Chapter 10
Ashley
I grunt as I carefully lift the heavy box off the floor and place it on the counter while Cole tries to do his homework, writing about five different continents while waiting for his fricking father to come pick him up.
Of course Tyler meant it when he said he’ll be doing pick up and drop off from now on.
Last week, Cole was confused but decided to go with the flow. I’m not sure how to explain that his granny won’t be picking him up anymore, and his father is trying to… I don’t even know what he’s trying to do, to be honest.
He’s so adamant I screwed someone else, why does he want to try and fix what he broke?
“Don’t hurt your back on your last day, mama,” Cole says, and I look to see he’s not even looking my way, and I roll my eyes.
“Thanks, kiddo,” I mumble, and he retorts, “You're welcome.”
I narrow my eyes at the little devil. I swear he is becoming more and more like his father by the day.
“Don’t forget,” I begin to say, but he cuts me off and, without looking at me, says, “Yeah, yeah, I know, no one can know that you’re finally out of this place and working at a job you’ve always wanted to work at until you are ready.”
I roll my eye. I swear…
The door chime gains my attention, and I glare at my son when he mutters, “Great, jackass yet again…”
“Cole!” I hiss, but he doesn’t look my way as an arm wraps around my waist, making me want to tense before I feel Talen press a kiss to my head, and he murmurs, “Hey, baby girl, I just wanted to pop in before work tonight.”
I swallow the bile that rises, telling my body to pack it in and I give him a fake smile he doesn’t know is fake as I look up at him. Again, a sense that I know him fills me, confusing me while my body wants to repel away from him.
Every time we’re together, this is how I end up feeling, I just don’t know why, though.
Before I can come up with words about his unexpected visit, the chime rings again, and Cole sighs while Talen tenses as my body hums. I know Tyler has just walked in.
Great, just what I need…
“Why are you picking me up again?” Cole asks with a scowl, and I sigh, dropping my head, and Talens' grip around my waist tightens, and it takes everything in me not to shove him away, which isn’t fair on him when he’s been amazing. I’m the fricking problem.
I swear, Cole is getting angrier as the weeks go on and I’m at the end of my tether.
“Because last time I checked, bud, I’m your dad,” Ty says without missing a beat, ignoring our son's attitude, and I look his way.
It should be illegal how good he looks after what he did to me.
His hair is perfect like always, cut on, tight shirt and jeans. The man's a work of art, a lying, cheating asshole, but still a work of art.
I tense, noticing his wedding ring, and I narrow my eyes at him wondering why he has to still wear it, but his eyes aren’t looking at me. Instead, they are on the hand around my waist, anger radiating from him.
Great.
“Don’t forget our therapy session tomorrow, pixie!” Ty snaps out of the blue, and my eyes turn into slits as this time Talen tenses.
“Therapy?” Talen questions with a tightness in his voice, and my jaw ticks at the smirk Ty is giving right now.
Jackass.
“Yeah, so we can learn to co-parent properly,” I state instantly, causing Ty to scowl, one just like our sons.
I swear…
“Right,” Talen says, and I look to see his eyes on Tyler before he looks my way and smiles slightly. “I’ve got to get to work, but I’ll see you on Friday?” he confirms, and I nod, making him smile brighter, before he leans down and presses his lips against mine.
I hear a growl, and even though I don’t feel anything but filth, that my body is wanting to curl away from him for protection which is just so goddamn weird, I kiss Talen back as a screw you to my soon-to-be ex-husband before pulling away.
Talen smirks before saying, “See ya, Cole.”
Cole doesn’t reply to him, but he doesn’t take notice as he glares at Tyler, then walks out without looking back. I lock eyes with Tyler, whose eyes are burning with rage.
I have to admit, I’m loving the payback.
“Cole, let's go,” Tyler snaps, not taking his eyes off me, his body vibrating, and Cole sighs, “Fine,” with an attitude that I can’t help but roll my eyes at.
“Watch the attitude, young man,” I state as he kisses my cheek, and he hums, “Uh huh…” before walking out of the shop without looking back and I huff, “He’s your child.”
“Maybe his mama making out with that dickhead is what his problem is!” Ty snaps, and I raise a brow.
“Or, it could be because his father had a full-blown affair and his mistress went and told him at school while also dropping the bomb that he wasn’t wanted!” I snap back with impatience.
He has no right to feel jealous, whatsoever, so he can turn around and fuck off.
“Tomorrow, pixie,” he growls instead, not reacting to my statement, knowing how true it is, and I tense. “Yeah, I spoke to Dirty last week. You have until tomorrow at therapy, then let's see whose more at fault here shall we, if you want to turn it into a pissing contest!”
So adamant, so stuck in his own thoughts, so goddamn wrong…
“You,” I say softly, “you will win if I ever decide to tell you why I pulled back from you. You will always win because you allowed your mind to conjure up crap just so you could cheat.”
