He looks at me silently, surprised that I found the rings, maybe surprised that I didn't beat around the bush and got straight to the point. It's something I saw and if I didn't speak up now, I'd for sure say something later. I figure I might as well continue since he's been standing in silence for the last minute.

"The day I was watching over Oli after school, the day you told me to talk to him, he told me that he liked me much better than her," I say, shifting my body on the sofa to face him better. "It didn't take a genius to figure out that you were with someone else, and Oli didn't seem to like her. I didn't want to bring back unpleasant memories so I kept quiet about it." He looks at me for a couple more seconds before letting out a deep sigh.

"You're right, just last year I was married but now I'm divorced," he says confirming my thoughts. I nod my head slowly, turning back to face the television as I process my thoughts. I have no reason to be jealous, he's been divorced for months and there's a good reason why they're not together anymore. "Victoria?" I turn back to look at him, a small smile on my face.

"Whatever happened, I'm not going to question but thank you for telling me," I answer sincerely. He observes my face for a couple more seconds to see if I'm lying, but I see his face change to one of relief that I'm not screaming like a banshee at him for keeping this from me. He steps closer in front of me, leaning down so his hands press into the sofa caging my body as he gives me a smirk.

"I was right when I said your different Victoria," he says, leaning closer, his eyes darkening. "But there's no reason for me to keep quiet about it," he says as he straightens back up, throwing off his jacket, unbuttoning the first three buttons on his uniform, his tattoos peeking out. I flush a little when he throws me a smirk, realizing I was watching him. 

"You're staring sweetheart," his voice filled with amusement.

"I was not," I answer as I avert my eyes from his. I hear him chuckle as he sits down beside me, lifts me up and places me in between his legs, my legs thrown across his so I'm sitting sideways. 

"You know I'm not pressuring you right?" I say, adjusting myself in his arms to face him better.

"I know you're not, but I'm choosing to freely tell you what happened," he answers cooly. "I met her the night of my graduation at the police academy, I was twenty-two at the time and some people from my class decided we'd go for a celebratory drink for graduating."

"You were already going to get drunk the minute you graduated on becoming a police officer? For shame," I tease, a small smirk tugging at my lips. I feel his hand moving on my thigh before pinching it not to harshly, but hard enough for me to let out a yelp.

"We went to a bar somewhere downtown, one where we could get some good drinks with some form of entertainment," he says continuing.

"You mean a strip club?" I say, my mouth has zero filters. He looks at me for a second before a sinful smile graces his lips.

"I don't want to play games with you right now Victoria," his voice getting husky as I feel his hand trailing my thighs up to my ass, stopping to give it a hard squeeze.

"Fine, fine, my lips are shut," I answer rolling my eyes as I rest my head against him. 

 "It wasn't a strip club we went to but the bar did have unknown bands playing so it wasn't too bad. I was getting a drink when a blonde woman approached me also asking for a drink. She was two years older than me and was working as a psychiatrist, we just hit off," he tells me.

"For a couple of months, we were seeing each other. Meeting up for coffee or dinner, casual sex in between. It was easygoing for a while but after she turned twenty-five and I was twenty-three, things got serious. We became exclusive, and she became my first serious relationship."

"Do you have a picture of her?" I ask, my fingers playing with the buttons on his shirt. He reaches over to his jacket and pulls out his phone unlocking it and going to the internet. Wait, the internet? Was his wife someone famous?

"This was her," he tells me as he hands it over so I can look. "Her name was Kerri Durrant." I look at the picture and see the face of a pretty blonde woman with short hair staring back at me. What catches my attention though is the headline, Psychiatrist Involved With Mafia Kidnapping. 

"Jason," my voice trails off as I lower the phone. I'm shocked that she was involved with what happened to Charlotte.

"I know what's running through your head and I'm getting to that," he says stroking my skin distractedly. "We were dating for two years before deciding to move in together and I asked her to marry me. She said yes and we were engaged for a year and got married in the summer."

"For me, it was the best day of my life. I had someone I loved in my life and she was now my wife, I didn't see how things could get any greater. In our first year of marriage, we were still in the newlywed period. We did most things together, took trips together, things were bliss between us."

"It wasn't until our second year of marriage things started to change. She started working longer hours, would often go out at night, became distant with me and I asked her about it but she told me that she was okay and I trusted her. I became preoccupied with things when my sister and her husband along with Oli got into a car crash in America."

"I was on the first plane to the New York but my sister and her husband passed away the day I arrived," he says, his voice getting thick with emotion. I sit a little straighter so I can kiss his cheek, wrapping my arms around him in a hug. His arms tighten around me as his chin rests on my shoulder.

"Oli was in the hospital for a couple of weeks and I split my time there with him and doing paperwork for his parent's funerals and quickly processing his adoption papers to bring him back to Canada with me. When I had everything ready we came back here and Kerri, to say the least, was pissed that I was bringing a kid into our house, said it was better he was put up for adoption," he snarls.

