Page 60 of Punish Me

“Are you sure you want to go down that road again?”

“You need to leave, Lyndsey. Now!” Ambrose barks.

“I thought you were looking forward, but you’re returning to your past. I should’ve known that she was hanging around you for a reason. She’s the real gold digger. Looks like I’m not the only one who knows a good thing when she sees it,” Lyndsey smirks.

I stand just as Shayla says, “Cee-Cee, come with me. You can help me gather everything for the dessert.”

“What’s for dessert?” she asks, popping up from the chair she’d already claimed.

Her voice trails off as she and Shayla leave the dining room. I step out of the dining room because while Shayla and Cee-Cee aren’t right there, we can still see each other, and they might be able to see me.

“Ambrose, would you please give us a moment?”

“Bryn, I’ve got this.”

“That’s fine. You can handle your little situation with her popping up whenever she wants, but that shit that she just said about me? I can handle my own, Ro.”

I can feel him seething as I stand my ground.

“Bryn.”

“Ro.”

“Looks like I know who’ll be wearing the pants in this relationship,” Lyndsey scoffs.

“Call me when you’re done, Bryn. Lyndsey, I’m done playing your fucking games. The only thing I have to say to you isthat I’m going to file for full custody this week. I warned you,” Ambrose says and turns away from us.

I step close to Lyndsey as Ambrose heads to his home office.

“Listen, you’re absolutely right that I knew a good thing when I saw it. The difference between you and me is thatIam his good thing, too. You manipulated your way into his life once, and he saw you for the snake that you were. You may have ruined us in the past, but that willneverhappen again. I was young, but I’m a whole lot wiser now. Your tricks, popping up here with your daughter unannounced, you’re harming no one but yourself, Lyndsey.

“All the shit you do are the actions of a desperate woman. I know how to love, respect, honor, and treat my man. He will never have to worry about me manipulating him, controlling him, or being some other man’s whore. And he definitely won’t have to worry about the impression I leave upon our future children,” I hiss.

“You bitch,” she hisses back.

“As long as you know,” I say, spinning around on my heel.

“You’ll never be able to keep him. Hell, you couldn’t do it the first time around. He’ll always come running back to me as he always does. So, remember, the next time that you kiss him, it might be my pussy on his lips that you’re tasting. You can never be the woman to Ambrose that I am. You’re just some girl from the ghetto he’s slumming it with. Just some skank who’s whoring yourself out to him for a better payday. You’re not—”

My arm shoots out, and before I know it, I’ve slapped the taste out of her mouth. Tears spring to her eyes, her face turns red, and she holds her cheek. Her mouth is open wide as she stares at me in disbelief.

“Ro, I’m finished,” I call out, lifting an eyebrow in challenge to her. “Sorry, sometimes that ghetto bitch in me rears her uglyhead. Now fuck with me if you want to,” I say as Ambrose steps from his office down the hallway.

“Let’s go,” Ambrose says, taking her by the wrist and dragging her to the front door.

“She hit me, Ambrose!”

“You must have done something to deserve it,” I hear him say.

I turn towards the dining room, only to find Brayden, Austin, and Dominic all standing in the doorway, staring wide-eyed at me.

They each rush back to their seats, and I take my seat again.

Austin is the first one to break the tension. He claps, stands, and bows to me.

“Congratulations and welcome to the family. I think you’re the first person who ever stood up to her,” Austin says.

“It’s about time someone did, and thank God Ambrose has you. Not that he’s ever been anyone’s puppet, but I hate the way that she uses that child to manipulate him,” Dominic says.

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