Love's New Bloom by Simone Hastings

Chapter 4 Threatened

At 3 am, Erin unlocked the door to her home and walked into the living room. She saw a pair of snakeskin heels that didn’t belong to her. Sure enough, Tracy was here. Erin took her shoes off and walked barefoot into the kitchen. Five minutes later, she silently pushed the bedroom door open and padded inside with a pail full of dirty water.

Seeing Ian and Tracy wrapped around each other with her own eyes made her feel like her heart was being ripped to shreds. Hatred filled her eyes as Erin lifted the pail and splashed the water all over them, making them instantly jolt awake.

Ian almost peed himself when he saw someone standing before him. After wiping the water from his face and getting a clear look at who it was, he roared, “Are you fucking nuts, Erin? What the hell did you pour on me?”

Beside him, Tracy immediately pretended to be afraid when she saw Erin. “Ian, I’m scared she’ll hit me…”

He turned to her and wiped her face with the sheets, saying consolingly, “Don’t worry. I won’t let her lay a hand on you!”

Erin couldn’t help sneering when she saw how Tracy remembered to keep Ian’s attention on her despite looking like something the cat had brought in. “I wouldn’t resort to physical violence—it’s just going to dirty my hands!”

Ian gave her a repulsed look. “I have nothing to say since you already know about this. Let’s get a divorce.”

you stole my line. Make sure to split our assets equally!” After that, Erin turned to leave. She didn’t want to spend another second

who bought this house and the cars? I did! How dare you demand I give you half of what I worked for! The only way I’ll agree to divorce is if

barely breathe. She looked up at

even going

been eavesdropping on their conversation, was delighted by this turn of events. A

Erin sat in a taxi, her face tear-streaked. Suddenly, she wanted nothing more than to get hopelessly drunk. She wore a shirt and jeans she borrowed from

me to the

…

the chair and

Erin’s face was red.

you drunk tonight. Haven’t you heard that some liquor makes you more lucid the more you drink it? I know exactly how

far back as I can remember, she’s told me time and time again that a woman’s chastity means the world to a man. She said that my father was disgusted

knew her best friend was in terrible pain, but she had nothing to make it better. Perhaps alcohol was the only thing that

when we were dating, yet he refused to lay a finger on me

when she picked up on Erin’s underlying meaning.

Erin downed the rest of her

hell do you think you are, calling at such a

upright. “Babe, I think you’ve had

She’d received a text message. She’d kept her phone on since storming out of the villa in hopes that Ian would apologize to her or beg her for forgiveness…it seemed she was out of luck. She didn’t recognize the number, and the message read, “Come

is this?” She was about to turn her phone off when the other party sent her a photo. She was instantly shocked into sitting