Page 8 of Dream Chaser

She gave my forearm a sympathetic squeeze. “I’m sorry. I hoped you were happy in your marriage.”

A server came up to our table. We ordered lattes, and as he left, I clasped my hands on the table in front of us.

“I thought I would be,” I said. “But here I am. Last night, I told him I want a divorce. If I go back to our place, my mother and his will show up and stage an intervention.”

Scarlett raised a brow. “You’re both adults. Would they really get involved like that?”

If only she knew just how involved they already were.

“Like my mother said, no decent woman in Millford has ever been left by her husband.”

“Oh, please.” Scarlett rolled her eyes. “You’re the one leaving him. I hoped I was wrong when I thought you two were too different.”

I’d been too young to see how dangerous those differences were when we started dating. Grief had dulled every crimson flag he waved in front of me.

After the server returned with our drinks, I told Scarlett about my failed marriage and the last straw that pushed me to end it.

“He called you what?”

Her shock only further fueled my humiliation.

“You can’t go back to him,” she said, tapping her red nails on the white mug. “Don’t back down. It’ll only make him think he can get away with treating you like trash. Calling any woman what he called you is disgusting, and you’re his wife. His young, smoking hot wife.”

“Smoking hot.” I snorted. “Is that the politically correct way of saying someone is a cheap whore?”

Scarlett tsked, shaking her head. “I don’t know how you’ve put up with that for so long. How can your mother side with those people? What’s wrong with her?”

I took a gulp of my sweet coffee, relishing the warmth that spread through my chest. “She can’t fathom the idea of a woman being happy without a man and a family, so she’d rather I put up with Preston than be alone.”

“She’d rather her daughter endure emotional abuse?”

“Words mean nothing to her.” I shrugged. “And he provides for me. He’s paying for everything, and it’s my fault. I agreed to all of it.”

Scarlet flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Bullshit. You didn’t agree to be mistreated, and you thought he was a good guy, not the asshole he turned out to be.”

“I wish I’d trusted my instincts way sooner.”

I couldn’t stand Scarlett’s sympathetic expression, so I rose and nodded toward the counter. “Coffee’s on me.”

“Nova.” She shook her head. “You don’t have to.”

I put my hand up. “You let me vent despite the fact I abandoned you as soon as I graduated. It’s just coffee.”

I went to the counter. As I tapped the card on the reader, a Transaction Declined message flashed on the screen. My heart beat in my throat. What the hell?

The girl behind the counter smiled without showing her teeth. “It didn’t go through. Would you like to try again?”

“Um, sure.”

Cold sweat dampened my back as I brought the card to the reader once more. The same two words mocked me from the tiny screen.

My face burned, and my stomach knotted.

“Let’s try mine,” Scarlett said from behind me.

“Thank you.” I pulled my phone from my purse and tapped on the bank app icon with a shaky finger.

My heart sank to my feet. No money. Our joint account was empty.