“You f-followed me i-in y-your car?” Shock cracked my voice, but I concealed it by slamming my hand on the table. “I saw you. I saw your car.”If not him, then which one of the Babineauxs?The guy had three younger brothers. One of them …? He stood there, shaking his bald head.
Man. This hurt.
I meant nothing to him?
My husband for almost fifteen years.
My first.
I gave him a … son.
And he hadn’t even stalked me? What kinda of crap was this?
I snapped. “You a bald-faced lie.”
He scoffed through those lips that once adored me. “You mad I wasn’t stalking you, Madison?”
No!Big Mad.
Giving someone your attention is arguably the greatest gift. Why? Because your time is your life. And I wasn’t worth a single second in Your Bald Honor Babineaux’s life. Not anymore. Life kept moving, and he’d moved on with it.
But somewhere beneath that gleaming scalp and endless rules sat a man who once made me feel alive. Special. And he hadn’t even stalked me?
washington
. . .
“You mad I wasn’t stalking you, Madison?”
I pitched a brow. I couldn’t believe we had gone so low. We’d hit rock bottom after our son passed, but I never thought it would come to this. My ex-wife in a police interrogation room.
She was still fine as hell, even in those mismatched fuzzy pajamas the cops dragged her ass outta her house in. But her attitude was the type of fire I didn’t want to touch. She’d burned me enough during our divorce by…not taking a single thing. She’d left with only her business to her name.
Man, we’d done everything ourselves for Mad Bold & Blown, Madison’s glass home décor shop wasgone. I couldn’t believe it. Made love every day while planning that place. Her glass-blown art store sat at the corner of St. Peter and Royal. Prime location. I couldn’t understand what had happened.
Is that important, Wash? This girl don’t love you anymore.
“My momma stalked you.” Running a hand over my smooth head, I added, “Under the pretense that she was me. She borrowed my Bentley sometimes while I went to work. Or after I had gone to bed. Momma drove by your place tryna make it seem like it was me … so maybe you’d call me and we mighttalk.” Man, Momma wanted it to appear like I’d been lurking behind bushes like some Booboo the Fool. I shrugged. “I just found out.”
“So that absolves you of stalking?” Madison snorted.
“I didn’t stalk you, Maddy.” I stared deep into those narrowed slits from across a steel table that I would have jumped over to rescue her from. But she wasn’t my wife anymore.
“I. Get. It. Now,” Madison snapped. “Where’s your momma?”
“What?”
Madison dropped her chin into her hands, all innocent like, while the chains clinked on the surface. “Ipassed bythe only women’s holding cell. Miss Virginia wasn’t there.”
I dropped into the leather chair across from her. “You want me to have my momma arrested?”
She blinked. “Is stalking a felony or misdemeanor?—”
“Maddy,” I chided.
“Aww, you remind me of a Lifetime movie husband.”
She’d vandalized my car, and now she wanted to discuss some crap television movies? My eyes rolled. “What type of dude is a Lifetime husband?”Please.This beautiful woman, mad as she was, was tryna bring me lower.
