Page 17 of Marrying My Ex's Boss

“People get too hung up on normal. What the hell is normal anyway? Everyone’s norm is different. The problem starts when you try to be like everyone else, giving up on who you really are. That leads to unhappiness and dissatisfaction. You don’t ever have to live by anyone else’s rules again. I give you permission.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I have a lot of what makes this world tick. Money talks, bullshit walks. I also happen to know that the things money can’t buy are the only things worth having. But since people like your ex and Melanie worship money, I’m going to use it to hurt them. And it’s all at your disposal.”

“Whatever you wanna do from this day forward, do it. I have Carl working on getting you a phone that we will use to stay in touch with each other when you’re not with me. It’ll have a direct line to Carl and Monique as well. Don’t overthink things. Anything happens you call one of us no matter day or night. I’d prefer you called me all the time but there might be times you want one of them instead, that’s fine. As long as you call.”

‘Oh lawd, just lay me out here on this sand and take it. Take it all, Daddy. You can have it; it’s yours.’ Where in the world did you learn to talk like that, Justice?

‘What do you mean? Like your slutty ass wasn’t thinking the same. The man just told you he’s giving you access to his billions while ordering his people to protect you, and you think, what? That my panties ain’t gonna get wet? Head down ass in the air; that’s how we roll. Ruff, ruff, awhoo.’

What the hell are you doing now?

‘That’s my DMX, stop, drop, shut ‘em down, open up shop. Oh, no, that’s how ruff ryders roll. What the fuck you gon' do when we run up on you?

Fuckin' with the wrong crew

Don't know what we're goin' through.’

“Oh, is he playing music in your head?”

What the fuck, Justice? I didn’t even realize I was dancing to that shit.

MARCUS

We stayed on the beach for a while, leaving her family, Carl and Monique, back at the house. I’d originally brought them here as sort of chaperones just in case anyone found out she was here with a man and tried to make something of it in her divorce.

That’s how my mind works, always ten steps ahead of the enemy. It’s the only thing that has kept me alive all this time. We hadn’t talked much as we walked; we were both lost in our thoughts, but we never let go of each other’s hands, and that was more than enough for me.

She’s not the only one who had to think about where this was going. I, too, have to think of the best way to navigate our budding relationship without scaring her off. I know I can come off a bit strong.

Monique hadn’t been too far off the mark with her comments earlier; I do want to bundle her and her kids up and take them behind the protective walls of my family estate.

But I know, standing by her side right now, even though I’ve been out of the country for years, and it can be proven that she and I didn’t have an affair before all this, that the mere hint of such a scandal would only make her life more difficult.

I want her to get the most out of this. I want her to skin her ex in the divorce and then use his money to wipe her ass because no matter how much it is, it won’t be as much as I throw away on bullshit every year.

I also have to think ahead because once she gets the ball rolling to start unraveling the life she’d built with this man for the past ten years she’s not going to be in any position to deal with certain things. I know how men with money use that money to manipulate the less fortunate.

I watched my father do that to my mother, the woman he’d met and married straight out of college. Mom was from a poor background, but she was astonishingly beautiful. That’s what attracted Dad to her when they met at a party on campus.

She was there on scholarship, and he was there to piss away my grandparents’ money with his dumb ass. Years later, when I had just finished college, right after graduation, in fact, is when, he asked for a divorce.

I found out later that he had been cheating on her for years but only waited for me to become an adult to hit her with the last blow. She had been genuinely in love with him, but she was no match for the high society bitch he left her for, or so she thought. He’d claimed that he was tired of being embarrassed by her background. Yeah, it took him twenty years to come to that conclusion.

I was so mad I almost killed him, and then when she took her own life, I almost did. It was only my grandmother pleading with me not to throw my life away that saved his ass.

And then, I left the country and proceeded to put my life in danger every chance I got. Had it not been for Carl, I would’ve died ten times already. Because I just stopped caring. But now, now I have something to live for, and it’s not because of a good cause.

I’m now teaching people in third-world countries how to run their own corporations and take control of their country’s assets without the need for outside help that was meant only to rob them of their resources and give them pennies on the dollar.

That’s what I’ve been doing for the past fifteen years. Monique claims I’m doing it for my mother because of where she came from, maybe. I’m not sure anymore. I just know I have a strong hatred for those who prey on the weak and use their money to oppress the innocent.

My father tried to leave my mother broke, and it was only my grandparents who stepped in in the end and made sure she got her fair share in the divorce. But she was never in it for the money; she genuinely loved him. Then he let that bitch he married treat her like shit and ostracized her from everyone she knew until she had no other choice, or so she thought, but to end it all.

That’s the day I almost killed my father, a day that I still relive day in and day out. A day that I plan to revisit one day when no one is looking.

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