“Daddy!” I heard a tiny girl’s voice call right before I spotted the mini Jack in pigtails launch herself into his arms. Her perfect chubby hand clutched a familiar purple sparkly pony.

A wave of nausea hit me so hard once the realization set in. Jack had a kid. He had an adorable baby girl who looked just like him. Her face lit up with joy as she kissed his face over and over again.

“You just have red icing?” she asked in her cherub voice as she wiped off the remnants of our kiss. Our last kiss. My breath hitched. I’d never kiss that man again. He lied to me. Not just a little lie either. A big, whopping, whole other human being with half his DNA kind of lie.

My heart splintered. I’m sure everyone heard the moment it happened. Something that hurt so acutely had to be audible.

“No, honey. That’s just Daddy’s girl of the week. How about we get one of your wipes and wash your hands?” the woman who looked like a beauty queen announced loud enough to echo through the hushed restaurant. Beauty Queen was his…wife? God, I was going to be sick. Had I been sleeping with someone else’s husband? My stomach twisted, and it was hard to breathe.

I felt like a whore. I’d come between this family, unknowingly, but still with the same result.

Pain gripped my chest, but somehow I was able to pick my leaden feet up and dash out the doors. I heard calls of, “Harper, wait. Let me explain,” but I knew there was no explanation. Nothing he could possibly tell me would fix this situation. Jack lied. He didn’t trust me with the most important information in his life—his daughter and his wife.

The rain washed over me, and I welcomed it. The sky was just as devastated as I was. It didn’t occur to me to pull the umbrella out of my purse. All I could think of was Jack inside with his family. My fists clenched, sorrow closed my throat, and my first sob was interrupted by a, “Hi, Harper. Fancy meeting you here. You get all dressed up for me?”

No, it couldn’t be. I looked up and squinted through the rain, only to see Gabe, my ex-husband, pointing what looked like a gun at me.

The skies opened up, and steam rose from the heat on the sidewalk. It was difficult to see anything, let alone get a good view of the madman in front of me.

“Gabe? What are you doing?”

“Taking back what’s mine,” he answered as he wiped the rain off his face.

“I’m not yours,” I replied. My voice shook, and I had to practically scream to be heard. The noise from the rain drowned out everything else. I was soaked from head to toe.

“Harper, wait,” Jack bellowed from the front of the restaurant. I turned my head briefly to look at him, but when I swung back around, Gabe had disappeared. What the hell? Where did that idiot go?

Jack stormed up to me, but I didn’t wait around. It felt like my feet moved at a snail’s pace through the puddles. I circled around my car and managed to jump in and lock the doors before Jack got there. Finally, I slumped over and started the car, happy to be safe inside where there were no scary, gun-toting ex-husbands or lying, cheating ex-boyfriends. Damn, that stung. Right then, I didn’t know who I hated more.

Bam, bam, bam. A hand struck the driver’s side door. Even though I expected it, the noise still scared the shit out of me. “Harper, open the fucking door. I can explain.” Jack’s hair was dripping wet from the torrential downpour, and he still looked sexy as hell. Damn him.

“Yeah, you can explain how you accidentally forgot to tell me about your wife and kid? No thanks. Move, Jack,” I yelled and shifted my car into drive.

“For fuck’s sake, open the door. We need to talk.”

“No, we don’t. Now get out of my way before I drive over your fucking foot,” I screamed, gasping, unable to catch my breath. I took my foot off the brake and moved forward. Jack moved as well. At that moment, I no longer cared. Leaving was my sole purpose.

He slapped the back of the car as I sped off, right before I burst into tears.

“Miss, you either saw he had a gun or you didn’t,” the big-bellied officer said for the hundredth time. Why was I always stuck with him? Were there no other cops in the building?

“It was raining really hard, and I could barely see a few feet in front of me. I’m pretty sure it was a gun, but—”

Then Officer Know-It-All cut me off again. “But it might not have been. Miss, accusing someone of pulling a gun on you is a huge offense. You need to be absolutely sure before we press charges against an innocent man.”

My head swam with visions of what I knew or thought I knew. What happened and what I thought happened. Fuck, I was confused. The rainstorm had hindered my vision just enough that I had doubts about what I saw. Anger over Jack and his lies clouded my perception as well.

“Officer Davis, I’ll take it from here, thank you,” Detective Hot Cop said, striding into the room. Davis got up with much effort and slammed the door on his way out.

“Ms. Halle, I’m Detective Stone. We spoke briefly the last time you were in,” he said and sat his fine behind in front of me after shaking my hand with his big, strong hand—yes, I looked, and Roza would definitely approve.

“I remember. Thanks for meeting with me,” I said and gripped the towel around my shoulders that one of the officers gave me. I was a chilled, wet rat and all I wanted to do was go home. But Gabe scared the supreme shit out of me and I knew for sure this time he’d gone too far.

“From what you said in your statement, I had enough reason to call out an APB on your ex-husband. That means all officers were instructed to look for him. I just received word that someone who fits the suspect’s description was picked up and is being brought in.”

I took a deep breath. It felt like the first time my lungs worked since leaving Jack’s restaurant. “Oh, thank God,” I said as my voice cracked. Nothing could have stopped the tears of relief from flowing. Finally, someone here believed me.

Detective Stone pushed a box of tissues toward me, and I grabbed a few.

“They are due here any minute. Until then—” Hot Cop was interrupted by a knock on the door. He frowned and glanced at the officer who opened the door. Shouts could be heard down the hall. Some kind of commotion was going on. Busy night.

“Stone, you’re needed,” was all he said before shutting the door.

