“Maybe so, but it doesn’t change the facts,” I said easily.
When she frowned, unattractive lines formed on her face, making her look much older than she was.
When I met Barbara Violet, she was a beautiful woman. Striking, confident and with a laugh you could hear from a block away, she was mesmerizing and stunning. But now, I saw nothing but a washed-up woman filled with fake confidence and bad intentions. She used anything and everything within her reach to get what she wanted, and she didn’t think twice about hurting anyone who stood in her way. She was pathetic.
Not for the first time, I felt sorry for Barbara’s daughters.
“You’re not going to make a fool of me in my own house,” she said, glaring at me again. “I’m not going to stand for it.”
I laughed out loud. She was fucking ridiculous. This whole marriage had been a sham, a damn farce from the beginning.
“You mean the house I’ve been paying for?” I reminded her. “The house that had a mortgage so damn big you were worried you’d lose it until I came along? A house so fucking big you could never afford it without my money pouring in.”
She seemed to consider my words, and I watched her expression soften as she realized I was right, and she couldn’t go on blaming me for everything forever. Not if she wanted to milk me for all I was worth, at least.
“Levi,” she said placatingly. “Why can’t we talk normally? Like we used to, when we first met. Do you remember that? Do you remember how well we got along? The good times we had together. Hadn’t that been great, Levi?”
I remembered those times, sure as hell I did. It was all fucking. Her body entangled with mine, her breaths mixing with my own, her moans echoing mine. It was all this ever should have been – but instead we dragged out the affair until it made no sense, until we’d grown to hate each other more than we’d ever cared.
I didn’t give a shit about Barbara Violet anymore. I couldn’t care less about her. But her daughters… Yes, I had a soft spot for both of them.
Not just sweet, baby girl Kendall who seemed so obviously to need my protection. I cared about Amanda too, Amanda who was so like her mother it frightened me sometimes. But I wouldn’t hold it against her. After spending eighteen years in her mother’s care, always trying to please her and get her attention, she was bound to be like that. But I’d make sure to rid her of her dependency on Barbara. I’d make sure to make Mandy her own person, not constantly starved for her mother’s approval.
I realized then and there every plan I had for the future involved both Kendall and Amanda.
I could leave Barbara, but I could never leave those girls. And if I was being completely honest with myself, I had to admit I’d mostly stayed with Barbara just because of her daughters. I truly cared about both of them, and I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving them behind with their wreck of a mother. She was only going to use them if I did that, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if that happened.
“Barbara,” I said, the tiredness obvious in my voice. “Why don’t we put this to rest. Let’s just go to bed. Let’s not argue tonight.”
“Okay,” she said simply, surprising me with the way she gave in so easily.
But when I looked up I understood why she had, and I stared at her as she licked her lips hungrily, tossing her mane of caramel-colored hair behind her shoulder. I paid for that hair too, every two weeks at the most expensive hairdresser in town. Barbara made sure to pay it out of our joint account, her own credit cards probably already maxed out on designer handbags and drinks around town.
“Levi,” she said, giving me a hungry look. “Let’s not pretend anymore. Sure, things aren’t what they used to be, but this attraction between us is real. I know you feel it, because I do too. And I know you’re hungry for me.”
My eyebrows shot up, but before I could say a word, she raised her hand at me and grinned like the cat that got the cream.
“I know you still want me,” she said, and then she started unbuttoning her pink blouse.
Button by button, she revealed more skin, staring at me intently as she did so. A wave of nausea washed over me as I realized once and for all that things between me and Barbara Violet were well and truly over. I felt no attraction for the woman, and it wasn’t because of her age or her appearance. It was her vicious personality that was turning me off.