Page 114 of When Morning Comes Around

Dom met Taryn’s gaze – she looked as furious as he felt.

“I do,” said Sadie.

“It was nothing. She meant nothing to me.”

“And yet, she was worth throwing our marriage away for.”

“You’re the one who’s throwing it away.”

Sadie let out a strangled laugh. “Don’t turn it around on me. This isn’t my doing. Although, I won’t say that it isn’t my choice – that I’m not glad.”

“You’re glad?” Dale spat out the question.

“I am. It’s better this way.”

“It isn’t, you stupid bitch! It’s going to cost us a fortune.”

Dom grasped the bar rail with both hands. Sadie had warned him that Dale might call her names and say things that made Dom angry. She’d requested, and he’d agreed, that he shouldn’t interrupt the conversation until she gave him the nod.

Right now, it was taking everything he had not to break that agreement. He wanted nothing more than to turn around and punch Dale.

Sadie on the other hand, sounded calm. Dom understood why when she said, “You don’t get to call me names like that anymore.”

She was calm because she was used to it – that just made Dom’s blood boil. In his mind, no man should ever speak to a woman like that.

“I’m just trying to talk some sense into you, Sadie. I came here prepared to take you back – to take you home with me so that we can fix this mess. If you refuse to do that, then we need to figure out how we’re going to divide things up.”

“That’s what the divorce is for.”

“We don’t need to waste thousands on lawyers when we can figure it out for ourselves.”

Dom folded his arms across his chest. He couldn’t wait to hear what this asshole was going to come up with.

“What exactly do you have in mind?” Sadie asked.

“As I said, my hope was to bring you home with me. If you won’t come, then perhaps we should just divide things evenly down the middle.”

“That sounds fair.”

Dom scowled to himself. From listening to just a few minutes of their conversation, he knew that Dale would never be fair about anything – let alone with Sadie.

“It is. I was thinking that you could take the business, and I’ll take the house.”

Dom squeezed his eyes shut. Sadie had told him that they had a few hundred thousand dollars of equity in the house. Dale was trying to make sure that he got a sure thing while offloading the business on Sadie.

If she still lived there and were running the place, it might not be a bad deal. He’d been surprised when she told him how much the business had been valued for. However, that number was a multiple of profits. From what Josh had told him in a text conversation this morning, the business was already in decline.

He raised his eyebrows, and Taryn gave him a small smile when Sadie said, “How about we do it the other way around? You keep the business, and I’ll keep the house.”

“I’m trying to be fair here,” said Dale.

Sadie laughed. “You don’t know the meaning of the word. You’ve already started to run the business into the ground. Now, you want to give me the mess to clean up while you get the easier job of selling the house.”

“You need to be the one to do it. You turned the employees against me.”

“I did no such thing!”

“You did; they all took your side.”

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