Divorce Day, the MC President Took My Hand

Wren's POV

I catch my husband in bed with the live-in housekeeper.

He shoves her behind him. "She's only twenty. Barely out on her own, doesn't know any better. Can't you be the bigger person here?"

His mother points a finger in my face. "You're an orphan. If we hadn't taken you in, you'd still be out on the street begging."

"Be smart about this. Make room for Kaylee, so we can all live under one roof in peace."

They've both forgotten that back then he couldn't even make rent, and I worked three jobs to build his company for him.

Forgotten the year his company was going under, when I ran to three different banks across the city in a downpour chasing investors, passed out in the street, and lost the baby.

Four whole years of them looking down on me after that.

I say I want a divorce.

Preston just laughs at me. "You're a housewife. Walk out that door and you'll starve on the sidewalk by tomorrow."

I drag my suitcase onto the overnight bus and go home to a place I haven't set foot in for ten years.

It's the middle of the night when I get there. The streets are empty. Three men reeking of liquor block my way.

That hand is about to touch my face when a Harley roars up and stops right beside me.

The muscled guy on it has a cigarette in his mouth. He looks me over. "Need a hand?"

"Wren, are you going to keep turning this whole house upside down till you're satisfied?"

Preston stands in the bedroom doorway, done with all of it, and Kaylee, the housekeeper we hired less than six months ago, hides half a step behind him.

"Mrs. Ashford, please don't blame him. This is all my fault. I had too much to drink last night and walked into the wrong room. He just felt sorry for me, out here on my own trying to make a living." Her voice shakes and the tears come right on cue.

Looking at the two of them turns my stomach.

"Wrong room?" I say. "My bedroom is at the far east end of the second floor. Your room is under the stairs at the far west end of the first floor. So you didn't just wander up a whole floor, you also passed three guest rooms down the hall and landed square in my husband's bed. What'd they do, Kaylee, put a GPS in your leg?"

The color drops out of her face. "Mrs. Ashford, that's a horrible thing to say..."

"Enough!" Preston pulls her behind him. "Wren, Kaylee is only twenty. She's young, she doesn't know any better. You're the grown woman here, can't you let it go? I told you, last night was an accident. I was drunk from a client dinner and I thought she was you. And it's already done, so what do you want from me? You want to push her over the edge?"

I look at this man I've loved for seven years, and all of a sudden he's a stranger.

Seven years ago he was just starting out, so broke he couldn't cover the rent.

It was me, an orphan raised in foster care with nobody in the world, who worked three jobs to get his company off the ground. Now he's the young golden boy on the cover of business magazines, and he can't even cheat without acting like he's the one who's owed something.

"Thought she was me?" I scoff. "Preston, do you think seven years of being a stay-at-home wife made me stupid? When you came home too drunk to stand, who loosened your tie, pulled off your shoes, put you to bed? Who got up in the middle of the night to make you coffee? Now you're telling me you were drunk but still managed to get every button on her nightgown open?"

"Watch your mouth!"

Preston's mother Marlene comes up the stairs on her cane, throws me a look, then turns to Kaylee and her whole face softens.

"You know who Preston is now? He runs a public company! You have any idea how many women line up for a man like him? He wants Kaylee? She should count herself lucky. So a man has a little fun on the side, so what? Look at yourself. What do you even do all day besides the laundry and the cooking?"

She raps her cane against the floor. "Wren, quit while you're ahead. You're an orphan who got shuffled around foster homes your whole childhood. If the Ashfords hadn't taken you in, you'd still be begging on the street. Without Preston, what are you? You think you'd still get to live like a North Shore wife?"

"Take my advice and be smart. Learn to live with Kaylee, everybody under one roof, no fuss. You make trouble again and Preston can leave you without a dime, kick you out with the clothes on your back."

I'm so furious it comes out as a laugh.

To them, everything I gave was just what I owed, and my dignity isn't worth a cent.

"Put up with her? What century do you people think this is? Marlene, is there a single working brain cell up there?"

"The nerve of you!" Marlene is shaking with rage.

I turn to Preston. "If you can't bear to part with your little housekeeper, then the two of you can have each other. We're getting divorced. Nine o'clock tomorrow morning, the county courthouse. I'll see you out front."

Preston blinks, then his mouth curls into a sneer. "Divorce? Don't try that with me, Wren."

"You've got no job, no income, not even a family to go back to. You think you've got the nerve to divorce me? What are you going to live on? I'm telling you, you walk out that door today, you'll starve on the street tomorrow."

"That's my problem, not yours, Mr. Ashford." I turn and head for the closet.