Chapter 22: The Recording

Betsy's POV

Candace texted me at six in the morning.

The Sunoco on Route 9. Alone. I'm not carrying anything and I won't be long.

It was the gas station where Clint had jumped my car four years ago.

I stared at that for a while in the dark room over the diner.

Brogan's side of the bed was empty and cold.

He had not come back from the garage.

I did not wake Lo.

I went down the back stairs, found the man with the white beard asleep in a booth, and shook his shoulder.

"I need a ride," I said. "And I need you to stay in the truck."

At seven, I walked across the lot of the Sunoco to a gold Corolla parked beside the air pump.

Candace sat behind the wheel in her mother's old coat.

Her cheek was yellow where the slap had landed. She had not slept either.

I got into the passenger seat and shut the door.

"You've got ten minutes."

"I know."

Her hands were in her lap, holding her phone.

"Betsy, I did love you. Whatever else you think."

"Don't."

"I did. You were the only one who ever let me stay anywhere."

"You slept with my husband in my bed."

"Yes."

"For years."

"Since before the wedding."

She looked at the windshield.

"I was the one he called first. I'm still the one."

"Why am I here, Candace?"

She took a pair of earbuds out of her pocket and held one out to me.

"I need you to hear something. Then I need you to stop."

I took it.

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Cheated With My Cousin, So I Totaled a Biker President's Harley from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.