Page 4 of Grumpmas

Logan Lancaster was here to pick up Faith, and I hated seeing him after everything he had done to me, but we shared a child together. Co-parenting had to remain our number one priority for her sake, and we had to get along, but he made it hard. He kept insisting he wanted me back after the mistake he had made. An embarrassment I could never forget. Cue the dreadful flashbacks.

THREE

Humiliation of a Lifetime

Noelle

My dad sat at a table beside mine with my mom. Her dark eyes twinkled in the lighting of the stage as she watched my fiancé sing his heart out to “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers,and he pretended to play an invisible air guitar. I laughed at the sight of him, clapped my hands together, and my mom joined in.

Joy Evergreen stomped her heel on the floor to the beat. Small wispy pieces of her neatly kept graying caramel hair fell out of the bun she had tied it back in. My mom was gorgeous for her age, and I hoped to be as striking as her one day.

My mom smiled at me, then turned to my father and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Their bond was as strong as ever and a constant model of the love I wanted to share with the man on stage belting his heart out. I had found the same undying love with Logan Lancaster. A rich man, extremely handsome, with dirty blond hair and gorgeous blue eyes that were as bright as the sky. I got lost in his striking stare every time I looked at him. He was every woman’s dreamboat, and he was all mine. I was the luckiest girl alive.

I met Logan when I was young, and he was my first love. He promised me the world, and our attraction was undeniable, but my fear grew when I fell pregnant at twenty. I waspetrified of being a mother until I held my baby in my arms, and she changed my world.

Logan had given me the greatest gift of all, and he had devoted himself to us ever since. Our upcoming marriage was around the corner, and I was the happiest I had ever been because our bond as a family would become permanent.

Everything was on the right track toward a happily ever after. Especially with my father’s early retirement and arrangements for me to take over the family business. Evergreen Toys would be mine to run in the next couple of days, and my father had gathered everyone to celebrate. He had brought my family and Logan’s together for a joyous occasion I wouldn’t be able to forget. Soon, our families would be one. There was no better way to celebrate success and bring us all closer together.

I was a businesswoman—independent and strong—and about to become Mrs. Lancaster.

My engagement ring sparkled as I waited for the champagne to come, and I couldn’t turn away from the gorgeous rose gold band Logan had bought me. The ring he had promised me the world with and a love as bright as the diamonds twinkling all over it.

Until Logan’s cell phone screen lit up on the table like a beacon of light lost out at sea in the nighttime. The illumination was unavoidable as he sang into the microphone to the upbeat melody of a loveless betrayal. A love story gone wrong, just like the text coming through on my fiancé’s cell phone.

Derek from work:I can’t stop thinking about last night. Your hands. Your mouth. The way you made me scream.I hate that you’re going back to your fiancée every night. Come back to bed with me.

My mind needed a moment to process what I had read. I scanned the message multiple times until I took in what this all meant. Derek wasn’t some employee at work; he was a woman, and Logan was an idiot who hadn’t set his messages not to show his text notifications right on his lock screen.

Tears bit at my eyes, my hands trembled, and I picked up his cell phone for a better view of the cheater he truly was. The man who I thought was my everything was every single thing I didn’t want. Logan Lancaster was nothing but a two-faced liar, a cheat who had robbed me of years of my life, and he was the father of my child.

No—Faith.My daughter. She didn’t deserve this broken family of nothingness all because her father couldn’t keep his dick in his pants!

How dare he? How could he do this to Faith? To me?

Suddenly, there was a microphone in my face, and reality all came back to me like a bitter slap in the face. I was at a celebration for me. Karaoke with family. The worst day of my life.

“Come on, baby. Sing with me,” Logan called out into the microphone and waved me up onto the stage.

My soon-to-be ex-fiancé had no clue what I had witnessed only moments ago. Logan, the dumb bastard, didn’t know I knew the truth, and there was no way I’d let him get away with his deception. He was going down, and I wanted him to hurt as badly as my broken heart did.

I steadied my nerves after the humiliation had crept up inside of me, and I took the damn mic. Logan flashed me apristine smile I used to love and admire, but now I wanted to carve a knife into the corners and make him resemble the Joker—a psychopath who got off on stealing hearts and making them bleed. I plastered on a fake grin as broad as his and heard our song come on.Shallow.

I got onto the stage. “Cut the music.”

The song stopped while the microphones buzzed, and a soft chatter fell over the crowd. My gaze never wavered from Logan’s confused face as he came over to me and touched my arm. His bright eyes, as clear as the skies on a sunny summer day, reflected the incoming storm of my angered gaze. I was pissed, certain of what I must do, and dead set on making him suffer.

“What’s going on, baby? Why’d you stop our song?” Logan asked, puzzled as he glanced at me, then out at the crowd.

“That’s not our beat anymore, Logan,” I announced through the microphone. “Why don’t we play a song that goes out to a liar who hides his side piece behind a fake name and cheats on his family?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why don’t we sit down and talk about this?” Logan laughed nervously and tugged on my arm. “Be reasonable, baby.”

I pulled away.

“Reasonable? All my reasoning went out the window when I read a text fromDerek at workon your cell phone.” I glared at Logan, and he ran his hands through his hair. “I can’t stop thinking about last night. Your hands. Your mouth. The way you made me scream. I hate that you’regoing back to your fiancée every night. Come back to bed with me.”

Damn my memory was on fire tonight.Logan?Not so much as he tried to deny everything, and I made my way off the stage without one glance back.