kidding?
“Would you like a refill?” A server stopped at his table.
“Got anything stronger?” Her snicker made his head snap up. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
“Yes, you did.” The white-haired, elderly woman grinned at him. “Lemme fix you a stack. It’s not a shot of whiskey, but it might make you feel a bit better.”
Damn straight, it would. Pancakes for one sounded pretty damn delicious.
He gave her a warm smile. “Thanks, Maisy. I’d appreciate it.”
With a nod, she topped up his mug with fresh coffee and left him alone to his envelope. Sliding the pages out onto the table he wondered how his life had been reduced to a few pieces of paper and fluffy pancakes alone in a well-loved diner.
Raking his hand through his hair, he scanned the first page. It looked simple enough, but he’d still want his lawyer to look it all over and make sure Denise wasn’t co-opting him into a kidney removal or something more sinister.
Page two and three were more of the same, with a small pink Post It flagging on page three where she wanted him to sign. Now that his blood pressure was starting to return to normal, he wondered why she needed to refinance, and why his name needed to be taken off the damn house to do so. It wasn’t adding up. He smelled a rat. A Tim-sized rat.
Page three was stuck to page four, and when he tugged to separate them, another pink Post It highlighted a space for another signature.
Only this time it wasn’t his. Every drop of blood rushed to the surface of his body as he vibrated with rage. The name staring back at him was Denise’s current beau, Tim Delaney.
Swallowing down the burning bile at the back of his throat, he gripped the page like it might flutter away or disappear. Was she really takinghisname off the mortgage so she could put that freeloading piece of shit’s name on instead?
Did she think he was born yesterday? That he wouldn’t question it? That she could somehow pull a switcheroo and he just wouldn’t notice that he no longer co-owned a house?
Fuck.
Over his dead and decaying fucking body would that asshole get Elliott’s house.
His hands trembled, making the page jitter and twitch. But he definitely wasn’t seeing things. The more he scanned and rescanned the words the more furious he became. What the fuck did she think she was doing? She’d almost had him fooled, too. There was a time he’d have blindly signed the paper and handed it to her without reading the fine print.
That’s probably what she’d banked on.
Conniving bitch.
