Page 54 of I’m Fine Save Me (The Spiral Duet #1)

Chapter thirty-five

Wayne

A llison had told me that I wasn’t a man because I wasn’t providing for our family.

I had argued with her so many times that I was investing in business ventures that would mean neither of us would ever have to work again. The gambling I did was just a couple hundred dollars every paycheck just to see if I could make us some quick cash.

It wasn’t my fault that the numbers never fell my way.

I got her the money she needed after Tegan turned eighteen.

Of course, my ex-wife had a problem with me exploiting my previous relationship with Melissa at the bank to make it happen. She hadn’t known that’s how I got the credit

Just like her mother, Tegan never let that go either.

Melissa helped me to get a few more loans with Tegan’s social security number; and I had convinced Allison that I’d finally won a few bets that allowed us to catch up on bills.

To this day, I’ll never know if it was my sleeping with Melissa, or Tegan’s anger when she found out about her delinquent accounts that pissed off my ex-wife most. I had every intention of paying her back when I had the money.

They never gave me enough time to catch up, win big, or to get a return on the investments I’d made.

They acted like I’d simply thrown my money away, but really the businesses I’d first invested in had gone under before they’d gotten started.

I’m still waiting for my buddies to pay me back.

I just don’t push them the way that bitch and my ungrateful spawn like to push me.

Now Tegan won’t have a man providing for her either. She’ll learn just how heartless her mother was and still is.

Now… now she’ll see that her mother’s anger and resentment were all for nothing.

When my idiot son-in-law has no job, I bet she’ll understand why I did the things I did to provide for them. She’ll see how I did it all to make sure her mother still loved me, knew she could depend on me, and trusted me to make our lives worth it.

Maybe she’ll learn that her mother made the wrong choice in choosing to love her children more than her husband, because children do nothing to help financial stress. They’re only more of a burden. My granddaughter is an even heavier burden with all her special needs.

Tegan will see that even if Cooper sleeps around to make sure they can pay bills, he’s doing it for his family… If he has the stomach to make such sacrifices.

Sex is not exactly a chore with a desperate woman, but wives don’t need to know that part. At least I had a few warm bodies who wanted me in their bed. My current wife understands that those favors help to keep food on the table.

Parked down the street from my oldest daughter’s house, I sit in my car with the headlights off, watching as Cooper pulls up.

A grin tugs at the corners of my mouth as I exhale a plume of smoke from my cigarette. His anger is a glorious thing. Even almost a full block away from their house, I can hear how hard he slams his truck door and then their front door as well.

My mind begins to churn and I think about the story I told Tegan I was writing.

“Hmmm,” I muse aloud and take another long drag from my cigarette before flicking the butt out onto the street.

Perhaps my daughter needs to learn a more valuable lesson than just what her husband would do to provide for his family. Maybe she needs to learn what it’s like not to have a man providing for her at all.

With that thought, I realize I need a few supplies from home, and start my car with every intention of returning soon.