Read Online Passionate Bid by Tierney O’Malley - Free Book Online Page B

feel, guilty. I’ll be damned.
    After tonight, he most likely would never see her again. Tonight would be the best time to make amends. “I owe you and your father an apology.” Joanie turned her head away to wipe her eyes. “For what?”
    “For everything. For leaving you the day after our wedding, for the grief, and I am sure humiliation.”
    “I understand why you left. Any man would probably have done the same thing. You loathed me and the idea of us getting married.”
    “Joanie, I don”t loathe you, but you are right. I didn”t want to get married.”
    “But Dad forced and threatened you. It was wrong of him to point his gun at you. But at the time, he was just trying to save me.”
    “You were underage.” He cleared his throat. “Your dad acted the way a father would to protect his daughter. I”d most likely do the same thing if it happened to my own daughter. ” It was her damn first time, too. He saw the proof of her virginity on the bed sheet. “I”m sure your dad was as mad as a bull when I left.”
    “Dad”s anger about you leaving me lasted over a month. After that, he was happy that you didn”t stick around. We stopped talking about you as if the wedding never happened. Then we talked about you again when…I…well, everything happened a long time ago. Can we talk about your papers now? You said you wanted to leave right away, right? Do you have a pen?”
    “Eager to be free of me, huh?” Why did she return the papers if she was as eager as him to get a divorce? He couldn”t understand why, but her coolness somehow irritated him. She should be screaming at him, throwing things, swearing, or demanding support. He”d feel a lot better if she slapped him. He deserved it. Not this.
    Joanie was slighted. A woman he treated with scorn, she deserved to be mad. So why was Joanie acting so calm? Okay, she didn”t care about him and probably would be ecstatic as soon as he was out the door, which raised the question over and over about why she returned the papers unsigned.
    “This is what you wanted from the start,” Joanie said, her eyes focused on Sam.
    “Then why didn”t you sign the papers, Joanie?”
    “The divorce papers right? These,” she pointed at the manila envelope.
    “Yes, these. The same ones that I sent you two times.”
    “I didn”t sign the papers because I never got them.”
    “You never got them?”
    “No. Did you send this to our old address? Because we left a month after our wedding.”
    “No. I mailed it here. And I know you received the envelope. Come on, Joanie. There is nothing wrong with admitting the truth.”
    “Are you accusing me of lying and pretending? I”m not stupid, you know.
    Maybe I acted stupid when I had,” she glanced at sleeping Sam, “S-E-X with you, but that doesn”t mean I remained stupid.”
    “Look at the address on the envelope. Isn”t that your address here?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then you received these. You even wrote the—didn”t you write a note when you returned these to me.”
    “A note? You”re saying you sent these papers to me, but I sent them back unsigned and with a note attached to them?”
    “Yes, twice in fact.”
    Joanie stared at him. Lines of concentration deepened along her brows. She looked to be in deep thoughts. Or maybe she was good at pretending. But if she were telling the truth, then who returned the mail? Saint Claire? Impossible. The man hated him so much he would probably be the first to suggest a divorce, demand support for Joanie, and testify in court that he, Julian Ravenwood, was a rotten husband. In fact, during his first months in Manhattan, he expected the man to show up on his doorstep with his gun cocked and ready to fire. After what he”d done to Joanie, Saint Claire would be glad to see him gone from Joanie”s life forever. And didn”t she say that a month after he left, Saint Claire was happy that he was out of Joanie”s life? So who returned the papers? Sam”s papa?
    “What was on the