Hustle Him (Bank Shot Romance #2)(41)
Author: Jennifer Foor

After the whole fight in the back yard, I sat down and talked to the kids about their feelings. They were both very scared and upset at what Ramsey had done to their father. It was hard to explain to child that their father had instigated it to happen and that Ramsey was only protecting me. Then of course, they wanted to know why Ramsey was protecting me the way he was.

My aunt was great support, but even she couldn’t work miracles.

On one of Gavin’s weekends, I decided to take the kids to meet him without my aunt. Ramsey wasn’t on board with my decision, but with our relationship consisted of mostly phone conversations, I knew there was little he could do about it. Besides, with his job on the line, he seemed focused on making sure that he was always available for anything that may come up.

Ramsey kept blowing up my phone every five minutes, begging me not go into the Lion’s den alone. I would be fine. After dealing with this shit for as long as I had, I knew just what had to be done. When we pulled up at the house, all of the memories of the night I left Gavin came rushing back. I don’t think that I’d ever felt so angry with someone in my whole life.

The house still looked the same on the outside. Of course he’d patched up every place that I shot out. The kids ran up to the door, while I took my time, looking around at what was once mine. Gavin came outside when I was walking up the porch steps. He held the door open to let me in.

“Thanks for bringing them all the way here.”

I looked right at him and wondered what the hell I ever saw in him. There was nothing appealing about Gavin when I had Ramsey to compare him to. “We need to talk, Gavin.”

I walked past him and saw his girlfriend quickly duck into the back bedroom with a baby in her arms. I looked back at Gavin and he scratched his head. “Yeah, she had it a couple weeks ago. I meant to tell you.”

I held up my hand. “Just save it. I’m not here to talk about that. I’m here to talk about our kids.”

We sat down at the kitchen table facing each other. He reached over to grab my hands, but I pulled away. “I still love you, Vessa.”

“How can you even say something like that when the mother of your newborn is right down the hall? Do you even think about the things that you say?” I felt so sorry for that poor girl. She was too young to see that in a few years, she’d be right where I was; raising kids and separated.

“You’re my first love.”

I raised my eyebrows and shook my head around, covering my face with my hands. “Please stop. I don’t care what load of bullshit you want to throw at me. I’m never coming back to you, Gavin. I thought that I loved you and the life that we built, but it turned out to be a lie. The whole damn town knew what you were doing behind my back. How do you think that made me feel?” I put my fist on the table and stood up. Then I started pacing. “I’ll tell you how I felt. I felt betrayed. I felt like everything that I’d ever loved was a f**king lie. I felt like the one person that I trusted more than anyone in the world had let me down. It wasn’t just me either that you betrayed. Those two kids in there, well, you betrayed them too. You broke up this family, not me. I never cheated on you, shit, I never even looked at another man until we were through.”

Gavin stood up and walked over to me. He cornered me near the stove in the kitchen. I didn’t want to be so close to him. Nowadays, he scared me. I wasn’t really certain what he was capable of. “Do you hate me, Vessa?”

I looked him right in the eye. “Yes, I really do.” My tears were angry tears. I wasn’t crying for being honest with him. I was crying because I’d wasted so many years of my life with the monster standing in front of me. I was crying because he was taking Ramsey away from me. “I wish you could see who I really am. You treated me horrible. Do you even have a clue how hard I worked to save our marriage? All I ever wanted was for you to love only me. I wasn’t asking you for much. You stood before our family and God and promised to love only me for the rest of our lives.”

Gavin wiped his own tears out of his eyes. He leaned back on the counter next to me. “I will love you forever. I didn’t lie.”

“You don’t know what love is. You think manipulating someone is love? You really think sleeping with other people behind my back was love? You think blackmailing me out of finding real love is the right thing. After everything you’ve done to me, after claiming you still love me, I have to ask you. Do you love me enough to let me be happy, Gavin?”

He shook his head and sighed. “You can’t ask me that. Not after what that dick…”

“Stop! That man that you’re talking about lost his wife and daughter. How would you feel if me and the kids died? Would you just go on living normally like we never existed? Could you just forget about us and find replacements?” I walked up close and got up in his face. My heart was beating out of my chest and I was pretty sure that I was about to pass out. “You have no idea what kind of man he is! You have no idea what he’s been through. You can accuse me of whatever the hell you want. I don’t even care anymore. You and I both know that I haven’t been with enough people to be called a whore, So save your pathetic comeback attempts. Stop ruining my life! I know you don’t want to raise our kids. You’re doing this to get back at me for leaving you, but you can’t see that it was exactly what you deserved. I’ve been the only parent that those kids could count on every minute of every day. You really think they be happy living without me? You think they will love you more when they find out they can’t see me anymore?”

I had to walk away and grab a paper towel to wipe my eyes. While facing the kitchen window and wiping the wetness off of my face, I felt his hands reaching around me. I turned around suddenly. “I’m sorry, Vessa. If I can’t have you then he won’t either. You want me to drop the custody case? All you have to do is leave your boyfriend and move back to this town. You forget all about your life there with him and you can keep the kids without me ever fighting you.”

I moved further away from him. “You do know that I can’t stand the person you’ve turned into? You would do all of this to spite me?”

“Yeah, I guess I would.”

I slapped him across the face. “How dare you! You selfish son of a bitch!”

He held the side of his face and smiled this arrogant smile, while pointing to the door. “I think you need to leave.”