All of it.
Pretty much everything I owned was gone. The TV on the wall was gone, now the brackets and a few limp wires dangled from the wall. My couch, the one I’d had for years, the one Todd’s bare ass had been sitting on when I’d come through the door was gone leaving only a pile of dust.
I couldn’t believe it.
Dropping my purse on the kitchen counter which was probably only still here because it was nailed down, I headed for my bedroom, not entirely sure what I’d find.
And yep.
The bed was gone, but he’d left the mattress. The sheets and comforter, the ones we’d argued about for half an hour in Bed, Bath, and Beyond only weeks ago, were gone along with all the matching throw pillows.
Opening the closet, I wasn’t shocked to find any trace of Todd missing. Ballless bastard. Probably started packing before I was even in the back of the cab.
But there, hanging in the space where his suits used to be was the biggest fuck you known to man. My wedding dress. Wrinkled. Stained with cheap makeup. Reeking of beer and cigarette smoke, but there it was. The dress I once loved, now I never wanted to see it again. Slamming the wardrobe doors, I turned around and ran my fingers through my hair.
“This is fucked!” I cried out to no one, but Mason appeared.
“Charlotte,” he said calmly, and I knew what he was trying to do, and I appreciated him for it. But right now I couldn’t be cool, calm, and collected Charlotte. I needed to be violent, angry, raging bitch Charlotte.
Marching over to the chest of drawers I yanked it open, partly surprised to find my underwear still there. Finally, something they hadn’t helped themselves to. Digging through the stack of bras and panties, I was searching for something. Something I knew was here. Something I knewshouldbe here.
“Where is it?” I boomed as I started throwing my lacy thongs and expensive silk bras over my shoulder not giving two fucks where they ended up.
“What? What are you looking for?” Mason asked as he dodged the flying panties.
“My jewelry box. It’s gotta be in here. I know it has,” I ranted as I kept going.
When the drawer was empty and there was still no sign of it, I yanked the drawer completely out and threw it on the ground, not caring if it broke on the floor.
Attacking the next drawer, what was left of my clothes, clothes that someone had rifled through I was becoming desperate. By the time I was pulling open the fourth and final drawer, my heart was pounding, my head was spinning, I had the headache from hell and tears were streaming down my face. If that soul-sucking scumbag had taken my grandmother’s pearls he better be hidden in a cave somewhere in the middle of the fucking Sahara Desert because if I caught up with him, he wouldn’t need a hospital. He’d need a fucking coroner.
It was empty.
Fucking empty.
They’d taken my furniture, my clothes, ruined my life, shattered my heart, but the thing that hurt the most, was the fucker had taken the only thing I had left that belonged to my grandmother. It was all I had to remember her by. Something Todd knew I cherished. It was my most treasured possession and he’d taken it.
Storming through the apartment, I grabbed my purse and upended it onto the counter when my phone dropped out.
“Charlotte, what are you doing?” Mason asked, nervously moving toward me.
“I’m calling the fuckstick. If he’s given my gran’s necklace to that piece of trash …”
I didn't finish my sentence.
Gently, more gently than I deserved, Mason took the phone from my hand and set it down before wrapping me in a hug so tight that I swore he was holding all my broken pieces together.
I don't know how long I clung to Mason, him letting me cry on his shoulder but by the time we pulled apart, I was completely exhausted, my legs were barely holding me up.
“Come on, let’s get you out of here,” he suggested.
“I can’t. This is …”
“Not somewhere you need to be,” he confirmed.
“Okay.”
Taking another look around at what was left of my life, I saw the forgotten food on the floor. I couldn’t leave it there. As appealing as it sounded to get up, walk out the door and not ever look back, the smell alone was putrid.
