“Oh crap!” Devlyn gasped, looking around the room. If I didn’t know any better, I would say Devlyn was looking for the nearest escape exit. “Athena? What the hell are you doing here?”
“The planets are merging,” the woman replied, as if that clarified everything.
“Uh-huh,” Dev whispered, backing away from the woman. “Cool. I need to go. I’ve something to do.”
The beautiful woman smirked. “Run all you want, Devlyn. He’s coming for you.”
“The hell he is!” Devlyn snapped, running from the ballroom as if her ass were on fire.
By the time I turned back to the beautiful woman, she was gone.
Vanished. As if she wasn’t even there.
Looking around the ballroom for her, I couldn’t find her anywhere.
“You okay, cuz?” Rome asked, walking over to me. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost?”
“Ever get the feeling that shit’s about to hit the fan and there is nothing you can do to stop it?”
Rome chuckled. “All the fucking time, cuz. All the time.”
I should have known that once I put those words out into the universe, that fate would rear her ugly head, because no sooner had Rome laughed, a woman I’d never seen before walked right over to me and snapped, “Are you Josephine Hennessey?”
Smiling at the woman, I replied, “Yes, I am. How can I help you?”
“For starters, you can stay the hell away from my fiancé!”
Blinking, I took a step back as the woman stepped closer, seething with rage. “I don’t know what game you are playing, but he is mine! And I’m not gonna let some uppity bitch slide in and take what’s mine.”
“I’m sorry, but I think you have the wrong person,” I said, barely able to get a word in edge wise. The woman was royally pissed as she continued to stalk toward me.
“You think you are so fucking high and mighty, with your fancy lodge and money! You’re nothing but some washed-up hag who can’t even satisfy a man!”
Before I could respond, a sudden silence swept across the ballroom. Conversations halted, and every pair of eyes turned toward the scene unraveling between us. My pulse quickened as the weight of the scrutiny pressed down on me.
Rome stepped forward instinctively, placing himself subtly between me and the woman. “Lady, I think you need to calm down,” he said, his tone firm but measured, the kind of voice that could command a crowd.
“I’m not done!” she barked, pointing a trembling finger in my direction. Her cheeks were flushed, her breathing erratic as though she was about to combust. “You don’t get to hide behind another one of your lovers. You stay the hell away from what’s mine!”
“Ma’am, I really don’t know who you are or who your fiancé is,” I said, my voice steady despite the storm brewing before me. “But I’d appreciate it if you’d stop making a scene.”
“A scene? Oh, bitch, this is nothing compared to what I’ll do if you don’t back off. Hunter told me everything—”
Hunter?
The name hit me like a slap to the face, and my eyes narrowed. I didn’t know anyone named Hunter, but I sure as hell knew a fucking Freddie and according to George, FreddiewasHunter. Which meant this cunt in front of me was the one and only... Emily.
The very fucking bitch that slept with George’s former best friend. Who also just happened to be my con-artist soon-to-be ex-husband. The very bitch who was now parading around a kid, claiming it was George’s.
Shoving Rome to the side, I walked right over to the woman and got in her face. “You’ve got a lot of nerve showing up here, Emily. Yeah, I fucking know who you are. George told me everything. He also told me he threw out the trash before he left Florida. So why don’t you take your skanky, lying, cheating ass back to that trailer park swamp hovel you dug yourself out of?”
I vaguely heard several people chuckle.
Emily’s face contorted, her mouth opening and closing as though she were grasping for a retort that wouldn’t come. The color in her cheeks deepened to a vivid crimson, and for a fleeting moment, the entire ballroom seemed to hold its breath in anticipation of her next move.
“You think you can talk to me like that?” she finally hissed, her voice low but venomous. “You think you’re untouchable?”
I tilted my head, a humorless smile playing on my lips. “Untouchable? No. But I’m done letting people like you think they can walk all over me. So go ahead, Emily. Try me.”
