Page 57 of Fallen Rook

I sat up straighter, watching as she flung her arms around his shoulders and jumped him like a rabid ho.

Okay, okay, fine, that was harsh. Like a person who missed him.

But also…like a person who wanted to fuck him.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her forehead. My gag reflex, which had not presented itself to me when I took Tom’s footlong-sub cock into my mouth, decided now was a good time to remind me it existed.

I needed to throw up. Urgently.

Confusion and horror snatched me by the throat.

What the fuck?

What the fucking fuck?!

I didn’t think it could get any worse than that, but somehow, it did, when the door reopened and a kid inserted himself into the mix.

He looked to be about ten or eleven, but I was too far away to make out his features. His hair was dark, like Tom’s, which told me there was a good chance it was his child.

And his wife.

And his home.

He’d lied to me.

Tom hugged the kid and the three of them went inside and closed the door. I tried telling myself that all of this had a plausible explanation. But when I ran all the different scenarios for this kind of scene in my head, I couldn’t think of one.

Unless this chick’s husband was inside the house, waiting for all of them.

Yeah. That could be it. Because there was no way this was Tom’s ex-wife. I’d seen chummy exes, but I’d never seen this much affection and enthusiasm between two people who used to pork each other.

I stayed on surveillance, losing my ever-loving mind.

Two hours after he walked in, Tom walked out…

With Blondie and the kid. They all slipped into his car.

Cursing under my breath, I waited a few minutes before following them downtown. They parked in front of a Mexican place and went inside. No husband, partner, or whatever-the-fuck in sight. Just the three of them.

I knew it was risky for a bevy of reasons, but decided to get out of my car so I could watch them through the window anyway. The hostess sat them at a booth, which offered me a shitty angle, but at least I was fully concealed from their view.

They held hands as they said grace before the complimentary chips and salsa came.

Then the woman had her elbow on Tom’s shoulder the entire time she told him and the kid a story.

The kid looked at Tom like he was God himself. The way normal kids looked up to their fathers at that age if they don’t abuse and belittle them, like mine did.

My heart felt like it was wrung dry. I tried to breathe, but there wasn’t enough air. It felt like Tom had thrown a brick at me and called it a day.

Look away now.

But I couldn’t. I wanted it to hurt. I deserved the pain, for being such a stupid naive idiot.

How could he…

How could I…

He hid a wife and a son from me.