“Well, Miranda is going to get a talking to,” I mutter.
“Don’t be like that, baby. I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for months now. Fuck I’ve missed you.”
I bite my lip, hard.
“I thought I made it clear the last time we talked that this relationship is over?” I say, my voice a little less strong. “I don’t want to be with you, Dion. I need you to leave me alone.”
“You’re just angry, that’s how you get when things don’t go your way. Luckily for you, I’m a patient man. Don’t be silly, Maggie. We both know you’re in love with me, just as much as I’m in love with you. What is it going to take for you to take me back?”
“I won’t be taking you back. You need to move on. You did enough damage, I’m not stupid enough to come back to that.”
He laughs, softly. “Baby girl, are you doin’ okay? You get so upset over things that have nothing to do with me. I never meant to hurt you, you know that. You just make me so mad sometimes, and I can’t help but upset you.”
God.
This is what he does.
He never gets angry, he doesn’t feel enough for that.
He’s calm, calculated, and precise.
He knows what to say to make me feel like everything is my fault. He can turn the worst scenario around to make it look like it was me who made a mistake. He can make me think I’m absolutely crazy, to the point where I actually act crazy. I have followed him to work, stalked through his phone, lost it when I thought he was cheating. And all the while, he remained calm.
The only time I saw him cry fake tears was when I finally got the courage to actually move out.
And ever since then, he has been on a mission to get me back.
That’s how people like him work.
They have to be the winner.
They just have to be.
“I’m not playing your games, Dion. I will change my number again; I will get a protection order out if you don’t stop calling. I don’t want to be with you, nothing has changed.”
“This is an overreaction, Maggie. You were going crazy, and I did what I had to do to rein that in. You got help, I know you’re better now, and I know if given the chance, you’ll see I am better, too.”
“Oh, so you went to a therapist and got help for your narcissistic ways then?”
“I’ll do anything for you. If that’s what you need me to do, I’ll do it.”
“I don’t need you to do anything but leave me alone.”
“I’m not going to do that. We belong together, you know we do. Don’t you remember how good it felt to be with me?”
“All I remember is how you destroyed my self-confidence, esteem, and mental state by slowly crushing me. I won’t let that happen again.”
He sighs. “Mags, come on. Tell me what I did that was so bad? Please, I would love to know.”
I shake my head, closing my eyes and keeping them clenched shut.
“You made me feel like I was crazy,” I answer.
“How?”
“Because of the way you behaved.”
“I’ll need an example.”
No.
No.
This is not happening.
I won’t fall for this. The oldest trick in the book.
On the outside, it does somewhat look like I was crazy. Hell, I felt crazy. But he knows damn well he drove me to that, he just did it in such an effortless way that it fell into your everyday life to the degree you can’t pinpoint exactly what it was.
He knows I don’t have a clear answer.
So he’ll turn it back around on me.
Not this time.
“I’m hanging up, then I’m going to block your number. Don’t call me again, Dion. I’m seeing someone else. I’ve moved on. You should too.”
I hang up the phone before he can answer and, with trembling fingers, I block his number.
But I know, oh, I know.
This isn’t over.
4
“Tell me there is a way to get out of this,” I say to Hugh as we walk out to the car, ready to go to our first event at the country club.
It’s some garden party to raise money for local charities. That part of it is good, I won’t deny it, but the rest is full of stuck-up rich people who have nothing better to do than gossip and pick on people. I know the second Hugh and I walk into that place with Delilah, mouths will be running. God, they’ll be running so fast our names will be hot commodity by the end of the day.
“I have thought of every fuckin’ reason, but none of them are good enough. We’re stuck goin’,” Hugh mumbles, jerking his tie to try and loosen it.
It doesn’t budge.
“Is this the first time you’re meeting Delilah’s family?” I ask, stepping up to him without thought and loosening the tie for him.
He pauses, almost shocked. I fix it and then look up at him and realize the expression he’s giving me is quite intense. I hold his gaze for a minute, something sparking deep inside my chest that feels a little unusual. I take a shaky step backward. “Sorry, I ... I’ve done a few of these in my time.”
“Yeah,” he murmurs, looking away. “And yeah, it’s the first time I’m meetin’ them. They fuckin’ hate the idea of me, and I have no doubt it won’t go down well. But, if she wants me in her and Star’s life, then she has no fuckin’ choice. I am who I am, accept it or move on.”
“Things are going well between you two then?”
He huffs. “It’s getting better, I guess. We had a big talk about things, I agreed to spend more time with her, but she has to take a huge fuckin’ step down off that high horse of hers. If I’m goin’ to be with a girl, she needs to be down to earth. She agreed. Takin’ her for a ride tomorrow, we’ll see how that goes.”
Oh.
Why does that tug a little at my heart?
I shake it out of my mind.
“There you are,” Delilah says, coming out of the house wearing a gorgeous sun dress, her hair perfectly styled. “You look so handsome.”
She walks up to Hugh and tightens the tie, leaning up to press a kiss on his lips.
I smother a laugh as he starts tugging it again.
Poor guy.
I put Star into the car and climb in the back with her. Hugh drives and Delilah sits in the front, reaching over for his hand. She holds onto it the entire time, and I feel a whole lot like a third wheel. Still, I’m here for Star and nothing more.
“You’ll need to be on your best behavior, Maggie,” Delilah tells me. “These people are very upper class, and they demand respect. Our name is important; I ask that you don’t tarnish it.”
“I don’t know if you know this,” I say, crossing my legs and glancing at Hugh in the rearview mirror when he stares at me, “but I’m actually a grown woman, and so, I can do what I want. I haven’t been told to be on my best behavior since I was four, when it was still a valid speech to be given to me.”
Delilah turns and glares at me. “It’s that mouth that’ll get you into trouble, Maggie.”
“If you want me to be kind, then maybe you ought to give it a shot yourself.”
She scrunches her nose up and faces the front. “Are you sure there is no other nanny that would have worked?”