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"What the fk are you doing in here?" My knuckles whiten as I grasp the steering wheel "And how did you get into my car? The doors were locked"

He rises up from the back seat and leans over the console to snatch up h to know locked doors aren’t going to stopto me now? Was it to torture me?"

He rests his heavily tattooed arh that I can s off hi careful" He reaches for a strand of ive the cops a reason to putorder right now," I re back in the seat and fiddling around with my phone "They’ll never catch et out in a few ht back in your life" A dark look crosses his face as he reads so on the screen "So this is what you’ve been up to… you dirty, little skank"

What the hell is he looking at?

I desperately want to reach back and snatch s worse, so I clutch onto the wheel "I don’t want you in my life anymore, Conner I just want you to leave ive et the hell out ofinmy cheeks "What about what I wanted? Like a life not tied down to a fa" He punches the seat besideto tremble "All that time I spent with you and for what? To end up in jail"

"You did it to yourself," I say "You chose to deal drugs and to… well, make me pay back your debt that day"

"I would have never been caught if you hadn’t set the place on fire!" he screams in ing, fear sla so hardI should pull over the car, but I’

"Only a psychopath whores out their wife and lets her get raped while he watches," I bite back venootten a chance to yell at hiood "Do you kno fked up that was?"

"You didn’t do anything to stop it," he growls "You just laid there and took it like the whore you are"

I sla hi over the console toward the , but he sticks his ar cunt!" he screa to ret the day youfor air, terrified and enraged out of o back and never agree to go out with you!"

"Well, sucks to be you since you can’t erase your past" He sets out

I’d be relieved, but I know hih to know it’s not over

He holds up my phone and sneers "Payback’s a bitch" Then he slams the door and strides toward the back of the Jeep

I wait for him to round it and come at me from the driver’s side, but he continues to head down the road toward the highway I think about going after hiood, but ould I do when I caught hier than me and can hurt me if he wants to No matter what I do--whether I move on, find someone else, or fall in love--he will always be there, never allowing o ofin frustration, I punch the gas and drive forward, ready to get home But Conner’s words echo in my mind

Payback’s a bitch

What did he mean by that? What could he possibly pay me back with on that phone? I think about what I have on there Nothing incri else Conner says flashes through my mind

So this is what you’ve been up to, you dirty little skank

Tristan and I have been texting each other off and on, and while our conversations haven’t been dirty, they’ve been flirty enough that it could be clear soht not have Tristan’s address, but it’s a s him down

What should I do? Call Tristan? I don’t know his nu I could wait, but I’o home and call the police, but ould I say? My ex-husband stoleorder

Without any hesitation, Iaway from my home and to Tristan

Chapter 39

It’s tiet back to theoutside and s the sun clip the sky as I reflect on what happened Avery and I had sex I had sex for the first ti for anything I only wanted Avery

And she wanted o inside The sky is greying with et up again, but I don’t care It orth it

I’ for the doorknob when my phone vibrates fro e is from Avery But my elation plum with my wife?

My hand falls from the doorknob "What the fk?"

Panic sets in Conner The e is frooing to fking kill hi pad to h frohtens on the phone

"Easy there," Conner says as he leans against the side of theanyone over a girl"

"What did you do to her?" I inch toward him with my jaw clenched "If you touched her, I swear--"

"If I touched her?" he snaps, striding toward ht to touch her She’s my wife"

"Ex-wife," I remind him as he slams to a stop in front of me I don’t cower back, even when he leans toward ht like this, only it was because I stepped in front of Avery Now it’s et Only this tiet the better ofof er, both mentally and physically, and I have a clear head A really, really clear head that lets me remember what he did to Avery and allows me to feel just how badly I want to make him pay for what he did

For her