Chapter 2

“I've ended my employment with this woman, and now she's parking herself in my apartment with her son. I need you to remove them.”

I'd called building security straight up and told them to escort Irma Dickerson and her son out.

What I didn't expect was that the guard didn't move. He just looked uncomfortable and said, “Miss Galloway, this is a family matter. Please don't put us in the middle of it.”

That caught me off guard. The guards here were usually pretty reliable. What was going on today?

“Ruby, that's enough. However far you and my mom want to take this, there's no need to drag the poor guard into it. Have you no shame?”

Before I could think it through, Roy Dickerson suddenly started yelling at me.

Irma gave the guard a sheepish smile. “I'm so sorry. My daughter-in-law here has a nasty temper and doesn't know any better. Once she starts, she never lets it go. Please excuse her.”

The guard waved it off, then gave me a heartfelt little lecture. “Miss Galloway, you're married now. Settle down and make it work. Carrying on like this doesn't look good.”

I understood at once what was going on.

Irma had obviously been feeding the guards a story about me and Roy being married.

She went out for groceries all the time, after all, and ran into the guards constantly.

I had to admit it. I'd underestimated just how shameless this pair really was.

“Sir, whatever Irma Dickerson told you, none of it is true. She's just a housekeeper I hired, and I am certainly not married to Roy. Right now they're squatting in my home. This is absolutely not a family matter.”

I didn't rush to shout. I kept my voice as level as I could and told the guard the truth.

But instead of panicking, the two of them didn't so much as flinch at what I said.

Roy just gave the guard an awkward smile. “See what I mean, sir? My wife really doesn't know any better. When she loses her temper she'll even deny we're married.”

I froze for a second, then it clicked. This wasn't Roy's first time coming to my place while I was out.

He'd gotten friendly with the guards too.

Sure enough, the guard nodded along in agreement and started lecturing me. :

“Miss Galloway, fight with your husband all you want, but treating your mother-in-law like a housekeeper and trying to kick her out is just wrong. And I'm a building guard, not your personal bodyguard. I can't be handling your family business.”

The moment he said it, Irma and Roy both turned to me with smug looks, like there was nothing I could do to them.

So counting on the guard was a dead end.

I took a deep breath, forced myself to stay calm, and apologized to the guard right away. “I'm sorry. My mistake.”

The guard waved it off, said it was fine, told me once more to make my marriage work, and left.

“You two are really something!”

Once the guard was gone, I gave the pair a thumbs-up.

Fine. If you want to play it this shameless,

then don't blame me for what comes next.