2. Prologue - June

Prologue - June

May 7th

Tripp looked even more handsome than when we used to date. He put my sorry excuse of an unwanted husband to shame. I wished that I could go over and wrap my arms around his body and let him know that I could be the shoulder for him to cry on.

It wasn't time for that, though. That bitch only died a week ago. It should have been years ago, but they were careful with her in the beginning, especially when the kids were younger.

The kids.

Those little brats were the reason I couldn't approach him yet. Tripp never cared about that bitch. He fucked her out of duty after she drunkenly took advantage of him that time while I was in Europe. I don't know how he was able to forgive her for that, and I imagined it had to do with the little cunt being his club brother's sister. Still, I wasn't stupid.

I would have to bide my time and pretend to live a happy little life with my clueless, lump of a husband that my parents picked for me. He wouldn't even be in the picture if it wasn't for my father's stupid rules. I couldn't inherit his bank, but so long as I was married to a man that he approved of, that man could inherit ownership with some hefty stipulations that protected me.

I did everything he ever asked of me. I left Tripp alone, despite the fact that I knew I could have gotten him back. I went to college, double majored in business and finance, and could run the bank he started better than my father ever could. Still, he wouldn't leave the business to me.

I yanked at my hair as I watched my future husband throw a rose down on the man-stealing whore's coffin. Then I smiled because she might have stolen my man temporarily, but she got what was coming to her in the end. I wasn't even sure why they bothered with a whole coffin when there couldn't have been much left of her, considering she burned up in a fire. It was just a shame that their kids hadn't been with her when it happened.

They were the reason why I had to wait even longer to claim the man who belonged to me all along. I needed them gone. Otherwise, they might put up a fuss, and I wasn't stupid enough to believe Tripp would choose me over his children. I thought that might have been the case once, but he proved me wrong. I would bide my time, wait for the youngest brat – another whore-in-the-making like her mother – to grow up and move out, then I'd swoop in, and Tripp would be mine forever.