"What a nasty bitch," I tell him gritting my teeth at the rush of anger I'm feeling that she would tell Jason he was better off abandoning his only nephew and leaving him with strangers. He lets out a huff of laughter and I can't help but smile when I hear it. 

"You can say that again. At that point, things were cold between us. There was no intimacy and she made it very clear that she hated Oli. I left them together at home one night and I found Oli waiting for me in the living room saying he was too scared. I asked him if he went to Kerri to see if she could tuck him in for the night and the minute I mentioned her name he clammed up," he says, the anger in his voice so clear.

"She said something to him?" I guess.

"Yeah, and what she said he never told me and she never told me either. From that day I decided that I wasn't going to leave them alone without me and it was also the first night I started thinking about getting a divorce. Fighting became regular between us, we became oil and water, the love I had for her was starting to dwindle," his voice lowers at the last part.

"Oli wasn't doing with the change of environment and the death of his parents and I decided to take him to see a therapist. Who knew I'd end up reconnecting with Charlotte at the therapist's office," he chuckles.

"You guys lost contact?" I ask.

"Yeah, for a couple of years until last year. It was as if we just clicked and everything became the same again, as if the gap year never happened. When she found out I was a police officer, she and Jax enlisted in my help because his old mafia buddies were resurfacing. They gave me a rundown of everything that was happening including the police being involved with them."

"Of course I told her I'd help but the minute I stepped in to work the next day, I was warned not to poke my nose with Charlotte's and Jax's business. For a while, I thought of how I could help and decided I'd get an old friend that joined the army to assist. The day I went to meet up with Charlotte and Jax at her brother's house, Kerri was supposed to come as well to meet all of them but she told me that work called her in for an emergency and she had to miss out," he tells me.

"Let me guess, that was a lie as well?" I question.

"You got that right sweetheart. Oli and I went ourselves and Charlotte wasn't happy that Kerri had to skip out but she insisted I show her a photo. The minute she saw her, I thought she was going to have a panic attack. When she and Jax told me that she works for the mafia and was Jax's old flame, I felt anguish but then I was angry, so fucking angry. She played me for years, staying beside me to have close contact with the police not to mention she was dating Jax when she was with me and most probably fucking around with other people."

"I started to see her less and less at home, maybe she caught onto to the fact that I knew what she was doing. It wasn't until the day Charlotte was kidnapped and she knocked me out before leaving I realized I felt nothing for her. If she was arrested I didn't care, I was done with her," he reveals. 

"Did she do anything to Oli?" I question, my voice filled with worry that she might have harmed him after Jason. 

"No, when I came to the first thing I did was rush up to see he was okay, he was still sleeping. You know what happened after that from what they said in the news. We went to rescue Charlotte and Wren plus arrested and brought back everyone who was there. The first thing I did when I got home was move Oli and me out of our old home into this one here. I didn't want any memory of my time with Kerri," he tells me. "Right after that, I filed for divorce and for some reason in her stupid little mind she thought I was going to stand by her."

"No, you're kidding me," I chuckle.

"I'm serious. I think she almost fainted when the first trial she went for wasn't for her connection to the mafia and the kidnapping but our divorce," he says chuckling along with me. "I don't know why I still have that though." I know he's talking about the rings.

"Maybe subconsciously you were still holding onto it," I suggest.

"Maybe you're right," he sighs. I move back, forcing him to drop his hug so I can look at him in the face. My hands settle on both of his cheeks as I give a gentle smile.

"For what it's worth I'm glad she's out of your life, you and Oli didn't need to be around someone toxic like her," I tell him, my thumb brushing his skin.

"For what it's worth I'm glad she's not here either sweetheart. I think the one positive thing from all this is being able to meet a sexy confident woman," he tells me as he talks one of my hands, kissing my palm as his smouldering eyes focus on me. 

"Oh, I wonder who you're talking about," I tease as I lean closer to him, my voice filled with mirth. His thumb brushes my lower lip, eyes darkening as he focuses on me.

"I thought I told you, sweetheart, not to play games," he says as he grasps the back of my head and his lips capture mine in a heated kiss. My hands wrap around his neck as his lips mould against mine, his hands dropping to my waist as he moves me so I'm straddling his lap instead.

It's funny, maybe I should be feeling some jealously at the relationship Jason used to have in the past but for some reason, I don't feel a thing. Maybe because at this moment at this time, she's his past he'd rather forget, she's thousands of miles away in prison, and right now my lips are the ones sealed against his.

✘✘

A/N So The Officer went through a cover change and I'm in love with it. Between The Ex-Convict's cover and this one, my gosh, I fall in love with the stories again every time I look at them. What are your thoughts on the new cover? 

And Jason has revealed what happened with Kerri. The whole betrayal and what she did still tugs at my heartstrings. How can anyone not love Jason and hate what happened to him? I feel as if this is one of my shorter chapters which frustrates my soul but at the same time, I'm happy with how it turned out. I hate having to cram so many things at once and then it looks like a hot mess.

What are your thoughts on the chapter? Be sure to leave your comments down below!