Rath: Ten minutes. Are you at your place?
After I say my goodbyes and send the newlyweds on their way, I hop in my car and text her one last time.
Rath: In the car. I’m coming for you, babe. See you soon.
I sprint to her door and knock on it harshly, the rap of my knuckles beating against the wood. I hope I don’t wake her grandma. I know she goes to bed early, but I’m desperate at this point. I shuffle back and forth, waiting for her to answer, but when she doesn’t, I start knocking a little louder and faster and more continuous.
“Charlee, open the damn door,” I say when she still doesn’t answer. “I know you’re in there.” I really don’t but hey, why not try everything? “I’m not opposed to breaking this thing down, so I would suggest—”
The door flings open and I watch as Charlee walks away, down the hall, leaving me there in the entryway.
Fuck.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I enter, shut the door, and follow her to her bedroom where she buries herself in her bed. I catch a brief glimpse of her tear-stained face right before she turns away from me and the hairs on the back of my neck lift. This is way worse than what I imagined.
I go to the bed and take a seat on the edge. When I put my hand on her side, she quickly swats me away. “Don’t touch me,” she says on a sob.
Christ . . . my bones feel like they’re in pain. I’m at a complete loss.
“Okay, I won’t touch you,” I say, taking the gentle approach. “But can we please talk? I want to know what’s going on?”
“Nothing to talk about.” She sniffs. “Your ring is on the nightstand. Take it and leave.”
I glance at the nightstand and see it sparkling back at me, a contradiction to how I’m currently feeling as anger starts to replace concern.
“What did I tell you about taking it off?”
She sits up and wipes at her eyes. “Not to take it off unless I meant it. To not treat it as a threat.”
“Exactly. So, put it back on.”
She shakes her head. “This is not a threat. This is not a game to me, Rath. I want you to take that ring and leave.”
Trying not to lash out with words, I stay somewhat calm and say, “I’m going to need a reason.”
She folds her arm over her chest and says, “Your offer to marry me, why did you do it?”
Pushing my hand through my hair, I say, “For your grandma.”
“Bullshit,” she yells. “That’s bullshit and you know it.”
“What are you talking about?”
She swipes at her face, tears falling in rapid succession. “You said the benefit was for you to take a fiancée to events, to help with the business, but that was a lie, wasn’t it?” She tilts her head to the side. “It was because of Vanessa. Because you wanted to be on a level playing field with her when you saw her again.”
“Charlee, that’s . . .” Fuck, I mean, when the idea came about, that was a positive, and maybe a driving force initially, but I honestly forgot about it after I started getting caught up in Charlee.
Her eyes well up as she scoots away from me. “It’s true, isn’t it?”
Exhaling, I say, “It started as a bonus for both of us—”
She reaches to the nightstand, takes the ring, and places it in my hand. Then she points at the door. “Leave, now.”
“We need to talk about this. Don’t push me away because of a speed bump.”
“This isn’t a fucking speed bump, Rath. This is distrust. This is you using me. This is you treating me like a pawn in your life rather than a person. It was obvious in how you held on to Vanessa so tightly at the wedding, how you stared at her during the entire ceremony, how you had me all glammed up—for what? To make her jealous?” She looks me up and down. “You’re disgusting.”
I clamp my hand around the ring and ask, “What the hell are you talking about? I wasn’t staring at her, I was staring at you. I didn’t even know where she was sitting.”
“Oh, please,” she says on a sob. “She was sitting right in front of me. And I saw how you were holding her, talking to her, laughing with her, as if I didn’t exist. Well guess what? You saved face with your ex, so my duty is done. I held up my end of the bargain.”
“And what about my end?” I ask, feeling anger take over any rational thought. How could she possibly think any of that is true? Vanessa was sitting in front of Charlee the whole time? Bullshit. All I saw was my girl staring back at me.
“No need to worry. Apparently everyone in my life decided to lie to me.”
“What do you mean?”
“My grandma isn’t sick. Found that out tonight too. She planned the whole thing because she thought we had something special. Looks like her instincts were just as wrong as her actions.” What the fuck?
“She faked it?” Why? Her granddaughter has been in agony thinking she didn’t have much time with her grandma.
“Yup, just like our engagement. Don’t worry, Rath. You’re not indebted to me. You don’t have to marry me, you can drop the act, and move on.”
“I don’t want to fucking move on.” I pull on her arm so she’s forced to look at me. “I want you, Charlee. I want to work through this, talk about it.”
She scoffs. “Oh, okay. Now you want to ‘talk’?” She uses air quotes. “A little late, Rath. If you wanted to talk, you should have talked a while ago, but I guess that was never in your plans, was it? You only saw me as a way to get back at your ex. You kept things casual, shallow, never diving too deep, because why open up to someone you actually had no intention on staying with? For fuck’s sake, Rath. Your parents were at that wedding today, and not once did you take me to meet them. Not once. Imagine how horrible I would have felt if they heard from someone else that their son was engaged. But you kept us apart. Kept me a secret. Led me on, kept me happy leading up to this day, used me, and then got what you wanted.” She slowly claps. “Job well done.”
“That’s not how it was,” I say through clenched teeth.
She rolls her eyes and lays her head back down on the pillow. “Just leave, Rath. This is over.”
“So that’s it, you’re just going to call the shots without even hearing me out?”
“That’s what you’ve been doing this entire time, calling the shots. It’s about time I made some choices that better my life, which means walking away from you.”
It’s a goddamn dagger straight to my heart.
Walking away from you. Those four words echo in my head as I stare down at her. Almost lifeless, there’s no color in her face, no silliness in her smile, no sparkle in her eyes. It’s as if someone turned down the switch and made her dull.
It hurts. It hurts to see her like this, so defeated, but what hurts even more is the knowledge that I don’t think there’s any way I can fix this. She’s made up her mind, especially from the finality in her voice.
The realization that this very well might be over starts to clog my throat as I say, “Charlee, just hear me out.”
“No,” she answers. “I’ve heard all I needed. Go. Take your ring and go.”