Page 147 of Outside The Wire

The soft knock at the door would normally have me swiping the tears from my face and pulling myself together, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. I heard his footsteps and instantly knew who it was. His presence only made me cry harder. Aside from Asher, he was the one man who had always been there for me, and knowing I was losing him too just killed me.

“I guess you heard,” he sighed, sitting across from me.

I sniffled, swiping my nose on the sweater I wore. “That I’m not married? Yeah, I got the wonderful news about an hour ago. I bet he’s celebrating right now.”

“Jade…” Patrick sighed.

“If you’re going to tell me this was meant to be or I need to accept the truth, you can save it. My husband left me. There’s no getting over that.”

“He didn’t leave you, Jade. He thought you were dead. He moved on with life. What did you expect him to do?”

I had asked myself that question several times and I still didn’t know the answer. Now that I was not dead, I guess I still assumed he would want to be with me. “I don’t know. I guess I imagined him seeing me and being shocked, but relieved. I thought we would have this wonderful reunion and…and we would move on with life.”

“Well, that’s not gonna happen.”

“Obviously,” I retorted.

“Sitting around here will get you nowhere. Get dressed.” He shoved to his feet and grinned. “We’re going out.”

“I don’t want to,” I muttered.

“Too bad. We have things to do.”

I glared at him, not at all interested in whatever he had in store for me. “Patrick, I just found out my husband is gleefully rid of me. He’s known since last night, and I’m sure he was celebrating all night with his little skank. The last thing I want to do is go anywhere.”

“Well, too bad. Sitting around is not an option.”

I sighed, burying my face in the couch, but Patrick grabbed me by the arm and hauled me to my feet. “Patrick?—”

“Nope. I’m not taking no for an answer. Now, you can go get dressed, or I’ll make you leave the house dressed like you are. It’s your choice.”

I was ready to stand my ground and fight him every step of the way, but I knew it would be useless. “Fine. Give me a few minutes.”

“It’ll take more than a few minutes to comb out that rat’s nest on top of your head,” he called after me.

I slammed the door for good measure, then rushed to the bathroom to check out the damage. Grimacing, I grabbed a brush and immediately started detangling my hair. It really was horrible. It only took twenty minutes to look presentable, and when I was finally dressed, I did feel slightly better, though I would never tell Patrick that. I didn’t need him rubbing that in my face the rest of the day.

“Alright, where are we going?”

“On an adventure,” he grinned, taking my hand as he led me to the car. The gesture was appreciated, making me feel comforted when I felt so alone in this world.

I let him drive me around town, babbling about random things that I really didn’t care about. Most of the time, I wasn’teven paying attention. I had no idea where we were going or what we were doing. Everything looked the same in this town, and I couldn’t believe I actually considered living here to win Asher back. It didn’t appeal to me at all.

“Where are we going?” I asked as we drove through some small subdivision.

He parked along the curb and tapped his thumb on the steering wheel as he waited. “Just give it a minute.”

I rolled my eyes, thumping my elbow on the window ledge as I waited impatiently for the grass to grow. What was the point of all this? Who would want to live like this? Manicured lawns and neighbors waving at each other every morning…it wasn’t terrible, but I had other ideas of how I wanted to live after being cooped up in my father’s house for so long.

“Here we go.”

I sat up straight, watching out the windshield as a truck pulled along the curb, followed by another truck.

“Wait, that’s Asher’s truck,” I said, frowning as he got out. He hurried over to the passenger side and helped Holly down, grinning as he wrapped his arm around her neck and pulled her in for a kiss. My heart thundered in my chest as he smiled down at her, laughing at something she said. He looked so fucking happy.

The other man started talking to them, showing them something about the house, and that’s when I realized what they were doing. I gasped in pain, holding my chest as I saw the sign on the lawn.

“They’re buying a house,” I whispered. My gaze snapped to Patrick’s. “Why did you bring me here?”

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