Page 56 of This Life of Mine

“How big is this dude? I’ve only seen him sitting.” Val is intrigued now.

I huff a weak laugh despite myself. “Big enough.”

Joey whistles under his breath as he rests against the counter, shaking his head. “Remind me never to piss him off.”

Kay nods solemnly. “I would simply pass away.”

Donna mutters, “That’s insane timing.” Her eyes narrow, clearly suspicious of anyone claiming the timing is a coincidence.

“It was,” I agree. “I don’t like thinking about what would’ve happened if he hadn’t been there.”

Val’s hands curl into fists. “I knew he was calling and texting you, but I didn’t think he would be this stupid,” she says, voice shaking now. “Showing up. Drunk. Trying to what? Get you to take him back? Seriously? Fucking psycho!”

Val paces now, struggling to wrap her head around the idea of Cole.

“I know. He’s engaged, has a baby on the way, and still…he tries to get me to take him back,” I add.

Their heads snap up. “Excuse me? Engaged?” Kay asks with shocked horror.

“To Cassie,” I nod. “She’s someone my ex was cheating on me with at the end of our marriage.”

The room collectively inhales.

Val lets out a bitter laugh. “Oh yes. The fucking slut who was dating Cole’s nephew at the time they were cheating together. The one who had Cole’s nephew’s children and is now having his baby. That fucking Jerry Springer hoe-bag.” Val growls.

“Yeah…,” I draw out, the word hollow in my mouth.

“We actually ran into that bitch yesterday. Had she not been pregnant, Lina would have fucked her up.” She smiles wickedly at the idea.

“Ummm no. I would have ended up in prison for assault. Remember, she’s known for false imprisonment. Although, I guess me beating her ass wouldn’t be false imprisonment.” I blink at the truth of the idea.

“This sounds like a reality TV show.” Says Donna.

It is reality. My reality.

“Cassie is the samebitch,“ Val continues, her voice filled with fury, “who helped get Cole wasted the night of Lina’s accident. Likely because the cheating scandal was about to blow back on both of them.” Val mumbles something in Spanish, familiar curse words.

I nod, the pieces falling into place one by one until the truth leaves me sick. Cole, Cassie, the drama of it all goes further back than they know.

“I mean, it never took much for Cole to get drunk,” I say. “The drugs I never knew about probably didn’t help. Could they have contributed to how out of control he became? Absolutely.”

I force myself to let the thought go. The toxicology report from the night of the accident still finds a way to creep back when I least expect it. The sheer amount of drugs in his system had been shocking. Disturbing. Proof that the man I spent eighteen years with had been hiding far more than I ever realized.

I was strategically kept naïve about everything. Not only by Cole, but by her. Cassie.

Smiles and false loyalty. All of it was camouflage. Cassie was an opportunistic predator hiding in plain sight.

The silence this time is heavier.

Donna crosses her arms, fury bellowing out from her. “That man should be in jail.”

Val turns away, pressing her palms to the counter as if needing a firm support. When she faces me again, her expression is lethal.

“Yeah, he should have gone to jail a long time ago,” she says. “And if karma is real, it owes Cole’s nephew Steven a serious debt—for Cole and Cassie locking Steven up so they could keep screwing each other without consequence.” Val continues, enraged. “If karma ever planned to show up, now would be the fucking time for that prick!”

I nod in agreement. I can understand her anger. What happened last night was part of a much larger sequence of events that brought us to this point.

“Ummm…what do you mean? You mentioned false imprisonment. Is that related?” Kay asks, clearly confused.