This Could Be Us (Skyland, #2)

by Kennedy Ryan

“Let him look. You don’t have anything to hide.” The expression that crosses Edward’s face is not so much a frown as a… twitch.

Oh yes, he does.

I stiffen and force myself to reply evenly. “I didn’t mean to offend your delicate sensibilities, but when you haven’t fucked your wife in nearly two months, she tends to bring it up every once in a while.”

😳😳😳😳 Well damn

“If you’re that horny,” he says, turning to glower at me, “you have a battery-operated solution in your bedside table.”

😒😒😒😒😒😒🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾

“I understand if,” I resume, carefully laying out my next words, “you’re having trouble in that area. Sometimes as men age—”

😳😳😳😳😳

“I don’t mean the outside.” He reaches for his suit jacket. “You have pushed out three kids. Things get loose down there. What’s that thing women do to tighten up? Vaginal rejuvenation or whatever? Maybe that’s where you start reviving our sex life.”

🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

“We don’t have time to rehash this. Not right now. It only happened a couple of times. God, are you holding me responsible for my subconscious? I told you it was nothing. Can we just go?”

Oh he really is a fucking asshole 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

“If you had worn the red dress I liked, you wouldn’t be cold now.”

I can't stand him 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Cousin? What, in the backwoods? With that hand on her ass? I’d hate to see that family reunion. Incest much?

😳😳😳😳😳😒😒😒😒😒

“Why? It’s your husband who doesn’t like me. It’s fine. I don’t like him either.”

yessssss

“but I need to go in extra early tomorrow. Amber and I have a huge presentation to the board in a few days.”

You spend more time with AMBER than your own wife.

“Edward Barnes,” says the man standing in the front, flashing his badge. “You’re under arrest.”

Looks like you weren't so careful.

“He didn’t do anything,” Inez says, her tearful words pebbled with anger. “You heard him. Judah Cross set him up.”

Sorry sweetie but your daddy is guilty 🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️

“Six million dollars may not bankrupt them, but it’s still a lot of money to—”

😳😳😳😳😳😳😳🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

“What do you mean?” Brunson asks, confusion in his voice. “He did make his call.” “But he didn’t… I haven’t heard from him.”

CUZ HE CALLED AMBER

“And why exactly does Edward believe the director of accounting would set him up to take the fall for six million dollars being embezzled?” Skepticism sharpens Lola’s words. “Better yet, why does he think we’d believe it?”

THAT'S A GREAT QUESTION?????

“I don’t want to hear them all lying about Dad,” she says, her mouth set into a mutinous line. “We don’t have anything to be ashamed of. It’s all a big misunderstanding. We didn’t do anything wrong, and neither did Daddy.”

Yeah, she's a daddy's girl through and through. It's gonna break her heart when the truth is out. 😔😔😔😔😔

“I’m not the man who put your family in this situation. Your husband did that, but I am the man who wants to get you out of it. I’m taking a risk just coming to talk to you about this. If I didn’t want to help, I wouldn’t even try.”

“It’s actually five million, eight hundred thousand, four hundred forty-four dollars and thirty-three cents. At least that’s how much I’ve been able to trace. There’s probably more.”

Okay, down to the cents.

“Well, he’s a little busy fighting for his life. I’m sure he’ll get around to it as soon as he’s all done with that.”

They are not touching his booty, I'm sure he's safe.

“Because he’s a selfish asshole. I know he’s your husband, but don’t count on him, Soledad. Not when your future is at stake. You need to look out for you and your daughters.

“The less you know, the better.”

Another sign of him being guilty

“They should ask their wonder kid Cross where it is since he seems to have all the answers,” he says, bitterness making his words hard. “All I can tell you is that I’m securing our future.”

How are you doing that when you are in jail? 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

“Nothing they can prove.”

Confession

“Shouldn’t you be looking for ways to not get in? Instead of calculating how little time you’ll do?”

EXACTLY

“You say that to me? When I did this for you? For us? For our girls?”

NO YOU DID IT FOR YOU.

“I can’t believe you’re making this harder for me right now. I ask you to do this one thing.”

