Page 70 of Shattered Secrets (Shattered Secrets 1)

Her steps slowed. “What did she want?”

“She said she thinks she made a mistake.” Never in all the time I’d known her had she ever said those words or anywhere in the realm of them.

It was bothering me to the point I couldn’t think of anything else.

Like always.

Alma was determined to consume all my thoughts. I’d had enough. I’d given her enough, yet I was still on her merry-go-round.

“Why would she say that?”

“You don’t think she made a mistake?” I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my tone.

“I don’t understand why she’d be determined to take you for all you have then a few hours later try to stay with you.”

“Because now she has a stake in pretty much everything I have. Once the divorce is final, that’s it. She gets what she gets.”

There was the angle. She could make nice. I wouldn’t continue the proceedings. She’d move back in and things would go back to the way they were. Where she had access to a blank check and a bottomless bank account.

“I don’t think she made a mistake,” JoJo said quietly.

I snorted bitterly. “Of course not. Kane is always the bad guy.”

“I’ve never understood your relationship.”

I pretended not to notice she didn’t correct my thought that I wasn’t a good person.

“Neither have I,” I said honestly.

“You seemed in love way back then.” She stumbled over the wordlove.

I slowed my gate and studied her. There was nothing in her expression to give away what was going on in her head.

“In lustwould be a better term.”

She made an eww face. “I remember that part well.”

“Jealous, weren’t you?”

I couldn’t help myself. Couldn’t help goading her. And judging by the way her lips went into a flat line, I’d succeeded.

“No.” She lifted her chin. “You were insufferable then, and you’re insufferable now.”

I bumped shoulders with her. “See what you’ve been missing out on all these years? We could’ve been bickering. God knows it’s more interesting than most of the last quarter century.”

I snapped my mouth shut. I hadn’t meant to say that last part, but what the hell? It was true.

“You haven’t led a very exciting life.”

“Arguing with me isn’t one of your favorite things to do?” I scoffed. “I’ll never believe that.”

“Well, believe it.” But that flat line of her lips turned into an upward curve.

“How much longer do I have to get my fill before you disappear for the next twenty-two years?”

“However long it takes you to exonerate my daughter.”

I bumped her again. “That’s a lot of power you’ve given me. I could drag this out...years.”

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