Page 1 of Their Dirty Girl

ChapterOne

MICHAEL

Finalizing your divorce might be the worst day in some people’s life. But not in mine.

To me, it was finally the last fucking hurtle I had to jump to get to the finish line.

For the last two years, I’d been trying to get this shit settled so I could close that chapter of my life.But my bitch of an ex-wife, the woman I once thought I’d grow old with, the one I created a family with, dragged this shit out, because she turned out to be sadistic as fuck.

I closed the front door and tossed my keys on the kitchen table, immediately going to the fridge and grabbing a beer. Fuck the fact that it was only three in the afternoon.

I needed a damn six-pack.

After popping the cap and leaning against the kitchen counter, I guzzled half the bottle and thought about where the hell things had gone so wrong.

I married Heather when we were both eighteen, right after our high school graduation. We’d been so young, but we were in love—or so I thought—and it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to do.

In hindsight, I should have paid more attention to the red flags waving right in my face. The constant flirting, the way Heather was a little too touchy with the male population… it was all wrapped in bright-yellow Caution tape that I should have noted.

By the time we turned twenty-one, we’d been struggling to get pregnant for a year.

Again, in hindsight, wanting babies that young—with a woman who was still flashing a neon “I’m not faithful” sign right in front of me—hadn’t been the wisest of decisions. But it’s what we both wanted, and so we made it our reality.

And then it happened. We had Landon, and then Mary was born. Best fucking days of my life, when our children were born.

They were the only good things that came out of my marriage in the end. I was just glad I was the one who caught Heather cheating and not one of the kids. The emotional damage and scarring Mary and Landon would’ve gotten from having to see their mother fucking someone else would have been too brutal.

It had been for me, but not because I’d still been in love with her. That ship had sailed long ago. It was the lack of her giving a shit I witnessed her infidelity that pissed me off.

Seeing her on her knees and sucking our son’s best friend’s dick like a fuckin’ experienced porn star could’ve enraged even someone in an open marriage.

As upset as I was at the scene, I didn’t stop them. I didn’t even show emotion. I’d known she was screwing around on me for a long time, but actually seeing it? That was the dose of reality I needed.

But Heather… the bitch stared at me with smiling eyes the whole time she’d been on her knees, grinning each time her mouth came off his dick for air.

I took another drink and ran a hand over my face. Fuck, I was tired, and it wasn’t the kind you got from the type of manual labor I did.

Hefting lumber around day in and day out up on the mountain cleared my mind and strengthened my body. But it also had my bones and muscles aching like they were being torn from the inside out.

The exhaustion I felt right now though was because something had shifted inside me so hard I didn’t know if I was going up or coming down.

Motherfucking Heather. I should’ve thanked her for how shit played out. I was free of her once and for all. But really, I hated her.

I loathed her, because she walked out on the kids. I’d never repeat to Mary and Landon what she said just an hour ago in the attorney’s office. But it would forever stay with me, festering like a cancer.

“You deal with them, Michael. Mary and Landon are twenty and twenty-one now. They’re adults and don’t need me in their lives. I’m starting a new life, and so should you. I gave the three of you so much of me for the last two decades. Now, it’s my turn.”

Fuckin’ bitch.

I guzzled the first bottle and grabbed another, nearly sucking that down before even taking a full breath.

Yeah, the kids would be fine. They were strong—not only on the outside, but they had such powerful resolve that they never backed down from what they believed in.

Fuck.Why would you do this shit to them, Heather?

I scrubbed my hand over my face again and exhaled.

Suddenly, a soft moan came from the back of the hallway, pulling me straight out of any thoughts of my ex-wife. The sound had every part of my body tightening in preparation for a fight, since I was supposed to be home alone. Landon and Mary weren’t due to be home for another half-hour. I knew Landon was at practice with his college baseball team, and Mary had been staying late at the university to study.

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