His jaw ticks, and he growls, “Tomorrow, pixie,” before turning and storming out, and I sigh as I drop my head, which is beginning to pound.
We can’t keep doing this, it isn’t fair to Cole.
Maybe I do need to tell him the truth so we can all move on, preferably with a divorce.
Three hours later, I walk out of Clark’s convenience store as an employee for the last time. I smile widely, knowing I can now start living my dream and hopefully move Cole and me into a better apartment without the roaches.
After years of working here and trying to get through vet school, I finally made it. I actually made it…
“Well, look who it is,” a woman says, gaining my attention, and I look up and lock eyes with ones just like mine and my sons and my smile fades.
My mama stands before me in a simple pant suit, her blonde hair neatly in a bun as she looks me over, my mama, whom I haven’t spoken to since she kicked me out and have only seen in passing across the street.
“Hello, Mama,” I say, keeping my head held high.
“Still working here, I see,” she comments with no emotion.
“Actually, I just finished my last shift,” I admit, and her eyes twitch as I state, “I’ve just gotten my veterinary license and have a job lined up that I start next week.”
“Really?” she asks, and I nod with pride, or more of a screw you bitch, but hey, she did abandon me when I needed her the most. “That’s uh, that’s great,” she says and it becomes awkward which clearly shows how distant we are.
I clear my throat and fidget with my bag and reluctantly ask, “How’s Daddy?”
She swallows and replies curtly, “He’s good, working a lot, but good. How uh, how’s your husband?”
“He cheated, we’re getting a divorce,” I reply, and her eyes widen.
Okay, so he’s holding off on the divorce for reasons I don’t even know why, especially when he’s adamant I cheated but it will happen.
“So I was right then all along about him and your life?” she confirms, but I shake my head.
“No, Mama, you weren’t,” I instantly deny, “because you wanted me to abort my son, my amazing, funny, caring, loving, smart little boy who is nearly eleven.”
My scowling, tantrum-angry little boy, but still.
“A boy…” She whispers.
“Yep, a boy with blonde hair and green eyes, a smile that lights up his whole face, and is further along in his grade than most. My boy who you will never get to know,” I state, and her eyes tear up, but I don’t fall for it.
“My husband may have had an affair, we may be separated and I may have filed for divorce but I have not allowed it to stop me. I got my license, I’m an amazing mama and I’m moving up in the world.
While you and Daddy? You chose pride over being grandparents to a boy who would make you so goddamn proud.
” I say with pride before whispering, “Goodbye, Mama,” and her tears fall as I walk past her, not looking back.
I could have offered to set her up with meeting Cole, to try and rekindle a relationship with her and Dad, but last week, my old neighbor came into the store and gasped in shock.
Apparently, my parents told the whole community that I had died in a car wreck.
Cole is the only family I need. My parents, the club, Tyler, they all turned their backs on me.
I make my way down the street, opting to walk this morning, and I sigh in the evening air, wondering how in the hell my life turned out like this.
I honestly thought Ty and I were forever. Now I’m trying to rewrite my story, and I’m struggling.
There isn’t a connection with Talen as much as I try, heck, I haven’t let him touch me intimately since that one time we slept together. Then there’s my job, my home, the cockroaches, Cole’s attitude, Ty refusing the divorce, demanding therapy still which the courts fricking agreed with.
Everything is just too much.
I round the corner, my mind not able to comprehend how we got to this place, when I bump into someone who gasps, “Watch it, bitch,” and I look up into my husband’s mistress’s eyes, and my nostrils flare as she smirks, realizing who she bumped into.
“Well, well, well, look who it is…” She laughs, “How’s my man's cock? Still working for you like it is with me?”
Anger like no other fills me as Cole’s tears hit me, and I snarl, “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the bitch who broke the law just to tell a ten-year-old she’s a slut!”
Virginia curls her lips and sneers, “That ten-year-old needed to know his place, and when Trigger and I finally get together, he’ll be going to boarding school where he belongs!”
Anger, so much anger ricochets through me.
Want to fuck my husband because she didn’t have him in high school for a year? Sure, why not…
Threatened my child? Hell no!
I don’t think, I don’t even look around, instead I lift my arm and throw my fist into an unsuspecting Virginia’s face, hitting her eye, making her gasp in shock as she stumbles back.
I don’t let her get far. I grab ahold of her fake blonde hair, then using force, I slam her head against the concrete wall of the building next to us, hearing a crunch at her impact and she screams. I do it again, once, twice, three more times before everything goes quiet and she falls to the ground in a heap, knocked out and I grin.
Okay, that felt good.
I breathe heavy as I spit on her like the homewrecking filth she is before I finally look around, my heart pounding.
I don’t see anyone around, and I swallow hard before I quickly grab my phone and bring up the only number I know I can trust right now.
“Ashley, sweetheart, is everything alright?” My father-in-law answers on the second ring with worry, and I clear my throat as I shake out my now sore hand, and I mumble, “I uh, I need your help, Scar…”