Misadventures with a Manny Read online

  Misadventures with a Manny

  Toni Aleo

  This book is an original publication of Waterhouse Press.

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.

  Copyright © 2018 Waterhouse Press, LLC

  Cover Design by Waterhouse Press

  Cover photographs: Shutterstock

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  All Rights Reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic format without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  To my dad, Noel.

  Thank you for always believing in me and being so proud of me. I wouldn’t be who I am without you.

  Love you.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Acknowledgments

  Don’t miss any Misadventures!

  Excerpt from Misadventures with a Professor

  More Misadventures

  About Toni Aleo

  Chapter One

  Vera

  I am completely heartbroken.

  Everything hurts.

  But not due to the loss I am experiencing.

  That sickening feeling in my gut is for my boys.

  Holding Louis’s and Elliot’s hands, I watch my soon-to-be ex-husband, Simon, carry boxes to his truck. His girlfriend—Kaia, our former nanny—stands by the back of a cab with a pained look on her face. What the hell she has to be pained about is beyond me. She stole my children’s father from them and my husband from me. Yeah, things were rough between Simon and me. I worked a lot, as did he, but I’d loved him since I was sixteen. He is all I know, and now, he is leaving us.

  His family.

  Placing the boxes in the truck bed, Simon whispers something in her ear, and she gives him a weak smile. I want to scream. I want to throw something at them. How dare he display his love right there in front of our children. I wouldn’t do that to my kids.

  But I don’t say or do anything. I have to stay strong for them. Especially for our oldest, Charlie. He hasn’t been handling this well. Not that I expect him to.

  Just then, Charlie barrels out of the house. He throws a box onto the lawn, his voice breaking as he screams, “Here you go. Take the rest of your crap!”

  “Charlie, that’s unnecessary,” Simon calls, walking toward our fourteen-year-old son. “You don’t need to be hostile. Is your mother hostile?”

  Charlie doesn’t even look at me. His fists are shaking, his face red. He loves his father. Sometimes, I am convinced he loves his dad more than he loves me. They used to do everything together. Simon isn’t a bad father. But not only did he betray me with the affair, he betrayed the trust of our boys. Charlie swings his leg back and kicks Simon’s box hard. I press my lips together and stifle the impulse to intervene. This is between them.

  Quite honestly, I wish I could kick something. My heart sinks as my son makes a scene.

  “I hate you. You know that? How can you do this to us? We are supposed to be a family!”

  “And we are.” Simon reaches for him, but Charlie smacks his father’s hands away. “Just because I don’t love your mother anymore doesn’t mean I don’t love you.”

  Hearing that really stings.

  “Well, I don’t love you! You’re leaving us. For her? She’s as dumb as a box of rocks. You’ve said that yourself.”

  “Charlie, things change—”

  “No! You couldn’t keep your dick in your pants, and you ruined everything. You’re running out on us, and we don’t want you back.” He kicks Simon’s box again, splitting open the side so the contents spill out. “You’re nothing but a piece of shit!” Charlie roars and runs back into the house, slamming the door. Louis and Elliot jump a bit, so I squeeze their hands tightly, fighting back tears. I normally would never let my son talk like that to his father, but I know whatever I’d say would fall on deaf ears. Charlie is too upset, too heartbroken. His pain is killing me, combining with my own pain to form a dangerous mix. How could I let this happen? What did I do wrong? Did I work too much? Did I not give Simon enough in bed?

  Why wasn’t I enough?

  “You can’t help me here?” Simon barks at me, breaking my train of thought.

  I look at him, meeting the angry gaze of the man I’d loved my whole adult life. But when I look at him, it is as if I don’t know him. His brown eyes don’t make my heart skip a beat or my skin break out in gooseflesh. He isn’t the dorky, computer-obsessed guy I fell for so long ago. Now he’s the man who slept with our nanny in our bed. I will never get that out of my head for the rest of my life.

  I slowly shake my head. “I stopped helping you the moment you decided you were leaving.”

  He growls something incoherent as he throws everything back into the box and then loads the mess into the truck. Kaia starts toward me, but I cut her a look, and she pauses midstride. I know I suffer from really bad resting-bitch face, but when I actually want to turn it on, my expression can be brutal.

  “I’m really sorry, Vera,” Kaia squeaks.

  I don’t say a damned thing. She worked for us for six years. She had been one of my best friends. I know that’s where I messed up. I trusted her completely. I let her into my home life more than I should have. Yeah, she was the boys’ nanny, but there was no need for her to move in with us when she broke up with her boyfriend. At least I thought she’d broken up with her boyfriend. Turns out that was part of the lie she and Simon had come up with. How did I miss the looks they shared? The intimate touches… All of it. I missed every single sign. Was it because I was naïve, or did I not care? That part has me confused. How could they have had a relationship for over a year, and I never suspected anything?

  How did I allow something happening under my own nose to ruin my family?

  To hurt my boys?

  I hold my breath and look down at Louis and Elliot. The twins are holding on to me like I am a life preserver. Did they know before I did? I knew Charlie couldn’t have…not the way he is acting. But the twins are so quiet and always keep to themselves. Had they seen something and just didn’t know how to tell me? Shaking my head, I know it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I would never leave them. Never.

  Simon slams the truck door and looks back at us. When his gaze meets mine, I lift my chin and fight back tears. This is it. He is leaving. He is really leaving us. And he is going with her.

  “We have that appointment on Friday,” he calls.

  Our mediation.

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “Okay,” he says. He walks toward us and bends down on one knee. Reaching out, he takes t