Page 14 of Alec’s Dream

“Tell me why you don’t want to press charges?”

The evasion game Alec was playing was testing my last thread of patience. I’d seriously had enough. My day had started at six AM after a night of tossing and turning so I wasn’t all that thrilled to roll out of bed. Then I had the super unpleasant experience of waking my preteen son up at nine AM on a Saturday morning to tell him the great news that his grandparents were taking him and his sister shopping, then to a movie. Since Caleb hated shopping and had no interest in seeing a movie that would entertain his sister, he wasn’t happy and didn’t mind telling me just how unhappy he was.

But since my kid was twelve and smart and knew his father was playing some fucked-up game—even though I hid it the best I could—Caleb was pissed he was rolling out of bed early on a Saturday so I could send him and his sister away so they weren’t home when Doug came banging on the door.

My son let this anger be known by telling me he wanted to see his father—never. Caleb had also expressed Rory wasn’t seeing him either because Doug was being sugar-sweet to Rory. Then my son shared something that blew my mind—Caleb figured his dad was playing Rory in an effort to turn her against me.

Why Doug would do this I did not know. We had a custody arrangement I’d never, not once, gone back on. I had never, not even when we were married and he was running around on me fucking every female in a hundred-mile radius, said one bad thing about him to our children. And when he starting gambling, then lost everything we had, I still kept my thoughts to myself.

Now it was eleven-thirty, I was physically exhausted, emotionally rung out and I didn’t want to explain myself to Alec—ever—but especially not right then. Not when Doug had fried the last of my sanity and Jonny was still outside waiting to hear what I wanted done with Doug.

“I’m not doing this with you, Alec,” I told him.

“Doing what?”

“This. All of it. It is none of your business. I don’t want you involved.”

“Too late, I’m involved.”

I was simply too tired to argue.

“Please leave.”

“Not until Jonny clears your front yard of the trash.”

Right. There was the reminder I needed. Trash. That was my life, and Perfect Alec had no business getting his hands dirty.

I glanced to my left, looked through the large picture window and saw Doug was now standing arguing with Jonny and I couldn’t stop myself from wondering what I’d done that was so bad I deserved this?

My only sin was falling in love with the devil and now it was not me paying the price, it was my children.

6

Alec watched as the beautiful woman in front of him stared out the window. He did this thinking she should never play poker. Every emotion played across her face. Hate was the frontrunner but there was also pain. And Alec didn’t think it was hurt born from losing the man she once loved enough to marry, the type of woman Macy was, he’d bet everything he owned that hurt was for her children.

Alec had Macy in profile, her eyes glued on her ex. Then to his absolute horror, Macy’s lips started trembling.

“I don’t know what I did to make him do this to our kids,” she said unmoving. “I gave him everything and walked away. Not that there was much left, but I didn’t fight it. I didn’t quibble over furniture, the house, nothing. He got it all. I walked with my clothes, my children, and their stuff. That was it. And still he hates me so much he’s playing my kids to fuck me over. I just don’t get it.”

He already knew all of that but he wisely kept that tidbit to himself. If she didn’t appreciate him pushing her to press charges, he very much doubted she’d like that he’d already started digging into her and Doug’s divorce.

Instead, he asked a question that had been bothering him since he pulled up and found her out on her lawn nose-to-nose with the dickhead.

“Where are the kids?”

“With my parents.”

“If you knew he was coming why’d you come back here?”

Macy’s gaze slid to Alec’s and he fought to keep his anger in check.

The woman was wrecked and he loathed the hurt he saw. It wasn’t in her eyes, she didn’t wear it on her face, the wound clung to her flesh and tore at her soul.

The sure he was that morning, he wanted to wade in and fix this for Macy intensified tenfold.

“Because I’ve learned when Doug is determined to get his way it’s better to face it head-on. If I wasn’t here, he’d wait. If he still didn’t get me, he’d show up again later. I took Caleb and Rory to my parents so they wouldn’t see what just happened. If I stayed gone, he’d come back and my kids would be here. To avoid that, I came back. He got his scene so now my babies won’t have to witness it later.”

Motherfucking asshole.