Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 74022 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74022 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
And the jerk bag isn’t planning on leaving me alone.
“I’ll keep coming over if you keep ignoring me, Penelope,” he growls.
It’s not beyond me that his eyes look darker than usual, and his face a little more sunken, especially above his cheeks. I wonder if he’s using drugs? He had a history of using them before he met me, but he was clean the entire time we were together. His new girlfriend is from a wilder side of life, so it certainly wouldn’t surprise me.
It isn’t a good thing, though.
Because with drugs comes anger.
Severe anger.
He has anger issues on a good day, and he’s told me more than once that when he was using, he got very violent.
More so than usual.
He’d even hurt a few women he was with.
“I have nothing to say to you, nothing at all,” I tell him.
“But you fuckin’ do. I need cash. That car is the least you can give to me, considering you swindled me out of this house.”
“I didn’t swindle you out of anything,” I say, trying to keep calm. Aggravating him only makes it worse. “You signed it over. I wasn’t holding your hand, forcing you to do that.”
He glares at me, and I hold strong, even though inside I feel weak and a little frightened.
“I got left with fuckin’ nothing. You sell that car, I get a little of what I deserve. I worked the whole time we were together, I never took anything away from you.”
“I never said you didn’t work, but the car is mine. Everything has been settled. There is nothing to fight over anymore.”
“Just because it has been settled,” he growls, “doesn’t mean that you don’t fuckin’ owe me. You can sell that car and give me the cash. Don’t need no fuckin’ piece of paper to decide that.”
“I’m not selling the car,” I say, my voice not quite as strong as I’d like.
“Do not fuckin’ push me!”
He takes a threatening step forward, and I immediately take one back to stop him from getting too close. My heart leaps up into my throat. He’s never been this confrontational before, never been so in my face. Right now, I actually don’t trust what he might do. “Get out of my house, or I will call the police,” I tell him, trying to sound a lot tougher than I feel.
He grins at me, and my hands tremble enough that I have to tuck them into my jeans so he can’t see it. I’m afraid, I can’t deny it. And I hate that he’s making me afraid. I’ve never been afraid of this man, not for a single second of my life, and yet lately, I’m seeing a side to him I didn’t think existed. And it does, it frightens me. I don’t know what lengths he’ll go to to get whatever cash he’s after.
Maybe I should just give him the car?
But will that honestly be the end of it?
Or will there just be more money he’ll want if I give in now?
Especially if he’s using. That’ll only make it that much worse.
“You won’t call the police, there is nothing to call them about,” he says, his voice far too smooth and calm from the angry one he was using a second ago. “Besides, you call the police, it’ll make me very, very angry and once I get very, very angry, I might do something I’ll regret.”
Is that a threat?
I swallow.
“Are you threatening me?”
He acts shocked. “Why would I do that? I’m simply stating a fact is all.”
I feel a kind of hurt in my heart. This man was once the love of my life. My husband. And now ... I don’t even know him.
How in the world does that happen?
“You were my husband once,” I say sadly. “I never thought you’d be this cruel to me.”
For a second, I think my words have worked, he stares at me almost shocked, and a little taken back. But it’s soon wiped clean when that grin returns. “Yeah, and you were my wife, and I never thought you’d leave me with nothing.”
“You don’t have nothing. You got money, and furniture, and anything else you were entitled to.”
“And yet you’re standing here, in my fuckin’ house, with my fuckin’ car ... I got fuck-all money, not enough to get me started again.”
I remove my hands from my jeans and grab the door casually, but really I’m getting ready to slam it, if I need.
“You got thirty thousand dollars,” I point out, trying to stay calm.
He snorts. “Yeah, and how fuckin’ far do you think that’s gotten me? Nowhere. You sell this house tomorrow, and you could have a bank full. That car, I could get fifty thousand for it.”
It is an expensive car, but it’s one he insisted on at the time, and it was also me who paid a lot of the repayments for it, until we could pay it off. He didn’t want it when it came down to it. It was only when his little girlfriend rolled in that he started the demands. Before that, he was happy with the split, considering I was left paying for the house. So while I could sell it tomorrow and have some cash, I am still paying the repayments weekly for it, and they’re tough.