Page 29 of The Regrettable Mistake

Ollie sat there staring at me like I had two heads. “You have been paying for everything.” He stated it as if it needed to be repeated to be believed. “Why the hell didn’t you ever say anything?”

I shrugged. “Figured you knew when no money came out of your account.”

“Fuck’s sake, Steph. That account is meant to be joint and I don’t use it other than to deposit money into it each month and that is done automatically.” Ollie pulled his phone out and fiddled with something. “Christ! There’s over $200,000 in the account. I’ve been depositing $6,000 into it every month since we married three years ago.”

All three men turned back to me. I looked at them all like they were missing the big picture, because they were. “How in the hell did you expect me to access the money? You never gave me an ATM card and the checks you gave me only had your name on them – which is why they wouldn’t allow me to endorse it at the electric company.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

“After the way you made a huge deal about gold diggers when we dated, and then had me sign a prenup that left me with absolutely nothing if we divorced, I didn’t really feel comfortable asking you about anything financial. You paid for the house. I figured me paying everything else was my contribution.”

“What in the absolute fuck, Ollie?” Hutch growled. “You need to sign that supposed joint account over to Steph. You owe her for the three years she has been propping up your family financially all on her own. Not to mention, you were supposed to provide a vehicle that was paid for. She spent the first year of your marriage in her run down, ancient Toyota Celica until it died. Then, she financed her new vehicle herself. I always wondered why you were such a cheap fucker to get her a used car. Turns out, it was worse than that.”

“I didn’t fucking know!”

“You didn’t care to or you would have checked. Fuck man, do you even know what kind of car my sister drives or were you that oblivious?”

“Steph, I’ll make this all right, I promise,” Ollie directed toward me as he ignored my brother’s question.

“It’s too late to make anything right. I need the media circus to leave us the hell alone, so I can get my life back on track. That’s all I want from you at this point.”

CHAPTER 12

Ollie

My fucking mind was absolutely blown. Not only mine, but every other fucker in the room who just heard firsthand what a shit husband I had been even before the cheating incident. It killed me to acknowledge Steve’s question because I couldn’t recall what kind of car my wife drove. Whenever we went places together as a family, it was always in my Land Rover. The times Steph and I went to functions together without Den, we took my Audi.

Steph’s vehicle was a blue SUV. That was all I knew. “Fuck. How did this happen?”

“Sounds like a whole lot of neglect on your part,” My wife’s twin answered. I wanted to punch the motherfucker in the mouth to shut him up but he wasn’t wrong.

“It also sounds like your sister failed to communicate any issues she had with her husband.” Caleb corrected Steve immediately, though it fell flat as a response, as it should.

“And you already heard her explain why she never bothered to tell him shit.”

“Do I really need to be here for y’all’s dick swinging competition? I’m exhausted, depressed, angry, and heartbroken. None of those things are great for pregnancy but all the added stress and drama is even less so.”

“Sorry, Sis.” Her twin was the first to apologize and she gave him a stiff nod in response.

“Sorry, Precious. I promise to fix everything.”

She didn’t even bother to respond to me, not that I blamed her. Hell, my wife hadn’t even looked in my direction since I got to the house.

“Why do you always do that?” I glanced around to see that my wife had addressed Caleb.

“Do what?”

She scoffed at him. “It’s a funny thing, having the rug pulled out from underneath your feet. It makes you question all the strange things that you wrote off as weird ticks or odd nuances that weren’t your business. I’ll probably regret knowing the answer, but I need it just the same now.”

“Sorry, Steph, I really don’t know what you’re asking,” Caleb explained.

“Every time Ollie calls me Precious, you wince like it means something bad.”

Oh shit. Please, please, don’t tell her.

Caleb looked guilty as fuck, and that was bullshit because normally he had a poker face that would work to bluff Satan himself.

“I don’t…” He started and then stopped, as if to collect his thoughts. All he managed was to dig the hole a little deeper. Steph crossed her arms over her chest and as it pulled her shirt tighter two things became very obvious. One – her tits had grown. A lot. She had to be two cup sizes larger than she was the last time I noticed them, which was months ago.

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