Page 38 of The Auction
That gave me pause. “Like here? At the farm? To stay in the house?”
“Yeah, Jules,” he snapped. “A fucking visit. Didn’t you just say we should try and be more normal? This is normal. An old friend says he wants to come see me. Check out my situation, why not say yes?”
“Does he know you’re married?”
He snorted and looked over at me. “Doyouknow you’re married?”
His subtle, not so subtle, reminder that I was not performing my wifely duties.
Fuck. That.
“I’m saying, does he understand the situation? That you bought your wife at an auction for 50K and stole her house and her farm in the process. Because if not, he might pick up on the tension between us.”
He snapped his teeth shut and I could see the muscle in the back of his jaw working overtime.
Then he turned his head toward me and pinned me with hisdon’t fuck with meexpression.
I was becoming very familiar with that expression. There were times I took it seriously and there were times I pushed him just to see what he would do.
This was not a time to push.
He took a step in my direction and did that thing where he towered over me. I felt every single inch of our height difference in my neck as I looked up to meet his gaze.
“You know this sad, little, Disney princess act is only going to play for so long before it gets old.”
“It’s not an act. I’m Cinderfuckingrella over here. And in case you missed it, you’re the evil stepmom.”
“What were you going to do without me?”
“What do you mean?”
“What was the plan?” he asked. “Your dad was dead four months after I met him. I don’t meet him, he’s still dead in four months. What was your plan? Were you going to marry Pimplefuckingface from the hardware store?”
“No,” I said, sullenly. “Geesh, we only had one coffee date.”
“Then what? I’ve seen the accounting books.You didn’t have enough cash on hand to hire labor. Were you going to try and do it all yourself?”
“I was going to sell it!” I shouted, spreading my arms out wide. “Okay? All of it. The farming operation, all the equipment in the barn, the house. Everything.”
“And do what?” he pressed.
“I don’t know,” I said, truthfully. “Start my life. Go to school. Become a teacher or a nurse or something. A fucking social media influencer. The point is, it would have been my choice. Mine.”
“So do it,” he said, his finger in my face. “You want to go to school, enroll in some classes online. See if you even like it. I’m not stopping you from doing anything you want to do. Get that through your head, Jules. But I did help you plant a crop. I am going to help you pull it out of the ground. Nothing you would have been able to do on your own. I’m saving your goddamn legacy. For my own reasons, yes, but also for you. Because as much as you imagine how great life would be away from everything you’ve ever known, I’m here to tell you that’s the real fairy tale. You have no idea what you want from life because your father kept you smothered. So stop sulking and start doing something about it. But I’m done listening to your little pity parties.”
He stormed out then and my jaw dropped.
Pity parties? Pity parties!
The usurper was calling me out for being angry at what had been taken from me?
Although, he had a point. I wasn’t even sure if I would be good at school.
Lost in that thought, I didn’t realize he’d turned around and was still in the doorway.
“I’m writing Hank back. Telling him to come,” he said,stiffly. “You will be introduced as my wife and you will behave as such.”
“Or else, what?”
