Page 124 of Stone Vows

“You think I’d want to stay married to that frigid bitch?” Grant spits. “Although, now that I know I have a kid, maybe things have changed. What’s my daughter’s name, Alexa?”

I squeeze Ellie to my chest, refusing to tell him anything. She wakes up crying. She’s hungry. It’s late. Behind Kyle’s protective stance, I pace around, bouncing Ellie in my arms, but she’s inconsolable. Her cries become wails. I try to soothe her, talking to her as I sign my words.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Grant shouts over at me. Then he looks to Kyle. “What the fuck is she doing?”

“She’s talking to her, dipshit,” Kyle says.

Grant watches me. His eyes ping-pong between my signing hands and Ellie. Then his eyes go wide in realization and his head falls back as he laughs up at the sky. “Are you kidding me?” he asks, shaking his head. “Is the kid fucking deaf?”

Kyle and I both remain silent, Kyle staring at Grant with hatred seeping from his every pore.

“I don’t want no gimpy kid,” Grant says. “The one I have with Tara isn’t defective.”

Kyle lunges at Grant, and Ethan has to hold him back once more. Grant tries to get up off the bench to challenge Kyle, but Ethan pushes him back, holding him down by his shoulders.

I stop pacing and look over at Grant. “Tara. She’s the one from those letters in your study.”

His jaw tightens and his shoulders tense, just like they used to right before he would hit me. He’s pissed knowing I went through his things.

“You have akidwith her?” I ask, from behind my protectors. “The woman you had on the side all those years?”

He laughs at me.“Youwere the one on the side, baby. Not her.”

I study him in confusion. “Then why did you even marry me, Grant? Why not her?”

He shrugs. “She was already married to some rich lawyer from Ft. Wayne, Indiana.” He nods to the papers Kyle is still holding. “But when he found out she was knocked up with someone else’s kid, he tossed her out and divorced her. I didn’t want a bastard kid, so I said I’d marry her. But I had to get you to sign the papers first. Christ, Alexa, you crawled under a fucking rock and died,” he says, almost as if he’s proud of me for being able to hide from him. “I’ve been driving here one weekend a month for a year, following your goddamn brother around. I thought I got close when I found out you pawned the ring. Guess I should have given you more credit. I didn’t think you were smart enough to dodge me all this time.” He looks between Kyle and me again. “But then again, maybe you’re not. Maybe doctor-boy here was helping you all along.”

“But . . . why wouldn’t you just tell Caden you wanted a divorce? You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble,” I say.You could’ve savedmea lot of heartache.

“And miss this joyful reunion?” he asks with smug smile. “Now what would be the fun in that? I mean, now I get to charge your friend here with false imprisonment. And let’s see, I guess I can chargeyouwith kidnapping.”

I gasp. Tears well up in my eyes as I hold a sniffling, crying Ellie.

Kyle reaches into the diaper bag and gets out a bottle, handing it to her to calm her down.

“You want the gimp?” Grant asks Kyle, laughing. “You can have her.”

Venom spews from Kyle’s eyes as he walks over and punches Grant in the face. Grant’s head snaps to the side and blood flies out of his mouth, spattering the sidewalk. He spits blood onto the ground and then wipes his mouth on his shoulder. “Add assaulting a defenseless cop to that list,” he says.

“You want to talk charges? Let’s talk charges,” Ethan says, hovering above Grant. “How about beating your goddamn wife. Raping her. Assaulting her here tonight by grabbing her neck. And let’s not forget threatening her child.”

“Rape?” Grant asks, like he honestly doesn’t think what he did to me ever qualified. “Yeah right, she was a willing participant.”

“And you’re sure a jury would see it that way?” Ethan asks. “What do you stand to gain here, Lucas? If you take her to court, what, you’re going to ask for custody? Of the kid you don’t even want?

“And let’s talk about these other charges you say you want to bring against us. The way I remember it, you were holding Alexa’s neck and threatening her child. Kyle walked up and hit you and then I cuffed you to keep you from hurting anyone.” He turns to Kyle and me with raised brows. “Is that how you guys remember it?”

We both nod.

“So you see, you have a choice here,” Ethan tells him. “You can get what you came for, or you can be a stubborn ass and fight us out of spite. But let me tell you something, Lucas, you don’t want to mess with us, because I promise you, all your dirty cop connections can’t buy you half of whatwecan afford. Between her brother and the rest of us, we can get the best team of lawyers money can buy without even breaking a sweat.”

Grant’s eyes bounce back and forth between Ethan and Kyle, and then he looks at Ellie. “How much is she worth to you?”

“You really are a sick fuck,” Kyle says, running a hand through his hair.

Ethan stands between them so Kyle won’t take another swing. “I don’t think you understand,” Ethan says to Grant, with a harsh chuckle. “Do you really want to be burdened with eighteen years of child support? Deaf children can be expensive. Private schools. Instructional camps. Elective surgeries. Do you really want to take that on?”

Grant looks over at me and his face falls. I’ve never seen the man look defeated. He’s always won. He’s won everything he’s ever done. The only thing he hasn’t won is getting the best of me. And he knows it.

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