Blackmailed (Their Sins #1.5) by A. Gorman

it’s a joke.
    “I’m done, Tilly. I’m about to take the gun I bought last week and blow my head off. I want out. I want Jesse to get away from me. She doesn’t deserve this, or me. I love her too much to stick around and have her fall into the hole you created for her. I’m starting to pull her into this hole. You need to get me out before she falls into it with me.”
    “Her being in the hole is the plan. If she is stuck in it, she won’t get out, and I can get my hands on McCoy Investments. I’ve been talking to people. I will be one rich woman once I get the other ring on my finger. I will sell McCoy’s company and dump him too, and he won’t be able to stop me.” She pauses for a moment and starts talking again. “I’ll bail your ass out only if you cut ties with Jesse, but remember I still know your secrets. What time does the whore get off work?”
    “She won’t be home for another four hours.” I release the breath I shouldn’t be holding.
    “Give me thirty minutes. Start packing up all your belongings and the expensive items. You’ll need them. I’ll make sure she has nothing. I’ll get you everything you need.” Before I can reply, she hangs up.
    Leaving Jesse like this isn’t what I want to do, but it’s come to this. I owe too many people money, but Tilly is bailing my ass out. Is all of this worth leaving Jesse? Yes, maybe she can get the life and relationship she deserves. Plus, this will get me right with my sister. Tilly told me before that she never wanted me to be in Jesse’s life and that Jesse is the one that ruined my life, not myself or coke.
    If it wasn’t for being with Jesse, I wouldn’t be in all this debit, and I would be living on my own without all this drama. But Tilly is making everything right now, or at least I hope she can.
    Forty-five minutes later, a moving company is here with a semi-truck and trailer and they are packing the house up. An hour later, Tilly’s friend, who is a lawyer, has papers for me to sign—divorce papers. All the money in our accounts has been removed and is now in my hands. Tilly is my lifesaver. She has the plan all laid out for me to get out of this marriage.
    I’m holding a key to my new apartment, which is thirty minutes away from this house. Three hours after my call to Tilly, the house I used to share with Jesse, the house that I thought would be filled with our children, only holds Jesse’s belongings. I leave the petition for divorce along with the foreclosure notice I’ve been hiding, on the kitchen bar so Jesse will see both of the papers when she comes home later today.
    I shut the front door on what could have been.
    While I head to my new apartment, I call Tilly to thank her for making all these arrangements. Then I call my dealer. I need a hit, and I need to get him paid up. I think everything will be okay, and for the first time in forever, I don’t give a shit what happens.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Twenty
     
     
    Six Months Later
     
    I succeeded. Mr. and Mrs. Chet Boston came to an official end today, and everything worked out as my sister said it would. I ended up owing Jesse nothing. Tilly's attorney dug up photos of Jesse hitting me as well as photos of her out with other men. It didn’t matter that the pictures were years old and taken at a Halloween party. The lawyer painted her as a controlling, psycho bitch, making it sound like my life with her was pure hell. With the entirety of our assets in her name, I’m free and clear.
    A few days before, after years of planning, Tilly was able to seal the deal and got the platinum wedding band on her finger without being connected to my family or me. Complete success for both of us.
    Now I can just forget the past. Sex and drugs are my best friends. I can go back to screwing women and partying. Speaking of that, I need to go out and find someone to make my next piece of ass.
    That’s all women are—another notch in my bedpost or belt. I fuck women