Life had a weird way of being severely anticlimactic. Once she'd left Chicago like a storm, Jessie thought her life would be one fast forward march of reclaiming her freedom. Instead, she'd been caught in the web of settlement hell.
"No, we can simply not accept these terms," her lawyer was saying across to table, where Esteban and Anselm, Jessie's former lawyer which now worked for her husband, sat and smirked like morons.
Honestly, Jessie would've just let Esteban take whatever he wanted, but all her money was in their joint account and there was no way she was letting him get it, not after she'd risked her life so many times to earn it.
But whenever they reached common ground on something, damn Esteban changed his mind. About every freaking irrelevant thing. Like the date of their divorce, or the goods he agreed she could keep, or...
"I don't think I want to go through with this," Esteban announced, snapping Jessie out of her terrible boredom. He'd trimmed down since she last saw him and looked much healthier, as if life away from her did him good.
She narrowed her eyes at him. "What?"
"I still love you, Yessica, so I don't want to separate," he said, his tone so full of false sugar, her teeth hurt.
"What the hell are you talking about? We've been negotiating for weeks now!" Weeks in which she'd been forced to stay in her parents' house and actually see them from time to time, weeks in which he'd never mentioned any intention to remain tied to her.
"I changed my mind," Esteban declared, a if it were as easy as that.
"Well, in that case..." Anselm started gathering his paper, at least looking a tiny bit surprised.
"Esteban, could we have a word in private?" Jessie asked, trying her best not to show her criminal intentions. She nodded towards her lawyer, letting him know that it was okay.
"Sure," Esteban said, like the giant fool he was. As soon as the lawyers were out of the room, all sappy romance drained off his face and he got the cold, calculating look Jessie expected.
"What are you really playing at?" she spat out. "I know this isn't about love. I've been missing for four years, and you never once contacted me, even if you knew exactly where I was."
He smiled and it was disgusting. "There was never love there, Yessica, and you know that too well. It just occurred to me that since I let you use me, maybe it's time I did the same."
She blinked, her stomach twisting uncomfortably. "You know there was no malice in our marriage. I never set out to hurt you or fool you and we both agreed on the initial terms."
"So you don't deny using me."
Of course he'd fixate on that. And she couldn't deny it, not really. Not when they'd both agreed to get married just so she could escape her crazy parents and get emancipate. Esteban had been her closest friend in that damned house and she'd believed him to be a real solution.
Much older, gentle, understanding of her struggle, of her need to escape. He'd been the one to offer the solution and she'd gladly accepted it just for a few months of freedom. She'd trusted him.
Up until right after their wedding when he'd made it clear that he wanted so much more than they'd bargained for. When he'd forced himself on her. She'd ran back to her parents who only shrugged and claimed it was his right as husband. And she'd been caught between a rock and a hard place for months until she finally stole enough money from her parents to run away.
A week later, she ran into Herrison and finally managed to gain a semblance of control.
As much as she tried to bury it, that part of her life was still there. The way he'd taken advantage of her naivety and trapped her in a way that turning eighteen couldn't solve. And now he had the nerve to act like he'd done her a favor.
YOU ARE READING
Lose Control (The Jewel Project #5)
Adventure"It's never going to end, is it? The rivalry, the hatred, the madness. Not even now. Not even after so many years." It has been three years since the last jewel was recovered, and the Agency seems to have put the project to rest. They have a new tar...
