Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 70185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
The way they coo over my sons with such love and pride makes it seem like they have a new lease on life because of this new generation. I have so much hope and dreams for them, but the one thing I promise them each time I hold one of them in my arms is that I will never hurt their mother; I will never shatter their foundation the way that man did mine.
It's time, now that the babies are here, safe and healthy. I need to finish this and put it behind me so that I can move on to a new start with the family I plan to build with my wife.
MARCUS
“You wanted to see me?”
“Yes, come in, sit down.” I indicated the chair across from me on the other side of my desk.
“Should I close the door?”
“No, that won’t be necessary.”
She took a seat and looked around the room, probably clocking all the changes I’d made since taking over.
“I’m surprised you let me up here, or is it only because your wife is not here?” No sooner had she said those words than my wife walked in.
“Well, this is an awkward moment,” Justine said as she came around the desk and sat in the chair I’d placed there next to mine for the occasion.
I nodded my head for her to go ahead. She placed the folder she’d brought with her down in front of Melanie. “What’s this?” I noticed the bubbly vivaciousness was gone from her tone now that Justine was here and was almost certain that she’d been testing the waters and was none too pleased about the interruption.
She has no clue how lucky she is that my wife did show up when she did because had she come onto me as I was sure she was gearing up to, I’d have done much worse things to her than we had planned.
“Open it,” Justine answered her before sitting back and folding her arms.
I’d given this to her because I wanted her to get some of her own back.
I’d dealt with Paul and his mother on my own, not only because she was pregnant at the time but because I didn’t want her anywhere near that asshole ever. I could’ve taken care of this one as well, but I think my girl deserves to shed some blood in this fight.
It's only been three months since the birth of our sons, and though she was chomping at the bit to get back to the office, I was holding her to her new rule of one year of maternity leave. She fought like hell, but I won by asking her what kind of example she would be setting for our employees if she broke her own rule.
This was just a one-off, which I made sure she understood, or she wouldn’t have stepped foot in the building. When sex didn’t work to sway me, she finally gave in after spending days fighting me on this.
I don’t know, but I think women must be made of something else because I was still recovering from her labor while she seemed to have bounced right back within a month or so. She’s so happy that it makes me happy just to see it. I think having all the help we do helps with that, but we also spend as much time with all the kids as we can because I don’t want my children, any of them, to be solely raised by nannies.
We both watched Melanie open the folder and saw her face go pale. “Do you recognize those?” She looked at me even though it was my wife who asked the question. Is she really this fucking dense? How could she not know that this was the wrong move? Disrespecting my wife in front of me.
“Can you and I talk about this alone, Marcus? This is a family matter.”
“Oh, that’s odd because the only people in this room who are related are her and I. Since she’s your boss, I think she’s better qualified to handle this meeting. I’m just here for moral support. In case you know, you start a new rumor.”
“She’s doing this out of revenge.” Now she looked at Justine, and all the anger and malice was right there for me to see. Now, I’ve never been on the receiving end of this shit; I’ve never been cheated on because I never hung around long enough to form anything close to a relationship.
But isn’t it a bit backward for the one who did the wrong to be angry at the wronged party? I see now that she’s not much different from the thing that birthed. This is perfectly fine with me because it meant I didn’t have to go easy on her, and I didn’t need to feel guilty about what I planned to do to her.