Page 18 of Yours Suddenly

Why even get married if you're going to cheat? Like what's the point?

I know men who get married just to have somebody to cook for them and clean for them and give them children while going out and sleeping with other women.

But Roman doesn't need somebody to cook or clean after him. He doesn't need someone to run his household…

I start my new job the next day and immediately regret it.

When I thought about working at a horse ranch, I thought about giving the horses scratches on their noses and petting their smooth coats and wearing cute plaid shirts. Instead, I'm assigned the job of mucking the stables because I’m new. Fair enough. The other ranch hands are friendly – though I had to initially convince them I’m notreallya city girl like they thinkI am – but the owner is making it extremely likely I'm going to quit when he starts to flirt with me.

I remind him, in a friendly way, that I'm married.

“I don't see a ring on you,” he grunts as I carry a bucket of horseshit to empty by a manure dump.

I can tell he's getting annoyed.

I'm getting annoyed too.

“Well obviously I left it at my place, I wouldn't bring a diamond ring to a horse ranch, now would I?” I snap.

He doesn't take kindly to that and for the rest of the day, he’s all irritable with me.

When I don't do a good job, apparently, of de-shitting the stables, he gets pissed. Personally, I think I did a great job, even the other ranch hands said I did, but it looks like he's just looking for something to be negative about.

When I ask him what specifically is wrong with the stables and tell him there isn't any freaking shit I see, he shoves me into the wall and I hit it hard, falling on the hay-strewn floor. Stunned, I look up at him, but he connects his boots to the back of my neck as I try to get away. White-hot pain spreads through me as he kicks me again in the same spot.

“Don't youeveranswer back at me, fucking bitch,” he says. He spits and then walks away as I lie there in disbelief, my neck throbbing in pain.

After an eternity, I stand up gingerly and walk out, going back to the B&B. The lady that owns the place gives me one of her nice smiles and I try to give one back but as soon as I pass by the door to my room, I burst into tears.

I miss my mom so much. If the accident hadn't happened, I would still be in Wisconsin right now.

If I hadn't stayed at home that night, I would have died too.

Instead, I'm in Oregon, which I've never been to without my family and I don’t even know what I’m doing here and I just got kicked in my fucking neck. Probably got a broken bone somewhere. I get into bed, curling into a ball under the sheets.

Chapter 10

Roman

The B&B is… quaint.

Like one of those places you go to for your honeymoon. We even visited something like this, my wife and I, during our honeymoon phase.

My wife.

She's here.

How did I find her? I have connections all over the country. I have eyes and legseverywhere.

Does that make me some kind of stalker-ish asshole whose wife can’t ever escape him? Maybe.

But I'll be damned if I lose her.

It's late afternoon, which means it's been nearly forty-eight hours since she ran away andI've been a fucking mess.

I haven't slept since but I'm still as alert as a dog that’s tracking down its prey.

When I enter the B&B’s reception area, the old woman's smile falters when she looks up from her novel. Don’t blame her. I don’t look exactly friendly. The usual first expression thatcomes on someone's face when they meet me is never a smile. Just like with Alexandra the night I asked her to be mine.

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