Page 17 of Mechanic's Charming Bride

“Then what!” He gets up in my face again, waving another dish. “Why the fuck did you do that?”

“I heard you and your mom talking! About you losing your money to crypto and how you were going to bleed me dry too!”

That stuns him long enough to stop from throwing the dish and lowering it to his side instead. “You were eavesdropping on me?”

My mouth literally falls to the floor. Is this man for real right now? “Is that all you heard?”

“That was a private conversation!”

Oh my god, he is going to be this fucking ballsy and turn this all around on me.

For the first time in our entire relationship, I take a step back and look at the man I’d been willing to tie myself to for the rest of my life. The man I thought would promise to protect and hold me when things got rough. The man who was supposed to make me want for nothing and make me a kept woman.

When the true reality couldn’t be farther from this fucking fantasy he’d schemed up and served to me on a silver platter.

And I was the idiot to fall for it.

Just like everyone else in his life.

“Where the hell did you stay last night, Sam?” He’s getting pissed again. “You didn’t stay in a hotel room because I have all your cards.”

You probably tried to use them too.

“None of your business.”

“Who the fuck is he?” He grabs my arm in a bruising hold.

I’m so over this. I can’t believe I ever thought I loved this man.

“Why do you think it’s a guy?” I challenge. “Is it because I actually look satisfied for once?”

He drops the bowl, letting it shatter at our feet, but that’s not what shocks me. It’s the hand that slaps my cheek hard enough to rattle my brain.

I crumble to the floor in shock, holding my face with a shaking palm.

“You disgust me,” he spits out. “One day and you’re already hopping on some other man’s dick.”

Tears leak down my cheeks. I hope like hell Nate got my SOS and is sending someone. Or better yet, he’s on his way.

“Why…?” My voice cracks.

He doesn’t answer me and instead kicks away the phone I have gripped in my hand. It slides across the living room, disappearing somewhere under the couch and out of reach. When I look back up at him, all I see is a monster.

“You’re going to clean yourself up, and we’re going to go to the bank.” He has a sneer on his face as he speaks. “And you’re going to unfreeze that fucking account.”

“Bastard,” I spit at him.

He’s about to raise his hand at me again when there’s a loud thud against our front door. Frank whips around at the noise, jumping when the door seems to bow in from the other side.

Neither of us move as we watch in complete stunned silence. Finally the door gives way and pieces of wood go flying.

“Get the fuck away from her.”

Chapter Nine

Nate

Black rage hits me the second I lay my eyes on the scene before me.

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