Total pages in book: 19
Estimated words: 18755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 94(@200wpm)___ 75(@250wpm)___ 63(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 18755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 94(@200wpm)___ 75(@250wpm)___ 63(@300wpm)
Kendra's chest ached. She wasn’t in love him, she was sure of it now, but it brought her no joy to see him like this.
"I need to talk to you, Kendra."
But before he could take a step toward her, Bonnie was already between them, and Porter's face expecredly went white at Bonnie’s unsmiling expression.
"It's okay, Bonnie," Kendra managed.
"I have explicit orders from Mr. La Rocca—"
Porter's face twisted into something ugly at the sound of her husband’s name, and Kendra saw it happen in real time—the way the desperation curdled into rage, the way his jaw tightened, the way his hands balled into fists at his sides like a man who had been holding something in for months and had just lost his grip on it.
"That bastard ruined me because of you!"
He lunged toward Kendra, his hand reaching for her arm—
"Bonnie, no!"
But of course Bonnie was Bonnie.
She took her orders exactly as seriously as she took everything else, and in the next moment Porter was on the ground, face-down on the bookstore carpet, Bonnie's knee in his back, and there was chaos everywhere. Customers gasping, a woman near the front grabbing her child, a staff member running for the door, and someone shouting about calling the police.
"Get off me!" Porter's voice cracked. "I wasn't going to hurt her, I just need her to listen—"
"You had your chance to talk, sir. You chose to lunge."
"I need her to know what he did to me!" Porter's face was pressed against the carpet, and the tears were real, Kendra could see that, they were ugly and real and furious. "I asked around. I didn't understand what was happening, how everything was suddenly falling apart, and that was when I found out how it all started."
Porter stared up at her, his eyes simultaneously wild and haunted.
"He's been stalking you for months, Kendra. That bastard wanted you. He was about to make a move on you, but then we were married the next day. So he decided to report my company for tax evasion. It's all because of him I lost my company—"
Bonnie dug her knee into his back, and Porter cried out in pain.
"Has no one taught you not to lie, sir?" Bonnie's voice was pleasant in the way a blade was shiny. "I've seen the reports. You lost your company because you weren't paying your taxes."
"No one would have known if not for him!"
The bookstore had emptied. It was just the three of them now, Kendra and Bonnie and the man she used to love, face-down on the carpet as he spoke of things Kendra's brain was finding hard to process.
"Please, Bonnie." Kendra couldn't bear hearing another word. “"Just let him go. And let's leave." Couldn't even bear looking at Porter, because this wasn't how she wanted to remember him. Not like this. Not face-down and broken. However badly he'd hurt her, she would never have wanted to see him like this.
"Don't you make any wrong move, Mr. Selleck." Bonnie's voice carried a promise that had nothing to do with words. "Don't make me regret letting you go."
Bonnie stayed in front of Kendra as Porter shakily got to his feet. "He's crazy obsessed with you, Kendra—"
"Mr. Selleck, I'm warning you—"
"Didn't you just tell me not to lie?" Porter shot back, and there it was, a flash of the old Porter, the one who could argue his way out of anything, the one who'd talked his way through four years of infidelity without Kendra ever noticing. "So here I am telling her the truth! I dare you to say I'm lying! You know I'm not—"
"Please just stop, Porter."
She knew she didn't love him anymore. But she still ended up crying, because he truly looked as if his whole world had come crashing down on him, and she knew what that felt like, she knew it better than anyone, because he had been the one to make her world crash first.
"I'm sorry about what happened to you. But p-please. Let's just stop—"
"You don't understand!" Porter's voice broke open like something that had been under pressure for too long. "He's dangerous because you're not the first one he became obsessed with!"
Chapter Seven
THE CAR WAS TOO QUIET. Just the hum of the engine and the driver's eyes fixed on the road and Bonnie in the passenger seat, not turning around, and Kendra in the back with her hands knotted in her lap and her heart in pieces.
"Please tell me the truth, Bonnie."
It was so, so hard to speak, the words coming out choked and halting, but she knew she had to say them while there was still time. In a few minutes, they would be back home, and she needed to know the truth before then.
"Was Porter lying? Or was there really another girl..."
For the first time ever, Bonnie couldn't meet her eyes, and cracks started appearing all over her heart.