“Stop driving, I’ll call for an Uber,” I whispered.
“April…”
“Pull over, Stone, now!”
Stone glowered but did as I asked. Distraught, I bit out, “I’m trying. Ten years of hurt don’t go away overnight. You scarred me, Stone. For a decade, I thought you cheated because I was the fat girl. Chelsea was stunning, and I wasn’t. Chelsea was slim, and I was overweight. You had lots of friends, and I was a loner. Hell, Chelsea was popular, and I was the weird friend. Sit there and be judgmental, Stone; that doesn’t reflect on me but on you.
“You did the damage and now think that it’s easy to put a decade of self-doubt, pain, and lack of confidence aside and move on. Fuckin’ move on? Guess what? You’re right. Is this even worth it? Honestly, I don’t know why I thought we could start again. You’re just as arrogant as ever!”
With that, I got out and fled. Luckily, we’d not driven that far, and I knew where we were. Quickly, I walked away and called an Uber. Stone could go fuck himself.
Harlequin
Shit, that had gone bad very quickly. April’s words hurt, and I felt the urge to chase after her, but my mood had worsened. Margrave was making me vile, and April’s comments stung as well. When April slapped me in the face with her self-doubt, I wanted to shake her and force her in front of a mirror. If Icould make April see herself like I saw her, I would. Only time would convince April of her self-value. But that was on me. I’d destroyed her in the worst way possible. Even though it had been done with the best intentions, it was handled the wrong way.
My temper was dire when I arrived at Margrave’s. In a blatant show of assholery, I parked straight outside the house and got out of my car. I leaned back against my door and stared directly at it. An hour later, an older woman passed by walking a dog.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
She peered as Margrave finally appeared in his doorway. “You’ve been standing here a while.”
“Yup. See, this fucker is lying about a teenage girl’s disappearance? You got grandchildren, ma’am? Keep them away from this guy,” I said.
“You can’t say shit like that!” Margrave exploded.
The cocky, confident asshole was gone. I’d done something he’d not expected: confronted him outside his home. Around us, curtains rustled, and a few people in their front yards looked over.
“What? I can’t tell the truth that you claimed to see a missing girl leaving the library, and yet the library was shut that day? Think again, asshole. Your neighbours need to know to keep their kids safe!” I called back loudly.
“I’m calling the cops!” Margrave yelled.
“Go ahead. They want to talk to you about the discrepancies in your statement, too! Detective Emilio Hawthorne has been chasing your sorry ass down for a couple of days. Been ignoring Lio’s calls, have ya?”
Okay, so this wasn’t exactly standard PI tactics, but I was pissed.
“Shut up! I never lied!”
“No? How can you have seen Julie Rogers leave the library when it was closed? Come on, asshole, answer that!” I demanded.
“Told you I got the days confused!” Margrave was flustered as people came out and stared openly. “This guy is insane! He’s a bully! The cops are coming.”
“If the days mixed up, how did you know what Julie was wearing when she disappeared?” I challenged. “Your neighbours need to be aware of the danger in the neighbourhood.”
“You put a tracking device on my car. That’s illegal.”
“You found it then,” I drawled. “And thought it would be funny to drive to random places and fuck with me, knowing a teenage girl was missing. The time I wasted on you playing your stupid fuck-ass games could have been used finding Julie. Do you even give a shit a kid’s missing?”
I caught the telltale flick of Margrave’s eyes. My gut was right. This fucker knew more than he was letting on.
“Shut up!” Margrave yelled as the neighbours began muttering.
“This guy telling the truth, Margrave?” a burly man called from across the street.
“No!”
“Yes! Look up Julie Rogers. She went missing six months ago. This asshole claims he saw Julie leaving the library, but it was closed that day. Do your own research; don’t take my word for it.”
