No matter how much I raged inside, I had to be the strong one here. The one with a clear head. I would fight for the girl in front of me with every last breath of my life.
It was a revelation, and probably not the best time to have it, but so the fuck what. I had it.
“This was her place.” Emerson looked up at me, her face red and blotchy, her expression bleak. “In the divorce. I mean, after the divorce, she lived here. Your dad put her up here. He’s still desperate to get her clean. I don’t know if it will ever happen. She’s MIA now, but it doesn’t matter. The time I’m sure has passed for me to know her. And for her to know me.”
She took a deep breath. “Price, I can’t stay here where I’ll think of her every day. And I know it’s a lot ... but that’s how bad this situation is. I also know this is a bad way to start a relationship. Too many skeletons.”
Picking up the duffel, she slung it over her shoulder.
“Wait!” I stilled Em, touching her other shoulder. “None of those skeletons are ours. We are our own people. We grew up and fell for each other despite all those skeletons. Don’t you see?”
She shook her head, fresh tears popping out, rolling down her face and leaving black rivers in their wake, but she said nothing.
“Look, I knew this place sucked. I don’t care if they were married or whatever. We’ll get a different place,” I said, making a last-ditch effort. But it didn’t mean a damn thing.
Shrugging me off, Emerson looked at me, her eyes glassy and far-off. “Like I said, this isn’t about you, Price. Don’t make it about you. It’s about me. And for God’s sake, don’t you see the irony? Aren’t you going to accuse me of maybe going after you to find my mom?”
“Oh my fucking God.” I groaned, so fucking frustrated at Emerson’s stubbornness. “I’m not some teeny-bopper or a jilted woman. I didn’t think that. I wouldn’t think that. We met by accident.”
“You don’t know that.” She brushed by me and headed for the front door.
“I do. Em, you’re being unreasonable, in every sense of the word. I’ll be right here when you get some sense back in your head.”
She didn’t reply, only flung open the door and walked toward the elevator.
I chased after her but stopped in the doorway. “You know why? Do you, Emerson? Because I’m falling in love with you.”
The elevator dinged as the door opened.
She turned and gave me a sad look. “No, you’re not.” The doors slid closed, separating me from the only woman I’d ever loved.
Price
“Dad!” I yelled into the phone the moment he answered.
“Is everything okay, Price? I know I said I’d be coming to visit, but I ran into a problem. It’s not an excuse, just my life.”
“No, everything is not okay. My life was fine the way it was before you came riding in with your town car and bags of money.”
I paced in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows inEmerson’s mom’s apartment. With her ghost looming and Emerson’s absence haunting me, I hadn’t been able to sleep for two nights.
“Calm down—”
“No, I can’t,Dad,” I spat out. “I can’t calm down because I’m in a city where I don’t belong, surrounded by millions of people who don’t understand me, and then I meet one who does ... and you’re not going to believe this. She’s your wife’s daughter.” My forehead met the cool glass and I closed my eyes.
“Ex-wife.”
“Whatever. Wife, ex-wife. Do you get how awkward shit’s become? I’m in love with this woman’s daughter, and she’s left me because of it. None of this would be happening if you hadn’t decided to stroll back into my life like a knight in shining armor. I was fine, and now I’m not. Feel me?”
“I didn’t plan for this to happen,” my dad said. “I admit when Johnny let me know who you were dating—”
At this point, I’d slumped down on the floor, my back resting on the window. I wanted to smash my head through it. “You knew?”
“Yes, of course,” he said, and his voice turned hoarse. “Paula ... my ex-wife ... has problems. I don’t even know if Emerson knows. Drugs, horrible addiction. The guilt of leaving her daughter behind always tortured her. I found Emerson for Paula years ago and kept tabs on her, and then the girl drove herself to New York on a mission. Lucky kid. She met Sheila. Met you. Considering the odds against it, if I didn’t know better, I’d think she planned it.”
“Fuck you! Seriously, fuck off. She didn’t plan a thing. I don’t know the extent of this Paula’s problems. But I do know she left her daughter the same way you left me, and she deserves whatever fate she got. Because no one who has a heart does what she did.”
“That’s why I found you, Price. I couldn’t live with myself anymore. It’s only cheap talk, I know, but it’s all I have. As for my beautiful broken Paula, I guess you got your wish. She died this past weekend of an overdose. Even I couldn’t save her.”
