“Can you repeat that?” I ask, unsure I heard her correctly as my jaw falls slack. “Did you say, you’re married to that asshole?”
My head is spinning as I digest her words.
Her gaze drops to the floor when she nods.
Certain I’m mistaken, I ask again, “You married him?”
“I did,” she whispers, failing to lift her eyes.
Questions hurl through my mind so fast that I struggle to grasp one to throw at her.
“How?” I seethe. “When?”
A heavy, unrecognizable tension consumes the room, and for a moment, I’m not sure she’ll answer.
She blows out a stressed breath, and her eyes are cold and teary when she raises them. I ache to stand and comfort her, wrap her in my arms, but her betrayal stops me. I need answers.
“It was a week before I broke things off with him,” she explains, taking slow steps before collapsing onto the chair next to the couch, her shoulders slumping. “He took me to Vegas for a weekend, and we went clubbing with his friends. I drank a lot, and somehow, marriage came up. It sounded like a good idea at the time. I was alcohol-and love-drunk and thought we’d be together forever.”
“If you were drunk, you can get an annulment. Problem solved.”
She clutches her arms around her chest, and our eye contact is wiped out again when she stares at the floor, releasing a heavy sigh. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Carolina, look at me, damn it,” I snarl, the ache to console her returning. “You file. Sign the papers. It’s done.”
My job as her best friend is to be her rock.
I’ve taken on that role. Loved that role.
I can’t be her rock if she’s hurting me.
My fear of our friendship being ruined has become a reality.
“He threatened to tell my parents,” is her ridiculous reply.
I scoff. “Did you think no one would find out about your marital bliss? Why’d you tie the knot if you had to keep it a secret?”
“Our plan was to wait until he was no longer my professor. Until then, we kept it low-key.”
“That’s the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard.”
Those beautiful, deceitful eyes of hers widen. “Wow. Really, Rex?”
“Yes, really.” I scrub my hand over my face. “Why do you care about your parents? You won’t be the first person to divorce someone. They won’t like it, but they’ll get over it.”
“He …” She hesitates. “He said he’d grant me a divorce if …”
I wait for her to finish but get silence. “If what?”
She swallows a few times. “If I stay away from you for a year and try to work things out with him.”
“Are you kidding me?” I shake my head, anger burning through me. “Scratch my earlier statement. That’s the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard.” My temples throb. “Are you considering it?”
A sharp pain runs through me at her lack of response. Even with what my father put our family through, I’ve never been so hurt.
“I don’t know what I’m considering!” she cries out. “All of this has just been thrown at me! I need to get my head straight. I just need time!”
“Time?” I fire back. “How long? A year, like he’s asking?”
“I never said that’s what I want,” she chokes out. “I said, he gave me that option.”
“Fuck this.” I stand and pull my keys from my pocket. “Someone needs to set this asshole straight.”
That someone being me.
I should’ve done this a long time ago.
“No!” she shrieks, jumping up from the chair and scurrying behind me, grabbing my elbow and attempting to pull me back into the living room.
I jerk out of her hold. “I’ll fix this for you. I promise.”
“Don’t threaten him,” she whimpers around her plea. “Please leave him alone. We can act like he doesn’t exist, and eventually, he’ll get tired of me and go about his way.”
I blow out a frustrated breath. “If he doesn’t? Will you stay married to him?”
Nothing makes sense.
Why does she give so many fucks about divorcing him?
I need answers.
Carolina won’t give them to me; therefore, I’ll get them from James.
I’ll fix this.
She dashes in front of me when I start walking again, blocks me from the door, and takes my face in her hands. “Don’t leave me.” Her lips tenderly brush mine. “I need you with me, Rex.”
“I’ll be back in a few hours,” I grind out against her mouth, my teeth catching on to her lower lip.
“Please,” she begs, pulling away an inch before rubbing her thumb over my lips. “Do whatever you want tomorrow, but tonight, I need you. The man who’ll never turn his back on me. You—your love, your security, your arms around me.”
Tears slip down her cheeks, hitting her thumb and my lip.
“Okay,” I whisper, putting my anger aside at the sight of her pain. “I’ll stay.”
Carolina promised to give me answers tonight before she left for work.
Last night, it was too fresh—my anger, her pain.
Neither of us knew what to do or where this would lead for our future.
It was like we were too scared to discuss it, to change everything between us.
There’s more to this story.
Carolina’s parents being disappointed isn’t what’s stopping her from divorcing James. She’s always been scared of disappointing them, but she failed when she dropped out of school.
I’m pissed the entire drive to the university, and the lecture hall is empty when I walk in.
Exactly what I planned after pulling up his class schedule.
