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I’m signing a contract with the Pittsburgh Titans. I’m going to find an attorney there that can help process a divorce. I’m sorry.
And that was it. The fucker didn’t even bother to sign his name. I was beyond enraged when I realized he’d been planning this for a while. There’s no way he just picked up the phone yesterday and found a way back into the league. His agent had to have been working on it since the book came out.
That evil asshole Arco VanBuskirk sold his life story to some gold-digging biographer and that book ruined my entire life.
It was a week ago that Van left and I haven’t heard anything from him.
I claw out of the bad memories, pushing myself up from my chair. Malik is probably right. I shouldn’t chase a man who doesn’t want me anymore, and honestly, I’m exhausted to the bone. My husband abandoned me because he couldn’t handle the hard truth of his life. It’s grounds enough for divorce both legally and emotionally.
My phone buzzes, short bursts of static sounds indicating a barrage of incoming texts.
Proving that I’m still a sucker, I lunge for it, thinking it could be Van.
It’s not.
Malik has now added Lucas and Max to the conversation. All three of them are hammering at me.
Malik:If you won’t listen to me, maybe you’ll listen to collective reasoning.
Max:Baby sis… you got to let him go.
Lucas:Simone’s never made the best decisions, as evidenced by the fact she got caught up with him in the first place. I say we kill the motherfucker and end it now.
Malik:You know I can make that happen with the snap of my fingers.
Max:Lay off, guys… Simone’s a smart woman. She’ll do the right thing.
I toss my phone and ignore their conversation. They’ve always been overprotective bullies when it comes to me, and if it makes them feel better to flex their brother muscles, so be it.
Sauntering into the bathroom, I transfer my toiletries to my travel case. Nothing my brothers have said has changed my mind.
And it doesn’t matter that Van deserted me and is apparently getting a lawyer to file divorce papers.
I’m never fucking giving up.
Besides… my eyes drift over to the rectangular piece of plastic sitting on the vanity next to my toothbrush holder. It’s been there for two days and it has become my main driving force.
I pick it up, examining the bold plus sign in the window.
“Joke’s on him,” I mutter and toss the positive pregnancy test in my travel bag. So much for Van deciding he doesn’t want children.
CHAPTER 3
Van
As I drivehome from the arena, I take stock of my emotions. Truly, I thought I’d feel different following my first game back. I skated on the third line against the Columbus Hawks and had a decent game, considering I’ve been out of professional play for three years. My conditioning held up and fueled by adrenaline, I wasn’t as rusty as I thought I’d be. The win felt fucking good.
It’s just… once I walked out of the locker room and left that all behind, the emptiness returned. Of course, I also felt empty walking into the arena and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out I’m mourning the loss of Simone and the game only took my mind off things temporarily. Granted, I’m the one who cut her loose, but it doesn’t mean it’s not without effect.
I declined invites to join the team over at their postgame hangout place called Mario’s. Despite assurances and support from the owner, team management, coaches and players, I’m too on edge over Arco’s book to open myself up to anyone. I dread the inevitable questions and the risk of reporters chasing me into a bar is too real. I don’t want to fucking deal with it and besides, I’ve never been a big people person, anyway.
At least not before Simone came into my life and now that she’s gone, it took no time at all for me to regress to my surly, walled-off self. Self-preservation and being alone—this is where I feel safest.
Fucking Arco.
I’ve never felt actual hate toward a single person, but I feel it pulsing throughout me every time I think about him. If he weren’t dead already and I could get away with it, I’d murder him in cold blood without a single ding to my conscience. He was pure evil, a sociopath who thrived on not only raping and killing but on torturing his son after it was all said and done.
I visited Arco three years ago—ironically after Simone and I had been intimate for the first time. He had lung cancer and was dying. I was a glutton for punishment, so I went to see him. Not because I loved him and not because I needed to make my peace with all the heinous things he’d done.
