Page 40 of Secret Marriage To My Bosshole

Victor clears his throat as a woman shouts something to him in the background. “We haven’t spoken in a long time. I was just thinking about you.”

“Cut the shit. You and I were over the moment you started fucking around with Crista. Now, tell me what you want so I can end this call and get back to work.”

“You always did have a way with words.” He chuckles, and the sound makes me feel sick to my stomach. It’s the same condescending chuckle he used to use when we were building our business together.

I’m not the same woman I was back then. I know better than to take his shit now.

“Victor, enough. I’m at work, and you are cutting into my time. Tell me what you want, and never call me again.”

Victor sighs. “I thought that there was going to be a day that you would come to your senses and come back to me. You know that you’re never going to amount to much without me.”

I want to throw the phone across the room and scream.

I wish I had a time machine so I could go back before I ever met Victor. I would talk to my younger self about what kind of man to avoid at all costs.

My shoulders stiffen as I lean against Griffin’s desk. “I’m going to hang up on you.”

“Don’t you dare,” Victor’s tone turns icy. “You owe me for all the shit that you put me through when you left. Now, the apartment is flooding. I need the insurance information.”

My jaw drops. I don’t know where the man found the audacity to call me about the home we used to share, but he did.

I shouldn’t really be surprised; he had the audacity to make me liable for every dollar of debt he ever took out, and look where that got me.

I clench my jaw and take a deep breath. “Victor, I canceled the insurance policy when I left you. If you didn’t get insurance on the house, that’s your problem.”

Victor is fuming on the other end of the call. His heavy breathing indicates that he is barely holding back from exploding. “You what? You canceled the insurance policy?”

“It was in my name for a home that wasn’t mine. Of course, I canceled it. Did you expect me to blindly finance your lifestyle in case something happened to the house? Get your head out of your ass, Victor. Once I came to my senses, I canceled everything.”

I hang up before he can start yelling. There is nowhere else for the conversation to go, anyway. He is stuck with a flooded house, and I don’t have another bill in his name added to my debt.

I exhale slowly and squeeze my eyes shut. When I open them, Griffin is watching me.

After taking another moment for myself, I walk back to the couches and sit down. I put my phone on silent and place it facedown on the table.

Griffin leans forward. “Are you okay?”

“Annoyed and hating myself for spending years of my life with that asshole, but I’m okay.” I give him a tight smile and grab my notes, looking through them.

“We can talk about it if you want to. I know he screwed you over once. Was this more of the same?”

I skim through the notes, needing another couple of seconds to get my head on straight. “Victor is nothing but a jerk, and that’s all he’s ever been. I just wish that I’d seen that sooner.”

“Was that call about the debt?” Griffin stands and moves to sit beside me. He slings his arm over the back of the couch, his fingers brushing against my shoulder. “Because if it was, I can take care of it.”

I shake my head, putting down the notes. “I don’t need you to get in the middle of my problems. Everything is going to be fine. The house we bought has flooded, and he wanted the insurance information.”

“And you had canceled the policy?”

“It was only in my name, and I no longer have a house.” The corner of my mouth twitches, just thinking about Victor's current situation. “I didn’t see a need to continue the policy when he had already taken everything else from me.”

Griffin grins as I lean closer to him, putting my head on his shoulder. “Good. You don’t need more of his shit in your life. He can figure out something for himself for once.”

I close my eyes, focusing on counting Griffin’s heartbeats to calm down my mind. “I thought he was everything I wanted at one point in my life. It’s hard to believe that I was so wrong.”

“He portrayed himself to be a different person than who he actually is. You can’t blame yourself for that.”

“I do, though.” I swallow hard, looking up at Griffin. It was something I hadn’t said out loud to many people before.

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