Chapter 4

The owner went down under Finn's fist, blood running from his nose.

Finn wound up to hit him again.

The other staff rushed in and grabbed him before he could.

"Let go of me!"

"I'll kill this bastard."

I ran over and shoved Finn back.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, protecting your lover already? That was fast."

There was no reasoning with him.

"Stop throwing filth around," I snapped. "He's my close friend's cousin. There is nothing between us, nothing improper at all."

"You think I'm an idiot?"

"He hired you, looking the way you do now."

"He even bought you all that stuff."

"And you're telling me he's got no interest in you."

"Who's going to believe that?"

He stopped for a second.

Then Finn rounded on the staff and roared, "Every one of you, get the hell out of my way."

"I'm going to kill him!"

One of the workers went to call the police.

But the owner stopped him.

"No need for that."

He got up off the floor, took the tissue someone handed him, and wiped the blood from his nose.

Only then did he look at Finn, whose whole face was twisted with rage.

"Look, man, I think you've got the wrong idea about me."

"Everything I've done for your wife is just an owner looking out for an employee."

"And, of course, because she's my cousin's close friend."

He paused.

Then he said something loaded. "But your wife's a good woman. If a man treats her badly, you can't blame someone else for wanting her."

The words were a fuse, and they lit Finn's temper all the way up.

"So you admit you want my wife?"

"If she were willing," he said.

"I really would consider it."

I stared at the owner, stunned.

He gave me a small smile. "You really are a good woman. You just had bad luck, and ended up with the wrong man."

"You son of a bitch."

"You're asking to die!"

Finn's eyes went bloodshot in an instant, and he lunged like a madman.

But there were too many of them, and one man couldn't hold his own.

In the end they threw him out of the restaurant.

Afraid he'd keep making a scene, I had no choice but to ask the owner for the rest of the day off.

Then I went home with him.

Once we were home.

Finn tore through the place, smashing things, cursing me for having no shame as a wife.

I watched him rage in silence.

Only when he'd burned it all out.

Did I say, flatly, "Finn Delgado, I want a divorce."

Finn froze.

Like he'd just heard something out of a fairy tale.

He stared at me, disbelief all over his face.

"Who gave you the nerve to divorce me?"