Page 158 of The Bad Husband

“What about everything else?” I murmur.

He brings his thumb to my face and wipes a tear away.

“There’s nothing else.’

“What about the money that she owes you? Is she truly getting away with it?”

His hand lingers on my face, then slides to my shoulder before moving away.

“There’s nothing I can do to her right now. I have my own legal problems to be concerned with. I’ll deal with her later. She’s no longer a priority for me.”

“But why? I don’t understand. Isn’t that a little extreme for her to do something like that to you?”

I don’t know what else to say.

What am I supposed to say?

He’s not here to ask me to wait for him. Would I wait for him if he’d asked me to?

I wish I knew the answer to that question. But there are so many things I still don’t know.

“Marrying her to get my money was extreme, too.”

“She stole from you.”

“Yes, she did. I could’ve killed her. That would’ve been extreme as well. There’s not a pinch of fairness in this game.”

“Do you think she would have acted differently if we stayed away from each other?”

He shrugs.

“Maybe. She would’ve probably planned out her revenge differently. Once she knew I wouldn’t be with her again, she felt she could do anything to me.”

“So, she’ll get her inheritance.”

He nods.

“And possibly keep the money that she stole from you,” I go on.

He nods again.

“For how long?” I say breathlessly.

He focuses on me again.

“How much time do you need to serve?”

“The exact time will be established at the sentencing hearing. A few years, most likely.”

Something breaks inside me. So many things can happen in a few years.

It’s like I’m witnessing my own funeral, although there’s no corpse in the casket. It’s only our story’s remains.

My tears fall.

“And you’re not asking me to wait for you?”

He studies me, disheartened.