Professor Asshole is gathering up papers and shoving them into a brown leather briefcase. He halts, papers fluttering to the floor, when he notices me walking toward him.
He speaks before I get the chance to, his tone cool and collected, “Let me guess … you’re here because of Carolina?” He whistles. “Gotta say, I’m shocked she told you.”
Other than looking up his pictures the next morning after Carolina came to my dorm, crying, this is my first time I’ve taken a good look at him. I understand his appeal. He’s tall, fit, and on the younger side. His good looks, expensive clothes, and smooth-talking personality are what draw women to him.
I don’t speak until I’m standing in front of his desk, nearly in his face. “Quit playing games and give her a goddamn divorce.”
A bold smirk crosses his face, and he falls back a step. “Don’t tell me what to do with my wife.”
My wife.
Those words send a spiral of anger through me.
“Wife?” I clench my jaw, my pulse skyrocketing. “Not for long.”
“Oh, really?” He draws himself up to his full height, thrusting his chest out and tensing his muscles—a lame attempt at appearing intimidating. “Is that what she said? That she planned to divorce me? It wasn’t the tune she was singing yesterday when she came to my house.”
His house.
Dude knows how to piss another guy off; that’s for sure.
What did Carolina see in this douche bag?
My ribs tighten as I hold myself back from jumping over the desk and pummeling his face in. “Yes, that’s exactly what she said—that you won’t give her a divorce and are playing mind games.”
He shakes his head, a laughter filled with edge coming from him. “I don’t play mind games with my wife.”
If this motherfucker says wife one more time, Carolina will become a widow.
“What do you have on her?” I ask, getting straight to the point.
“None of your business. This is between me and my wife, so stay away from her.”
My nails bite into my palms as I clench my fists. “Listen, creep—”
He cuts me off, “How does it feel, screwing a married woman, Rex?”
“She doesn’t want to be married to you,” I fire back.
“Do you plan to date her if we divorce?”
“Yes.”
“Marry her?”
“Yes.”
He smiles deviously while fishing out a phone from his pocket. “Tell me something then, how would you feel … how would your mayor father feel if your new girlfriend’s pictures were posted online?”
I blink, and it takes my eyes a second to adjust to the screen when he shoves the phone in my face—answering all the questions I came here for.
This is why she won’t leave him.
This sneaky motherfucker.
I jerk the phone from his grimy fingers, throw it on the floor, and stomp on it, shattering it to pieces underneath my Chuck Taylor.
“Are you sure you want to date my wife now?”
My crushing his phone doesn’t seem to faze him.
Phone down.
His face to go.
I circle around the desk faster than I’ve ever moved in my life, grab him by his scrawny-ass throat, and slam him against the wall, pinning him into it. “You motherfucker!”
“Ah … so she didn’t tell you everything.”
He gasps when I tighten my hold on his neck, and it takes everything I have not to keep choking him when his face starts turning purple.
I came here to scare him.
Not to kill him.
Even though I thought of dozens of ways I wanted to kill him on the drive here.
He bends at the waist when I release, his hands resting on his knees as he inhales deep breaths, nearly choking on them when I pull away.
“Sign the divorce papers when they’re delivered to you,” I demand, wiping my hands down my pants and turning to leave.
He snorts coldly. “You don’t think there’s more where that came from?” A smug smile takes over his face. “I have plenty of pictures of her.” He tips his head toward the phone. “You might’ve broken my phone, but I still have them everywhere.”
I circle his desk and snatch his iPad from it.
It breaks when I stomp on it next.
“Two devices down,” he says. “So many more to go. I have them saved everywhere, waiting for Carolina to make the wrong move. If she decides to leave me for you, there will be repercussions. She belongs with me—someone mature—not a little video game–playing college kid. I might’ve made a few mistakes with Carolina, but she’s mine.”
“I don’t know if Carolina has told you what I’m capable of. I will not only kick your ass, but I’ll also hack into everything with your name on it—phones, computers, emails, your fucking preschool records if I have to. Every-motherfucking-thing.”
“You don’t think Carolina has told me how you can hack into accounts?” He rubs at his red throat. “Which, by the way, is illegal, and I’d definitely turn you in for whatever you did.”
“Good luck proving it. You might be a sloppy motherfucker, but let me promise you, I’m not.” Pointing at him, I narrow my eyes. “Delete every picture and leave her the fuck alone. Find another student to bang since they seem to be your type, you fucking creep.”
“Or what?”
“Like I said, I’ll search through everything you own.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Nope. Only telling you what I’ll do. I won’t stop digging into every move you make until you leave her alone.”
“Fuck you,” he spits.
“Prepare for me to know your every secret, Professor.” I grab his briefcase, slide out the laptop inside, and hold it up. “I’ll smash this up as soon as I’m finished with it.”