Chapter 3

The second I stepped inside, the room went silent. Jessica looked at me with satisfaction, and Simon's eyes started to panic.

He said, "Babe, I got you your favorite cake. Come eat."

Before he finished, Jessica grabbed the cake and ate it clean. "You bought something good and didn't think to offer it to me first?"

Simon gave a thin smile and pulled out his phone. "It's fine, babe. I'll order you another one."

I slapped Jessica across the face twice without hesitating, and Simon's eyes went red and he came at me to demand an answer.

Before he could open his mouth, I hit him across the face twice with everything I had.

"You think you can get away with that?" His eyes went wide and everything friendly dropped off him.

Simon grabbed a beer off the table and threw it in my face. It was the first time he had ever put hands on me, and all it took to set him off was Jessica.

The empty bottle hit the floor and broke apart.

He snapped, "How low can you get? Friends were messing around. What gives you the right to hit her?"

Jessica smirked, held her cheek, and wedged herself in among the men.

"Does it hurt? Why did she hit you so hard?" The men fussed over her.

Simon took a deep breath. "Ever since you got pregnant, this temper of yours has had no end to it. If you can't get it under control, get rid of it."

He clenched his teeth and touched the corner of his mouth where I had drawn blood.

Jessica let out a sigh, stood up, and leaned on him. "Forget it. As far as Lily's concerned, I'm the other woman anyway, and I know I've done nothing wrong.

"Don't fight with your wife over me. Friends are like clothes, and anybody can kick them aside. Women are the ones who count."

She scoffed, and the men on the couch all looked put out.

Simon said coldly, "Apologize."

"In your dreams." I looked at him the way a person looked at an idiot.

He paused, then put the arrogance back on. "I said apologize."

I said, "You want me to apologize to your side chick? Is she worth it?"

"We all know who the other woman is. The one nobody loves is the other woman," Jessica cut in with a smile.

I sneered, "Then here's to every other woman in the world dying badly, rotting in a gutter next to some cheating man."

I smiled sweetly at Jessica, and the color went out of her like she had swallowed something foul.

Then a hand closed on the back of my neck, and Simon dragged me into the bathroom and pushed my head into the toilet.

He snapped, "That mouth of yours is filthy. Have a drink and rinse it out."

I fought hard, and it made him angrier, and he held my head down until my neck felt ready to snap.

After a while somebody knocked on the door. "Simon, that's enough. Don't take it too far."

The knock brought him back. He let go and I dropped to the floor with everything inside me crushed together.

I threw up a mouthful of filthy water and he stood there stunned, and I got up and pushed the wet hair off my forehead.

The fight went out of him. "Babe, I didn't mean it," he mumbled, his voice no louder than a fly.

I shoved past him, and his buddies were all standing in the doorway. I pushed through them, got out, and took the divorce agreement out of my bag.

He came out, and I pushed it into his face. "Sign it," I said, and my voice was level.

I hadn't made up my mind before that. After what had just happened, every illusion I had was gone.

He asked, "You want a divorce over something this small?"

I didn't answer. I looked at the agreement.

Simon scoffed, "Fine. Don't come back begging me later." He signed it with a flourish and threw it in my face.

On the way out, one of his buddies asked, "Are you really divorcing her?"

He laughed. "No. I'm scaring her. She's carrying my kid. She isn't going anywhere. She's sulking. That bitch. When she wants to make up, she can grovel to Jessica first."