Page 5

“I guess it was easy. I could work at the hotel, we shared an apartment, I didn’t want to rock the boat.”

A text comes through on Kendal’s phone and her eyes light up, her lips curling into a grin as she looks up.

“Well, that boat’s gonna rock so hard now it’s gonna capsize. Rusty’s done and ready for the reveal.”

We headed back into Rusty’s room, where Randy is still in the chair with his blindfold on. My eyes met Rusty’s and he winks.

“Laney girl.”

“Laney, are you done too?”

Randy is looking around like a blind bat, his hand reaching for me, but I don’t take it. My gaze lands on the fresh ink on his shoulder and I have to plaster my hand over my mouth to stop myself from laughing.

“Laney, come here. I need you. Do you know how painful this was? He didn’t use any numbing cream, and it hurt, it really hurt.”

Rusty rolls his eyes and mouths the word ‘Pussy’, and I smirk.

“I know but are you ready to see how it looks?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

I step back and fold my arms over my chest as Rusty yanks the blindfold from his eyes. Randy blinks at the light and then his gaze lands on his left arm and shoulder. It takes him a moment, his face looking pinched and confused before he starts to go red, his hate-filled gaze locking on me.

“What the fuck did you do, Laney?”

“What? You told me to design something that really reflects who you are and that’s what I did. You’re a cheater who likes it up the ass from a slut with a strap-on. That tattoo reflects that.”

I’d literally designed a cheetah being railed doggy style by a woman with a strap-on dick and the word cheater in beautifulscript below it. I thought it was ingenious but clearly, my now ex didn’t agree.

“You fucking bitch.”

“Wow, buddy, back it up there.” Rusty lays and hand on his shoulder and I shake my head in disgust that I’d put up with this man.

Randy rounds on him. “I’m going to sue every fucking one of you.”

Rusty chuckles as he moves to stand beside Kendal, slinging his arm over her shoulder. “You can try, buddy, but you signed the consent forms so it won’t stick.”

Randy turns to me then, hatred making him ugly. “I gave you everything, you little slut, and this is how you repay me?”

Rusty growls and my eyes almost pop from my head they go so wide. “Are you joking? I paid half the rent, all the bills, I cooked, I cleaned, I worked, and I got my degree and you couldn’t even stay faithful. You had to fuck my friend in our bed, and don’t think I didn’t find your stash of photos.”

After finding him last week, I searched our apartment for evidence of his cheating and found photos of him and Sloane in various disgusting poses. Messages on his phone from other women too, which showed this had been going on for a while.

“You invaded my privacy?”

“That’s what you heard?” I cross my arms over my chest and glare at the man I’d wasted the last four years on.

“You had no right to do that, Laney, and if I needed a little something outside of the bedroom it was only because you were a frigid bitch.”

“So, you cheating on me is my fault?”

“Yes, you ignored me too much. A man has needs.”

“Yeah, well, so does a woman, and you haven’t met mine since the day we met and still I stayed loyal to you because that’swhat you do in a relationship. You talk and, if it’s not working, you tell the other person or end things. You don’t lie and cheat.”

“Oh, grow up, Laney, stop being such a child. These things happen in relationships all the time. You, however, have chosen to assault me and I will be filing charges against you.”