Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 110694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
“As stunning as that face is of yours, I’m still gonna need a little more information.”
Right. Fine. I was here to get this handled, and what did I care if some man I didn’t know wanted the reason why? It wasn’t going to affect me or the outcome. It would get Linc’s attention at least.
I lifted my chin and looked him directly in the eyes. Probably a bad idea because the threat in this man’s gaze was unsettling.
“If you must know, I need him to sign divorce papers.”
That still sounded bizarre, and I’d had this revelation dropped on me over a week ago now. But I hadn’t said it to anyone. I couldn’t. No one in my life could know about this. I had to get it fixed and pretend it’d never happened.
The man stared at me as if I had lost my mind.
Apparently, five years ago, I had indeed lost my mind. I had the proof of it in the passenger seat of my car. A state of Nevada marriage certificate, saying I was married to Lincoln Shephard II. I just hadn’t realized how drunk I had been until the marriage certificate was presented to me by the county clerk’s office. A marriage I hadn’t known existed and was standing in the way of my future happiness.
He let out a low chuckle. “I think you might have the wrong man. Linc ain’t married. He’s been divorced from his ex-wife for fifteen-plus years now.”
Yes, I knew all about Maggie. She’d been the cause of my first heartbreak at the age of seven. Linc had married the mother of his child, and I had been devastated since I had planned on marrying him one day.
“I’m aware of all that. But it seems, five years ago, a marriage happened in Vegas after we both had too much to drink, but we assumed it wasn’t real.”
The man stood there, silent, his eyes narrowed.
I waited, wishing he’d say something. I hated being his sole focus.
“You’re fucking serious?”
I nodded. Why would I lie about this? I didn’t ask that out loud though.
The man let out a bark of laughter, and his eyes crinkled at the corners. “Fucking hell,” he said. “This might be the best shit I’ve heard all year.”
I stared at him, not sharing his amusement in the situation.
He nodded his head toward the gate. “I’ll open it up.”
Relief and anxiety battled for first place inside me. I was going to find Linc, and this would be fixed. Yet, seeing him again…well, I’d never been very good at ignoring the effect he had on me. Not as a child or as the thirty-three-year-old woman I had been five years ago. But this time, things were different.
I was engaged, and I had a child to think about.
I turned and headed back to the car. Thankfully, Stevie was still sleeping peacefully. She’d been nonstop chatter for hours on our drive here from Nashville. The lie I had told Hudson, my fiancé, about why I had to come to Madison wouldn’t have worked if I had left Stevie with a sitter. Attending the funeral of a former friend of my father’s was the best excuse I could come up with. Hudson hated funerals, and I’d known he wouldn’t offer to come along.
Besides, Linc had been a friend of my father’s. My dad worked for him and the rest of the Southern Mafia until he had a heart attack and left me alone at twelve years old with no one but my mom’s sister—Aunt Catherine. Not only had I barely known the woman, but she had also taken me away from the life I loved- the den of vipers I thought were kings.
I pulled my new ocean-gem-colored Toyota Camry—which Hudson had bought me as an early wedding gift after my fifteen-year-old Mazda finally gave up on life—through the open gate and immediately into a tunnel created by a canopy of trees. Branches from the live oak trees that lined the road on either side had grown out and connected, creating a stunning, shaded drive. I sucked in a breath at the sheer beauty and almost wished Stevie were awake to see this. She would be fascinated.
When the trees ended and the sunshine beamed down brightly, I squinted to see the extravagant house up ahead. A circular drive sat in front of it with a water fountain in the center. Again, Stevie would love this. But her being awake was not a good idea. My gaze went back to the house. It was as spectacular as the trees. A matte-black Georgian-style mansion shouldn’t surprise me. Sure, it wasn’t as massive and sprawling as the Hugheses’ mansion in Ocala, but this was pretty freaking incredible. So much wealth.
I shook my head and blew out a breath.
“Not what I pictured you living in, Linc,” I whispered as I parked my car.