Page 20 of Tripp

I swallowed back a sob. “It’s over. I’ve not seen him since that last time. Please don’t do this.”

I wobbled; my ankle hurt too much for the way I was standing.

“What’s the list of charges?”

“They span back about nine years,” Phoenix said, his eyes scanning the paperwork before him. “Drugs. He spent time before a few judges on that charge. There are a few assault charges, all of which were dropped. The victims retracted their statements. They made a ‘mistake.’ We all know that means they scared them into silence.”

“He…” I fell back into the chair. Nine years. That meant he was like that while we were together. How did I not know? “Nine years?”

“Yeah.”

“How was I married to him and didn’t know any of that?”

“You were married to Garcia? Damn.”

“What? No. Manny Johnson. This man.”

“Yeah, him. That’s Emanuel Garcia.” Trace slid a paper across to me. It was a picture of his driver’s license. I looked at it then back to the people watching me.

“I was married to this man for four years. He traveled for work. Said his family was dead. He was an only child. We were married in a civil ceremony with only two witnesses.”

“When?”

“He’s been gone for three years. I have the signed divorce papers.”

“That makes him married to two different women under two different names. What a scumbag.”

How—how had any of this happened to me? Was I that clueless? A doormat for real.

God, what an embarrassment I must be. At least I got out when I did. But had he just let me go? That wasn’t like him. I hadn’t seen it before; I was just glad to be free.

I turned to look back at Tripp; he stood stock still, his body ready for a fight. I knew that look on his face. The set of his jaw. He was the reason he’d left me alone. The reason those divorce papers showed up so quickly.

As if I needed another reason to love him.

Love.

I stood, determined to get out of this room. It was hard to breathe. The room around me shifted, and everything went black.

The sharp odor under my nose had me sitting up.

“She’ll be fine.”

My eyes focused, and I watched the doctor, Shelby, digging in her bag.

“Welcome back. Do you have any pains? Aches of any kind? How’s your ankle? Your leg? Mind coming over to the office so I can check your stitches?”

“Um…what happened?”

“You scared ten years off my life, that’s what.” Tripp squeezed my hand. His warm lips pressed to my forehead seemed to wash away some of the worry swamping me.

“I was told you got some rather shocking news. I think that and maybe low blood sugar caused you to tumble over. Drink this bottle of juice.”

My head was spinning again. “Wait. What’s wrong with my stitches?” I looked down to find blood on my pants. “Aw shit. Is the universe out to get me this month or what?”

“You probably popped a stitch or two. Let’s go get you checked over, then I’m taking you and the baby home.”

“Penny! Where’s she?”

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