Vida ignored her, letting Colton deal with the temper she could see brewing. She was not able to prevent herself from feeling guilty when she remembered she was his wife, however close to a divorce they were.
“I was wondering when you were going to show,” Tessa said snidely.
Colton gave her a sharp look; Vida could tell he wasn’t happy with her sharp tone of voice.
“I’m not late. In fact, my first client isn’t scheduled for another thirty minutes.”
Forestalled in her effort to find something to rip into him for, her eyes fell onto Vida’s tattoo. “When did you get that tattoo?” Her eyes bore into it.
“Colton did it last night after the shop closed.” Vida tensed, seeing from Tessa’s face going pale that something was wrong. Her eyes turned to Colton, shocked to see apprehension instead of the anger she expected.
“You gave her your symbol, but never tatted one on me, even though you gave me three fucking tattoos.”
Colton didn’t reply.
“I don’t understand. What symbol?” Vida stared back and forth between the two.
Tessa swung back to Vida. “Are you fucking blind?” Tessa pointed to the butterfly. “He’s fucking telling everyone that you’re his.” Vida looked down at her tattoo, not seeing anything other than the butterfly.
“She can’t see it. Even if she looked in a mirror the lines would be reversed,” Colton explained.
Vida began to get angry. “What did you do?” Her voice had sunk to a whisper.
Tessa’s hand pointed to the pictures that hung around the lobby. “Look how he signs his pictures.”
Vida got up from the desk and took a closer look at the pictures hanging on the wall. Each one was signed with a symbol, which blended the initials of his first and last name together.
“Why would you do that?” Vida questioned him angrily.
“Wanted to make sure that everyone knew you were mine. Anyone that knows tattoos will easily see that those are my initials.”
“You might as well have his name tatted on your shoulder.” Tessa swung back to Colton. “How many times did I ask to put your name on me? You told me no.” Tessa’s hand reached out and snatched up the stapler, throwing it at Colton who didn’t move out of the way, but caught it in his hand.
“Do you really want to go into this in front of Vida?” Colton never lost his cool, even when Tessa threw the stapler at him. Vida was surprised; she had thought that Colton would be the type of man who would react physically when challenged like Tessa had by being the first one to try to get physical.
“I don’t give a fuck what she hears,” Tessa screamed at him.
“I tatted your name on me several time’s, I told you I would be faithful, be committed to our marriage. You were committed to one thing; the snow you shoveled up your nose. You know why I didn’t put my name on you? You thought I would forgive and forget. I can’t forgive you for what you did. You lied to me straight out about how much you were using, then I caught you stealing from the shop. And when I thought you were doing better controlling your habit, you were selling your pussy for Digger to keep you in your habit. Everyone in this town knew except me that you were fucking around on me. Then, the night I got busted by the cops, King told me everything, and every dirty little detail your life had become.” Colton’s words were painful for Vida to hear. She had been wrong to assume the failure of his marriage rested on his shoulders.
“Then why did you keep me out of prison?”
“Because you were carrying my kid, Tessa.”
Vida stiffened in her chair. Seeing the pain on Colton’s face, she knew that she didn’t want to hear anymore, but she was trapped, not wanting to draw attention to herself by getting up.
“King called me when he heard from his informant on the police force that the bust was going down. He told me everything that was going on behind my back. You had told Digger you were pregnant, but not me.” Colton paused before continuing in an emotionless voice.
“I wasn’t going to have my pregnant wife in prison delivering my baby. So I took the blame, and you got rehab.” Tessa had taken a step back as if struck when Colton had mentioned the baby.
“Colton, I was going to tell you,” Tessa tried to explain, but Vida could tell it was too little too late.
“When were you going to tell me, Tessa? You never mentioned in all this time that you were pregnant. If one of King’s women hadn’t overheard you telling Digger, I would have never known. When I went in prison, a couple of the brothers kept an eye on you for me, that’s how I found out you aborted my baby.”