I sit on the edge of the mattress, lean over her. She blinks blearily as the mattress dips next to her head, then she snorts awake when she sees me.
“McCarthy… what—”
“Let’s play ‘which of the shitty men in your life is sending you these?’”
Her eyes fill with tears when she sees the phone. “No one. I don’t know.”
The fury explodes. I grab a fistful ofher hair.
“Tell me,” I shout at her as she cries. “Is it Nathan?” I shake her roughly.
“Stop it! It’s not your problem.”
“I picked you up off the side of the road, and I’ve been all over town, looking for your damn dog because your fiancé—who you’ve been swearing up and down for the past week loves you and he’s your soulmate and the father of your future children—kidnapped you, threw you out of his car, then stole your dog,” I snarl at her. “I’m more invested than you are at this point, and I want to know who the hell is sending you these messages. Names. Addresses. Birthdays.”
“I think it’s just my ex-fiancés,” she mewls.
“Youthink?” I shove her back against the pillows. “So there are more?”
“No. I don’t know.” She’s sobbing now, heaving, gasping sobs against the pillow. She pulls the comforter up over her head.
I add nastily, “If anything happens to Truman, it’s your fault.”
She lets out a guttural sob. “Truman.”
I’m unmoved. I stand up. “You’re a terrible dog mom, and you’ll be a terrible human mom too.”
17
JENNA
My face is red and puffy the next morning when McCarthy brings me breakfast.
“Don’t look at it like that.” He hands me a fork. “One of your many problems is you eat sugar for breakfast. This is protein.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Don’t care. Eat, then put your clothes on.”
“I don’t—”
He points at the clothes draped over the chair. “I asked Anton to have them rush cleaned at the twenty-four-hour place next door.”
“How did you… Did you go to my house?”
“You mean Nathan’s house?”
I cringe.
For a second, when I woke up, I hoped that it was all a nightmare—Nathan’s anger, getting thrown out of the car, McCarthy showing up,Truman.
“My dog.” I let out a sob. “Poor Truman. He must be so scared. How could I let this happen?”
McCarthy is impatient.
“Stop whining about your dog. This is all happening because you are too stubborn to admit that I’m right.”
“So that’s why you saved me?” I sniffle. “Just to rub your superiority in my face?”
