Page 9 of Crashing Without Justice

Heady:Don’t 4get about dinner. We’re here 4 u

Since I no longer had time for dinner, I fired off a quick text, cancelling. Now that I had Trista’s information, my time needed to be better spent on studying the competition.

Me:I’m just really 2 exhausted. It’s finally hitting me, making me feel spent

As soon as I hit send, another text came through.

Harding:Call me

If Harding thought that I was going to go out of my way to ease his suffering, then he was sorely mistaken.

Me:I’ll call u when I’m n a better place emotionally

Heady:Understandable, hun. Call u later

I ignored Heady’s reply, then set my phone back down on the table. I needed more firepower for my investigation, so I got up to go get my laptop. While I was very versed with my phone, I needed multiple windows open for what I needed to do next. By the time that the sun came up tomorrow, I was going to know everything that I needed to know about Trista Preston and how she’d come into my husband’s life.

I was also going to reach out to more of Harding’s acquaintances. In all actuality, it was their wives that I should probably reach out to. After all, birds of a feather and all that, right? If Harding’s friends and co-workers were okay with him cheating, then it was probably because they were cheating as well, and someone should really warn their wives.

Honestly, a good woman’s work was never done.

Chapter 7

Harding~

Unfortunately, dinner with Jeremy and our parents hadn’t helped much beyond their emotional support. No one had any idea how to rein Paige in, and I wasn’t even sure if it could be done at this point. After getting her text that she’d call me when she was emotionally ready to speak to me, I’d gotten more calls from other people about Paige reaching out to them, telling them all the business. Paige was also showing no rhyme or reason to who she was contacting or why; she was just calling every-damn-body.

At this point, the silver lining that I could see was that Trista was very private when it came to her internet presence, and so that was going to limit how this might affect her. As long as Paige couldn’t get to her, then we had some breathing room until we could figure this out. While Trista was very aware of her role in all of this, she still had two small children that needed and should be protected from all this adult drama.

I stared at the room service that I had ordered, not really having an appetite for any of it, but knowing that I needed to eat something. I needed to keep my energy up just to be able to form a decent thought if nothing else. However, when my phone rang, all the food was quickly forgotten.

“Paige?”

“What did you want to talk about, Harding?” she asked primly.

“Are you serious?” I choked out. “What do you think? You’re calling my friends and co-workers to air our dirty laundry. You’re sending my family members text messages about what’s going on and to blame them for how they raised me. Have you lost your mind?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she lied, and the steadiness in her voice was enough to take me aback. “I’d never do such a thing.”

What in the fresh hell?

“Paige, people have been calling me all day to tell me how you’ve been calling them,” I said, doing my best to keep my voice from sounding like the victim here.

“All you have to do is look at my social media to see how I’ve been trying to cope with your betrayal, Harding,” she retorted. “I’m looking to Godand prayer during this difficult time. While my family and friends have been offering their unwavering support, I am relying on the power of prayer.”

“Paige-”

“And just so you know, most of my prayers are for you,” she went on, confusing me further. Seriously, only Mother Teresa had been that forgiving.

I counted to five before saying, “Paige, the texts and calls are coming from your number. So, who else could it be?”

“That could mean anything.”

“What?”

“Someone else could have sent the texts from my phone, or made the phone calls,” she went on. “You can’t prove it was me.”

Another moment of silence.

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