Maverick reenters the room to find me crying over the remnants of his mother’s name-sake.
“I’m so fucking sorry,” he whispers from across the room, as though he’s afraid to come closer.
I nod, unable to look up at him because maybe I’m afraid too. If the both of us fall apart, who’ll be left to pick up the pieces?
Silence paints the air a somber color, only being brought to a halt by the ringing of Maverick’s phone.
“I don’t know,” I hear Maverick groan and I focus on him again. “Her parents are going through a horrible divorce. No. No Collin I don’t want to press charges, but she fucking broke Beth’s violin so we have to do something!”
As though noticing the impact the sharp blade of his words had, Maverick points to his phone and nods toward the balcony. I don’t stop him from leaving. When he’s no longer in my line of sight, I focus on my breathing and work up the courage to collect the pieces of my violin, taking them to the bedroom where I deposit them into the case.
My eyes wander around the room at the mess Jessica managed to make. My clothes lay strewn across the floor and all my personal items with them. Then I see it. Laying in a pile on the night table.
Holy shit.
34
For every win, there is a loss. A truer statement has never been made. Except today, I didn’t want to have to deal with the losses. I guess, in a sense, I should be grateful. Focus on the good. I’ve had a lot of wins piled into less than twenty four hours. For starters, Beth turned the tables, saving me from wrecking my leg the way Jared intended – putting him in the eye of his own disaster. And Beth’s father reached out to me. Though he didn’t watch the game, our conversation made me know there was a chance we could find a better foot to walk through our relationship on. To top things off, we won the game, I scored my goals, did all the impressing I’d set out to do. But even stacked on top of each other, it doesn’t feel worth it. Not when the tradeoff looks anything like the tears pooled in Beth’s eyes as she watched her violin get smashed to smithereens.
I press the cellphone tighter against my ear, listening to Collin’s words.
“I think a restraining order would be the most appropriate alternative in this case,” he says and he sounds as irritated as I feel.
“I don’t know, Collin.” There’s a part of me that wants to storm into Jessica’s home and break the thing that will hurt her the most. The only problem is, I’m pretty sure I’ve already done that. Every move I make away from her, is a step that crushes her heart even more. I can feel the throbbing in my temples increase in intensity before shifting gears and migrating down to my neck.
“Maverick, I don’t think you understand how serious this is. She knows about you and Bethany. This could spell big trouble for the both of you. If she goes public with what she knows, you could be staring down the barrel of deportation and Bethany will be on her way to jail in a heartbeat. Is that what you want?”
“She doesn’t know anything!” I hiss. If she did, she wouldn’t have gone mad with assumptions. “She’s just going through a lot right now, and -”
“You know who else is going through a lot right now?” Collin says, cutting me off. “Your fiancé.”
That’s all he needs to say to silence me. All he needs to say to bring me right back to reality. I suck in a deep breath, sighing as I let it out. When the fuck did life become this complicated?
As though reading my mind and wanting to raise me, Collin adds, “I did an extensive background check on Bethany.”
“A what?” I ask, not really sure I’m hearing him correctly. Or maybe it’s just that I don’t like the worry he coated the words in.
“The money you sent to her is almost all gone from her account.”
“I’m not really sure what you’re getting at here, Collin.”
“She transferred all the money to another account. Her parents’ joint account.”
“Yeah. So? The money is for tuition and schooling and whatever. She’s free to use it however she wants, really.”
“Sure. But she’s not saving any of it. I did some digging into her parents as well and it turns out they both got laid off from work just a few days before you guys decided to get hitched. Perhaps the day you got the marriage license. Now imagine her dealing with that, plus you. I’d say she’s going through enough for you to do every damn thing it takes to make her your number one priority.”
All words fail me. Despite how fucking unbelievable all of this feels, deep down, I know Collin isn’t lying. Beth, unlike Jessica, has always been careful with her heart. She’s secretive, combative and knows damn well when to put her walls up and when to let them down.
“She’s putting up with you and all the insanity that comes with you and she won’t even get out of it what she wanted in the first place. So yeah, she’s not saving to go to college, Maverick. She’s taking care of her family. She’s going through a lot. She’s having a hard time. You don’t see her breaking into people’s houses and destroying their things, do you?”
Somehow I feel like I should have known that this was happening and the fact that I didn’t unsettles me more than I care to admit.
“I get it. But, Collin, pressing charges against Jessica when we’re already breaking the law seems like we’re poking the universe with a hot metal rod and karma will flip around and brand us on the ass.”
“Bullshit. You don’t want to press charges because you were both bed buddies once upon a time. I need you to stop thinking with your dick and think with the logical side of you that wants to make it to the state games and get drafted straight out of high school. Let me talk to that guy. He’d understand how serious Jessica knowing about this potential marriage really is. You keep underestimating the extent of her insanity and she keeps proving you wrong.” None of this has to do with the sexual aspect of my relationship with Jessica. But guilt, guilt has a funny way of making a man make fucked up decisions. Even if I wanted to deny it, deep down, I know that I’m responsible for Jessica going off her rockers today. She might deserve a night in jail. But so do I. Beth though, Beth only deserves the good.
I let a long breath out. “Jessica doesn’t know that Beth and I are married. She saw pictures but those can be explained away.” Collin’s seriously wrong thinking calling the cops is the right move to make. They won’t put Jess behind bars, nor will they throw her in the looney bin and throw away the keys. If anything, calling the cops will rile her up even more. A restraining order doesn’t mean shit to someone who’s determined to break the rules. There has to be a different way, a better way, to handle this.
“She knows?” I turn to see Beth standing in the doorway. She slowly walks over to where I’m standing and hands me the torn pieces of the signed prenup.
“Is that Beth in the background?”
“Yeah. I’m putting you on speaker.”
“Hi Bethany.”
“Hi Collin. Is there anything we can do about this?”
She’s all business and I’m impressed all over again by her ability to switch her feelings on an off and get laser focused on her mission. Bethany Hendrickson is amazingly resilient and it’s both erotic and infuriating.