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She never liked that name. Netta. Short for Joynetta. But everybody in Bridell called her that. “Who said I left him?”

“Don’t play with me, little girl. You know better than that. Now answer the question. Why did you leave that man? Was it another woman?”

Joy looked at him. Her bright eyes looked like a deer in a headlight: caught.

Gramps shook his head. “I don’t know why you acting all surprised. He was a hoe when you married him, Netta. Let’s just be honest about this here man you fell for. All them women giving you the side-eye like you taking their man. Remember all that? But you girls never learn. Always gotta save-a-hoe. Always thinking you gonna be the one to turn the dog around.”

Joy’s heart deflated as she listened to Gramps.

“You turned him around for a minute. I’ll give you that. That man cares about you more than his other hoes. But that don’t mean he stopped being a hoe. That just means he stopped being a prolific hoe. He don’t sleep around with every woman moving. Just one or two now that he’s got you. But what I always told you about tolerating cheating? One more woman is one woman too many. You don’t ever settle for less.”

Joy didn’t. That was why she was there.

But Gramps’ heart sank when he saw tears began to well up in her big, beautiful, greenish-brown eyes. He glanced around. He knew the last people she wanted to see her cry were her former co-workers. They treated her like a dog in his view when she worked there. They never thought she’d amount to anything when she was working there, and they would relish in knowing her little time away was a big bust that brought her right back where she started from.

He still didn’t like to see people with shades on inside a building, but he’d make an exception for his Netta. “You can put’em back on,” he said to her.

Joy gladly slipped them back on.

“Did he deny it?”

Joy nodded her head. “Yes, sir.”

“But you don’t believe him?”

She shook her head. “No, sir.”

“There’s evidence?”

She nodded.

“Strong evidence?”

She tried not to start crying again as she nodded her head.

Gramps let out a harsh exhale as if it was a damn shame, and then he pushed his plate away. “I lost my appetite anyway. Let’s get out of here,” he said, and began standing.

Another good idea to Joy. She gladly stood too.

But as they were heading for the exit, they saw the manager. She was a black woman, but she was equally as nosy as Helen. If not more so. “Netta? What you doing back in Bridell? I heard they arrested you the last time. And where’s that rich white man of yours? Don’t tell me he done dumped you already. There’s a bet going around town saying it wasn’t gonna last a year. But it ain’t been half a year yet. Looks like they were right.”

Joy rolled her eyes. This town! And for Joy’s sake, Gramps held his peace. He couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

Until he couldn’t.

“This doggone bladder of mine,” he said. “I got to go pee. Always got to go at the worst possible time. Wait for me outside.”

Joy was glad to do that too. While Gramps hurried to the men’s room, she made her way outside. Fortunately, Helen wasn’t at the hostess podium to ask her further questions as she walked on out.

But outside didn’t bring her much solace either. It reminded her of the life she left and despite how much she despised it, that old life just might be preferable to her current situation. At least when she was busting her ass as a server and doing all of the other grunt work she had to do, she still had dreams. She still had something to look forward to. Now that she was a married lady, and that marriage was already falling apart after only three months, she felt as if she was facing a desolate path. And there was nothing to look forward to without William. She only wished she didn’t love that man so much! Maybe then it wouldn’t hurt so bad.

But just when she walked over to her car and was about to get inside to wait on Gramps, she saw a big Mercedes GLS SUV tear into the parking lot like they owned it and pulled up behind her Lexus, blocking her in.

A sudden fear came over her. Was this a kidnapping like they tried to kidnap William’s daughter? Or was it William? She knew he owned a Mercedes S-class sedan. It seemed to be the only car in a garage filled with cars that he preferred to drive. But she never recalled him owning a big Mercedes SUV. But he owned many cars, houses, everything else she knew nothing about.

When the bodyguard hopped off of the front passenger seat just as the SUV came to a halt, and he opened the back passenger door, she realized it was probably a rental. Because it was William. To her heart’s delight, although that didn’t change their reality, he at least did come after her!

But there was so much tension between them, that her delight was short-lived. Because William didn’t step out like a man there to make amends, but like a man there to make a point.