“Excuse me a moment. I’m sorry.” He pushed away from the table and swaggered out. Good Lord, that man must do well with the ladies. All that…hot, and a cop? Even in the crazed state I was in, I could still appreciate his good looks. A full head of wavy hair, cut a bit shorter on the sides, sat “just so”. His toned body spoke of many hours spent at the gym. And if I had to bet, I’d say his olive skin tone was from an Italian heritage.

He was back in record time. This time he stayed standing and cleared his throat. “Ms. Halle—”

I interrupted him, “Harper, please.”

“Harper, there’s a Jack McCallister here to see you? He’s extremely insistent.” That was a nice way to say Jack was the one causing said disturbance.

“Tell Mr. McCallister that his wife and daughter need him at home. I’m fine.”

Stone inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. “I’ll inform him,” he said and nodded before leaving.

Ha, Jack was here to do what? That ass. Like I didn’t have enough problems at the moment. I had turned off my phone because of his barrage of texts and calls. There was nothing left to say. He was a lying asshole. I fell for it. The end.

“I’d advise against that,” Detective Stone ground out in a firm don’t give me no shit voice. The only problem was that I no longer cared what men thought.

“I want to see him.”

“Ms.—I mean Harper, I highly recommend you not do that at this time. Your ex-husband seems highly agitated, and having you near will only make things worse.”

“Look, this is something I need to do. I’m not asking permission,” I said and folded my arms in front of me.

Deflated, he threw the file in his hands onto the table and nodded briskly. I startled at the sound but got up and followed Hot Cop out.

“Well, if it isn’t the slut in the red dress,” Gabe said in his singsong voice. He often used that tone with me when he tried to belittle me. Funny, I forgot about that. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

He sneered as I sat down, and memories flooded my mind of all the times he put me down and made fun of me. It started out with trivial things—Gabe just being a sarcastic ass. Then gradually, as he needed more and more control, his insults grew teeth.

Gabe was unshaven and generally disheveled—quite the departure from when he was with me. As a salesman, his appearance was always of top priority. Something or someone must have pushed him over the edge.

Sitting across the table from him, I said, “Gabe, you need to stop this bullshit.”

He threw his head back and laughed. “You need to stop fucking other men, Harper. That’s bullshit. I’m your husband. Not that fucking cook you’ve been screwing.”

Shock filled my body and I forgot how to breathe. He thought we were still married?

“Seems to me, you were the one who was screwing around when we were married. Were married. As in no longer married. Who I choose to spend my time with is of no consequence to you anymore.”

As I spoke, I noticed his eye twitch. Did he always have that? I couldn’t remember now. It had been so long.

“You married me and I know you still love me,” he said and pounded his chest.

Oh my God, he was fucking warped.

“You kicked me out, Harper, and now I have all the debt. How am I supposed to pay everything without your wage? Huh?”

“The only debt I knew about was your car. Which you have. Why in the hell would I pay for that, now that we aren’t even married? And thanks to you, I got saddled with half your gambling and consumer debt,” I told him.

“It was our car. We picked it out together, and then you got rid of both of us.”

What was going on? Gabe was sitting here, talking to me, but his mind was not right. Not that he was ever a genius, but now he seemed out of it. Scary out of it.

He got eerily quiet and began loud whispering, “Harper, you still love me. You need me. Come back to me and everything will be all right again. We’ll be perfect, just like before.” When he reached across the table for my hands, I immediately stood.

It was official. I was freaked out. My jaw hung open, and the only thing I knew I had to do was get the hell out of here.

“We’re divorced. For quite a few reasons.” I held on to the back of the chair for support. “There’s no more we. Never again will there be a we. You need to stop following me around and stop calling me.”

As I strode to the door, I heard a commotion behind me, and I turned back around.

“Harper, don’t leave me again,” Gabe grunted as the guard wrestled him on the floor and pulled his hands behind him. “We can make this work. You need me. I can’t lose you,” he yelled.

“We think he’s either having a psychotic break or he’s on drugs. Or a little of both,” Detective Hot Cop said to me. At least one thing went my way tonight—Officer Stone showed up.

Baffled, I responded, “Gabe never did drugs when we were together. That can’t be right.” I shook my head and folded my hands on my lap, disbelieving what I was hearing.

“His behavior is erratic, and he’s exhibiting many of the physical signs of substance abuse. We are testing him, but even if he’s positive for drugs, there’s a chance we can only hold him until he sobers up,” Stone said and pressed his lips together before he continued. “One more thing, Harper. I did some checking, and it looks like he lost his jobs around the time he started harassing you.”

“Jobs?” I asked and sat forward, almost dropping my purse off my lap.

“Yeah, he had a few sales jobs when he was off hours at the dealership. It caught up with him, I think. Management canned him for being constantly tardy, yelling, and being physically aggressive to the customers. I’m guessing he probably had a difficult time keeping up with his payments after you kicked him out,” he said and nodded toward me.

“So instead of selling his car and stopping his bad habits, he got more jobs?”

“Right.”

“Moron,” I said and sat back. Looked like Gabe didn’t get any smarter after I kicked his ass out.

“Well, he likely went looking for some help to stay awake.”

“Drugs?” I questioned.

“I’d bet on it, based on my experience. Apparently, even with multiple jobs and chemical assistance, he still couldn’t handle it. They repossessed his vehicle. There was a scene. I’m not supposed to tell you that. But it wasn’t good. Like, way not good,” he said. It was a tense moment, but his sympathetic crystal blue eyes made it easier to take.

“Jesus, what an idiot,” I said and closed my eyes while I leaned my head back.

“He had to give up his place of residence, and right now he’s living in a dive. And that’s a kind way to put it.”

“So he’s lost his car, his apartment, and his marbles?” I summed things up in one tidy sentence.

“Essentially,” he said and gathered his papers together with efficient dexterity.

“And he’s blaming me for this?”

“It looks like it.”