Page 13 of Crashing Without Justice

I handed her back her phone, my fingers shaking a bit with adrenaline. This was not okay. While Trista and I were in the absolute wrong, threatening her children was crossing a line that Paige had no right to cross, no matter how angry she was. Trista’s children were innocent in all of this, and I couldn’t fault her for being furious that someone would drag them into this mess.

“Okay…let’s just…we need to think-”

“Think about what?” she challenged. “If Paige wants to come after me for my part in all this, then fine. We can do this, Harding. I’ll meet her any place and time of her choosing, and I’ll answer any questions that she has. However, I’m not going to let that woman threaten my children.”

“Trista, she’s just upset,” I said, trying to calm her down. “She didn’t mean-”

“I don’t give a fuck!” she yelled. “My children are babies, Harding!”

“Okay, calm down,” I ordered more firmly. “We’re not going to be able to figure anything out if we begin arguing about this.”

Trista’s green orbs flared, and a part of me wondered if she was going to leave me, and the other part of me wondered if I’d even have the right to try to stop her. “She threatened my children,” she repeated. “Now, I can handle her harassing my friends and family because they’re grown adults that can handleher nonsense. However, mentioning my children is going too far, no matter what she believes I’ve done to her.”

“I agree,” I quickly assured her. “But if you go after her, then that’ll just make things worse. We can’t have any record of you threatening her in return.”

“Then what do you suggest?” she bit out. “Because I’m about to go to your house and kick her fucking ass for daring to even mention my children.”

I walked over to her, then placed my hands on her shoulders, running them up and down her arms to offer some sort of comfort. “Let me call her best friend, Heady,” I replied as evenly as I could. “If anyone can talk some sense into Paige, it’d be her.”

“That still won’t take away from the fact that shethreatenedmy kids, Harding.”

As I stared down at the woman that had captured my heart, I hated how her beautiful face was twisted with anger, worry, and regret. At only five-foot-three, her black hair and green eyes were the complete opposite of Paige’s five-foot-five of auburn hair and brown eyes, and I didn’t even know if that was a good thing or bad right now. I had hurt two different women, and I had no idea how to ease any of the pain to a reasonable level.

“Look, can we just…can we hold off on filing a report?” I asked, though I knew that it was asking a lot. No one had the right to ask a mother to stand down when it came to her children. “Let me call Heady, and if Heady can’t talk any sense into her, then we’ll call the police.”

Trista’s shoulders immediately slumped with the weight of her responsibility in all this. “Harding, she can’t just be able to threaten and harass whoever she wants,” she said tiredly. “I get that we hurt her, and I get that her emotions are all over the place right now, but we’re still responsible for our actions, despite what we’re feeling. Otherwise, murderers would never be brought to trial.”

“Paige is hardly on the same level as murderers, Trista,” I remarked dryly, not necessarily defending Paige, but not leaving her to hang, either. “She’s just hurt, and she’s lashing out like most betrayed wives would.”

Trista’s head reared back in a bit of shock. “No, Harding,” she snapped. “That’s where you’re wrong. Most wives would go after the husband or the mistress. Most wives would have gone through the husband’s phone to find out everything that they could about the ‘other woman’. Most wives kick their husbands out of the house, then go after them for every dime.” She cocked her head as she slipped her phone back in her pocket. “They don’t call their husband’s bosses or send out group texts. They don’t post Christian passageson social media at the same time that they’re making harassing phone calls and pretending to be a cop.”

“Trista-”

“And they sure as hell do not threaten someone’s children,” she went on, her voice hard and full of fire. “She’s posting about faith and God, and her idiot friends and followers are eating it up because you refuse to stand up for yourself.”

“I am not not standing up for myself, Trista,” I corrected. “I’m trying to take responsibility for what I did. I’m trying to show her some grace, some compassion for what she’s going through.”

“Well, so was I,” she fired back. “But that all went out the window the second that she decided to bring my children into this. So, I’m telling you now, either get her in check or else I will. I no longer care that I’m in the wrong. Nothing matters more to me than my children, and that includes right and wrong, Harding.”

“Okay, okay…” I rushed out. “Just…just let me call Heady, and then we’ll go from there.”

“If that doesn’t work, then tell Paige that I will meet her whenever and wherever she wants,” she replied. “Whether for closure or to make my stance on my children clear, I don’t care.”

“No,” I told her, my voice leaving no room for argument. “If calling Heady doesn’t work, we will call the police and let them handle Paige. At this point, we have no idea where her head is at, and so we don’t need her manipulating the situation to her advantage, getting you in trouble.” I ran my hands up and down her arms again. “Your children do not need to see their mother getting in a fight or worse.”

Trista just shook her head. “I’m going to have to tell Frank. I’m going to have to warn him, and he’s not going to like it.”

Yeah, as if this shitshow wasn’t enough of a disaster.

Chapter 10

Paige~

Like the coward that she was, Trista didn’t respond to any of my text messages, and I could admit to being rather disappointed. I had a lot of anger towards her, and by refusing to engage, she was robbing me of my right to lash out at her.

At any rate, as I glanced around the café, waiting for Heady to show up, I thought about what I should do next. So far, everything that I was trying to accomplish felt anticlimactic. I was getting no satisfaction from any of it, and that felt wrong to me. I deserved to feel some semblance of satisfaction for what Harding was going through, but I didn’t. I felt like nothing was hitting him hard enough to make a dent, and that was unacceptable.

He also hadn’t commented on any of the pictures that I had posted this morning. I had chosen the best photos that I could find, and while I was getting all kinds of compliments on them, Harding hadn’t remarked on any of them. Not even one like, and who did that? Yeah, they were old pictures, but there was nothing wrong with trying to boost your ego when you’ve been betrayed in such a horrible way.

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