I'm sorry what? 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

“Really? When this one thing is covering up stealing six million dollars? You expected my cooperation?”

Yeah that's wild 😔😔😔😔😔😳😳😳😳😳

“The time to speak plainly was before you did this stupid shit and expected me to fall in line. To be your accessory.”

Right

“I didn’t want to tell you unless it became necessary because I knew you wouldn’t understand, but they found out about a plane ticket I purchased.”

So wait you were gonna run and leave your family to try and clean up the mess you made. Let me guess you were taking AMBER with you.

“And leave me and your children here with no money, no house, no car, and the FBI considering me a suspect?”

“Just lay low and don’t ruin this. We’ll come out richer than you can imagine if you just hold down what you know and leave what you don’t know alone. You and the girls mean everything to me.”

YOU'RE A SCUM BAG

“Right. That’s why you bought one ticket to Bali that I didn’t even know about. I can tell how desperate you were to spend your remaining days with your family.”

right 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

My husband. I’ve only had sex with one person for the last two decades. Apparently Edward can’t say the same.

NASTY AMBER

Now I understand his comments about vaginal rejuvenation weren’t just simple cruelty. He was redirecting; distracting me from his duplicity by making me feel inadequate, deliberately planting seeds of insecurity so I focused on me and not on the shit he was up

Yep

“She’s not with him any—” He catches himself, but not before I grab another tiny piece of the puzzle confirming my suspicions.

“Oh, I’m real rational. So rational I’ve been thinking about all those late nights you spent with Amber at the office. Maybe you weren’t just sleeping together. Maybe she’s a part of your scheme.”

Ding ding ding

“What’s the use of denying it now? You caught me.” He holds up both hands like he’s at gunpoint. “Guilty as charged. I found a younger woman, someone exciting and ambitious and smart. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. You apparently aren’t interested in riches beyond your wildest dreams and would only hold me back. When I get out of here, I’ll divorce you and we can go our separate ways. You’ll only have to see me on weekends when I take the girls.”

🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

“You accept a man shitting on you,” she used to say, “he’ll make himself at home. There’s no three strikes. You use me, take me for granted, you prove you don’t deserve to be in my life.”

BIG FACTS

“Are you kidding?” Hendrix cackles. “You went all Angela Bassett Waiting to Exhale on Edward’s clothes and his man cave. We had to see the damage unhinged Soledad could do.”

“He should be the one begging for your forgiveness,” he says, his words as harsh as the scowl on his face. “And he left you no choice.”

Exactly

“We can totally do Brownstone,” Lottie readily agrees, following Hendrix but turning around to whisper to me. “Who’s Brownstone?”

🤣🤣🤣☺️☺️☺️☺️

We sacrifice everything for these people who never really understand what we’ve done for them.

“I don’t know her. I didn’t come for her.” One long finger lifts my chin, and the sincerity in his eyes reaches through my chest and squeezes my heart. “I came for you, Sol.”

“How many times do I have to tell you?” I struggle to keep the frustration out of my words. “Your father broke the law. It was Judah’s job to tell their employer. That’s all he was doing. His job.”

Does your dad not know right from wrong? Was he not supposed to face the consequences of his actions?

“But none of it would have been exposed had it not been for him.” She tips her head toward the pavilion door Judah just passed through. “And, of course, all the information you turned over to them.”

She's really gonna piss me off

“What would you have had me do, Inez? Ignore what he did? Help him so I would get arrested too? Leave the three of you to end up God knows where with two parents in jail?”

Exactly

“As well as a mother can be when her wrongly accused son rots in prison for crimes he didn’t commit.”

🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

“Well, a thank-you would be nice,” Oneida says. “And to see my granddaughters every once in a while. Even if it’s only Lupe.”

🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

“Just thought you should know,” I hiss into his ear. “Found out the problem wasn’t that my pussy was loose. I just needed a bigger dick.”

That's how you kick a mofo when they are down. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

“I didn’t… I thought you’d be—” “Gone? No wonder Edward was rushing us out. He didn’t want us to run into family number two.”

😔😔😔😔😔