Payback and a Bottle of Merlot: Like Sisters Series Book One Read Online Free PDF Page A

Four
    Confronting Jack about his betrayal and filing for divorce was the right thing to do, but Mia had other plans. She wanted to hurt and humiliate him as much as he had to her, before she kicked his butt to the curb.
    “You deserve to feel the same heartache you’ve caused me, you loser. It’s time for me to stand up for myself. Sasha needs to know what kind of man you really are.”
    Mia had to find out where Sasha lived, and her last name, before she could really take any action. I am a photographer, I could learn how to be a sleuth too, and start following him into the city. The trip to Florida had to wait. Mia wanted to turn Jack’s life into shambles before divorcing him. You’ve wasted three years of my life. You know what they say about payback, she thought, as she closed out Jack’s email, logged off the Internet, and shut down the computer.
    Retribution and revenge was new to Mia. She was going to call the shots from now on. There were three obvious things important to Jack, and that was his career, his daughter and this mystery woman. I’m going to take him down so he loses his dignity and his job. With a new sense of confidence, Mia began to formulate a plan. She knew who she needed to talk to. It would be uncomfortable, but she needed information.
    Mia heard Jack’s car pull into the garage as she went to the kitchen to make dinner for herself.
    He walked in and gave her a mindless peck on the cheek. “Didn’t eat yet? Don’t bother making me anything, I ate downtown,” he said, while grabbing a frosty beer out of the refrigerator.
    “I wasn’t going to make you anything,” Mia replied, while she whipped together a turkey sandwich and soup.
    A surprised expression crossed Jack’s face. “What? Fine then… I have work to do in the office.”
    “I bet you do.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “I said, I bet you do. Go do your work, Jack. Don’t let me stop you.”
    He turned, snarled under his breath about the hideous china in the cabinet, and how everything in the house looked like it belonged to old people. He went to the office and slammed the door behind him.
    Mia took her soup and sandwich into the bedroom and began a rough outline of her plan on paper. She needed to buy a high power zoom lens. The rest of the camera equipment she already had. Thoughts of billboards and subway ads filled her mind. She envisioned the horror on Jack’s face seeing himself in compromising positions, with someone other than his wife. The thought of it made her laugh out loud. Hmmm… there are tons of ads at bus stops, on cabs, benches and subway stations on Fifth Avenue near Jack’s office building. She decided to check out the cost of renting an ad tomorrow. Wouldn’t his co-workers and boss be stunned to see Jack as the star of his own infidelity ad? Pleased with the idea, Mia hid her notes under the mattress and turned out the light.
    ***
    She couldn’t wait until Jack left for work Monday morning. Mia had calls to make and notes to take. It turned out, for several thousand dollars she could rent a billboard, a subway terminal ad, and a cab ad for a month. She would give it consideration. At least she had options.
    Following Jack and catching him with Sasha, would be a problem all its own. He came home late most nights, or not at all, many times on Fridays. Of course Mia always thought the late nights and Saturday returns had something to do with his daughter and ex, but not anymore. Claire was a convenient excuse to use, which was wrong on so many levels. Mia didn’t want to hurt Jack’s daughter, but that wasn’t her problem. “You figure it out Jack, you’re a big boy,” she said out loud, with an angry snarl.
    Tuesday morning Mia was awake long before five-thirty. She had too much on her mind. Dawn was breaking when she rose, and she needed to find the phone number for Karen, Jack’s ex-wife, on his cell. She tiptoed to the dresser, about to reach for Jack’s phone to take into the bathroom, when he