Her voice is like nails on a chalkboard in this moment. I turn toward her eerily slow. As I’m turning, everything sinks in. This woman truly has ruined my life.
The switch on my temper flips and I black out. I stand so fast the bar stool scrapes the floor and falls over. I have her by the throat so fast, she yelps before I cut off her air supply.
I turn and push her against the table. I see nothing but red. I feel like I’m having an out of body experience as the pieces come together.
“You, you’re the fucking reason. It was you. All this time you’ve looked in my face knowing what you did,” I seethe and squeeze.
Her eyes grow wide as she claws at my hand. However, when I look at her, all I can see is the hurt she’s caused. Years of pain and lies.
“You hurt her. You destroyed us. What else have you done? Don’t even fucking answer that. I don’t think I can stomach anymore of your bullshit.
“I. Don’t. Want. You. I never have. You took her from me. You took my fucking life from me.
“Why would you send her that letter? What possessed you to take the words I wrote to you and give them to the only woman I’ve ever loved? What did you think you would gain?
“It sure as hell wasn’t me. Losing her broke me. I’ve always belonged to her. I couldn’t love you if I tried.
“And I did. For the sake of my children, I tried like hell. But you’ve always been a bitch. I’m just learning how big. You’re a disrespectful, conniving, heartless, greedy, vile bitch.
“It’s over. The divorce is final. There’s no world, no planet where I’d want to be tied to you ever again,” I growl as I try to choke the life out of her.
“Daddy, no.” Jess runs into the room and tries to wiggle between us. She places a hand on my chest. “Don’t do this. Don’t allow her to take anything else from us.”
“Trev,” Donna tries to choke out.
Jess elbows her as she tries to wedge between us some more. “Hush up. You’ve done enough.”
“Trev, stop. She can’t breathe. Come on. This isn’t you.”
I turn at the sound of that voice. Those brown eyes are looking back at me with concern. I release Donna with a shove and turn to the woman I’ve been longing to see for twenty years.
“Cliff, get Jess home for me,” I say, not bothering to look at Donna again.
CHAPTER 17
I Miss You
Trevor
I just lost it. I never wanted to become that person, but Donna pushed me over. I lost my temper and my mind.
A man can take but so much. Our divorce is for the best. Donna brings out the worse in me.
Without another thought, I take Cakes’ hand and lace my fingers with hers. I close my eyes as everything in me begins to settles. I walk out of the house with her still in my hold.
We’re going to straighten this out. I’m not letting her go ever again. When we step out of the house, there’s a black SUV parked out front. Lynn looks up at me as I walk her around to the driver’s side and stop.
“Keys,” I drawl.
She hands me the key fob. I unlock the door and open it for her to get in. She hesitates for a moment, then climbs in behind the wheel. I close the door, keeping the key with me.
Once in the passenger seat, I buckle up and drop the key in the cup holder. Then I place my head back against the headrest. Lynn scoffs.
“Drive, I need away from here,” I say.
“Where am I going?”
I punch in the address and nod. I’m relieved when she pulls off without a fuss. As her sweet scent fills my lungs, my mind starts to reel.
“Trev—”
“Not yet, darlin’,” I say.
I still need time to process and calm down. Her presence is going a long way to help with that, but I’m a bit angry with her for believing I could ever write or say those words to her.
The vehicle falls silent. As I think of the place, I’ve programmed into the GPS, a smile comes to my lips. This isn’t how I wanted her to see it for the first time, but I can’t wait to get there.
“The ranch? Why are we here?”
“Just follow the GPS. You’ll see.”
She sighs but keeps driving. I pull my phone to use the app to turn on the lights. The driveway is the first thing to light up. I turn to watch the side of her face.
She slows and leans forward to look out of the windshield. I grin, reaching to brush her hair out of her face. She glances at me quickly.
“Go on and pull into the garage. We can go in through the side door,” I say.