Page 21 of Marrying My Ex's Boss

I’m not screwing him just because he bought me clothes.

‘And why not? You gave it to that jackass for free. When did he ever buy you a five-thousand-dollar suit?’

I better land this job because I get the feeling that if I don’t, Justice will have me on the corner by next week. ‘Damn straight, we gotta eat. And we got bills and shit because you know that fucker isn’t giving you a penny unless the judge says so.’

What about his kids? He won’t starve them.

‘Fuck he care about his kids? He didn’t have a problem infecting their mother with that nasty shit he caught from that bitch. What breed is she anyway? Looking like a Chinese crested.’

JUSTINE

Marcus is right; I don’t recall the last time I felt this beautiful, and with that feeling came a sense of power that all women have when they know they look good. Angelina, Angel for short, did an amazing thing with my makeup.

It was so understated it looked as though I wasn’t wearing anything but some tinted gloss and mascara. I must’ve stayed in front of the mirror for a good ten minutes before it was time to go. Monique was staying with the kids until the babysitter arrived, and then she was going to hang around a bit longer to make sure everything was okay.

I wasn’t sure what she expected to happen, but apparently, it was Marcus’ order. That’s when I learned she was a black belt and that Carl was the one who taught her. I’m all kinds of confused about those two.

Not to mention for someone who had experienced the horrendous shit she had, she is one of the happiest people I have ever met. I have to remember to ask her one day how she did it because I know people who have suffered less and still can’t bounce back.

I kissed my babies goodbye, but they hardly paid me any mind because their Aunty Mo-Mo had brought a new Mickey Mouse waffle maker, and they were losing their shit. I barely got a hand wave as I walked out the door.

I was about to get into my car when Monique ran out the door behind me and stopped me. “Where are you going?”

“To the company, I guess.”

“In that piece of shit?” She pointed at my ten-year-old Equinox with distaste.

“Well, yeah, how else am I supposed to get there?”

“The same way I got here, a driver. Yours should be here any minute.”

“A car and driver?”

“Oh, you really don’t know Marcus.”

A car pulled onto my driveway, and I almost swallowed my tongue. “Is that a Phantom?”

“Yeah, that’s a Phantom, but not thee Phantom. Your asshole boyfriend drives that one.”

There was a driver in uniform who opened the door with a smile. I didn’t know how to act, but Justice was way ahead of me. ‘this is the life I was meant to live. Yes bitch, I have arrived.’

* * *

I knew shit was about to pop off as soon as I walked into the conference room with Marcus as soon as I arrived. First, let me go back to the beginning. After the car ride that was about twenty minutes long, there was someone waiting to meet me at the door and lead me to Marcus’ office.

“Good morning, Ms. Justine, I’m sorry, Mr. Devereaux said your last name won’t be yours for long, so I don’t need to know it, but if you’d prefer…”

“No, it’s fine, or you can just call me Justine.”

“No, ma’am, I cannot.”

Why did she look like she was about to crap herself? I followed her through the lobby that was as big as the first floor of my house to the bank of elevators. I’d been here many years ago but hadn’t needed to visit my husband at his job since his first year here when we were so in love and I would meet him after work to go to dinner or the movies.

The first thing I saw when I walked into Marcus’ office that looked and smelled as if it had new everything, was the plaque on the wall behind his head. “One mark of a great soldier is that he fights on his own terms or fights not at all.” Sun Tzu.

If he’s reading Sun Tzu, he’s a real one, first and foremost. Most crazy geniuses are into his shit. But it was the man himself that made my insides quiver. I’d seen him in a Tuxedo, then slacks and dress shirts that Carl had bought him when he bought my stuff, but there was a difference between both those things and the dark-colored suit he wore with the pale blue shirt with a gold pin through his tie.

What the hell would this paragon of sexiness want with me? “You look gorgeous. Are you ready?” He got up from his chair, grabbed a leather folder, and passed it to me. “Take notes.”

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