One Last Time(88)

Didn’t think about that, did he? I’m not stupid. My lawyer told me we could re-file if he gets a raise or I do. And as far as marrying Noah, I have no plans on that until I bleed Scott for every penny he owes me. I’ve earned it for all the hell he put me through.

“Fired? Kristin, I don’t have a clue what the hell you think I’ve done, but you’re clearly in need of therapy.” Scott runs his hand down his face.

“Oh, I need therapy? That’s rich. Says the man who spent fourteen years making me feel small in order to make himself feel better.”

“Can you control your girlfriend?” Scott says to Noah.

“Don’t fucking talk to me,” Noah warns. “I assure you, I’m doing just about everything I can not to lay your worthless ass out. It’s only because of Kristin and those kids that you aren’t already bleeding. But if you touch her, I’ll enjoy pummeling you.”

Scott laughs. “Right. Lay me out. Whatever you say, dickhead. Why don’t you spit out what I did already so we can let your theatrics play out?”

I take a step back and stare at him. I’ve known him a long time. Scott has a tell when he lies. He rubs his nose and sniffs. It was how I always knew in the back of my mind what was going on, but I never would accept it.

He hasn’t done it once.

He’s actually confused.

“You really don’t know?”

“No, I have no clue what the hell you’re doing yelling at me about IP addresses and whatever other bullshit you’re accusing me of.”

“You didn’t do it.” I breathe and look back at Noah.

Noah’s green eyes fill with concern. “You’re sure? We know . . .”

I shake my head.

The last few weeks things have been good between us. Scott and I have been able to speak calmly, do a semi-decent job at co-parenting, and he was nice enough to keep the kids for me.

It’s what is confusing me. If he is willing to try to be civil, why he’d do this. And then there was the fact that I couldn’t figure out how he found out about Noah’s past.

It doesn’t make sense.

“Jesus Christ, Kris! I don’t even know what—” Scott yells and the door opens.

“What is going on out here? I’d like our neighbors not to think things have gone downhill since I moved in.” Jillian puts her hands on her hips.

And then it hits me.

It wasn’t Scott.

Scott isn’t stupid enough to jeopardize the relationship with his kids and not smart enough to go through the trouble of hiding his tracks. He’s too narcissistic to think he’d ever be caught. He always had Jillian handle things for him. She was the mastermind who helped him get around things with me.

This reeks of this bitch.

“I was just telling Scott something, and then it occurred to me that you should probably be here anyway.”

Jillian jerks her head back. “Me?”

“You are marrying him, aren’t you?”

She smiles and touches her stomach. “I am.”

Scott rolls his eyes.

“First, tell me, how did you do it?” I ask her.

Noah’s hand tightens minutely on my shoulder.

“Do what?” she asks.

I can’t fucking stand her. She’s an even bigger idiot than Scott is if she thinks she has this all figured out. If she ever thought I was a bitch before, she’s about to see what happens when I no longer care about upsetting Scott.

“How did you manage to get all the information on Noah and send the email to my editor?” I watch her, waiting for the tiniest sign. “Did you somehow hack my laptop? Put some sort of device in my house? Are you that obsessed with me that you had to go through all the trouble to try to hurt me, or are you really in love with Noah and just want what you can’t have?”

“Fuck you, Kristin.”

I laugh. “No, honey, you fucked yourself. You see, I know what you did, and the sad part is that it’s all under Scott’s name, so he’ll go down for your crime. It’s fraud and identity theft to name two,” I bluff. There’s no crime, but I’m hoping they don’t know that.

Scott’s head jerks to her and her jaw drops a smidge before she catches herself.

“Excuse me? Scott, you’re going to let your ex-wife accuse me of this? At our house?”

“What exactly are you talking about, Kristin?” Scott turns back to me. “What information and email?”

I summarize the article and then tell him that someone accessed my email and sent it as though it were me who had written it. Scott’s eyes widen when I tell him how Jackson—who he’s terrified of—was informed by law enforcement that it was able to be traced back to Scott’s home.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Scott bellows. “Tell me you didn’t do this, Jillian! Tell me you didn’t—” He clenches his fists.

I give her a small smirk, knowing she has no way out.

It’s the straw that broke the bitch’s back, too. I can almost see the steam coming out of her ears when Scott reprimands her in front of me.

“You know nothing.” Jillian sneers at me. Her hands rise, and in an instant, Noah has me pulled back and he’s shielding me. “You think you’re so smart! You think you’ve got it all figured out, huh? All it took was one phone call, and I had every detail I needed.”