“You think I want to wear this ugly ass thing? Is this some sort of joke? What were you thinking? This is fucking insulting after everything I’ve done for you.”
I shook my head, releasing the hold the memory had on me.
Reaching for the last box, I ripped it open quickly, wanting to get it over with. Pulling out the small jewelry box made me feel sick. No, it couldn’t be…
I opened the box just enough to see what I already knew was inside and instantly threw it across the table. I needed it as far away from me as possible. Trixie picked it up and the airwhooshed out of her as she eyed the giant engagement ring inside.
Objectively, it was a beautiful ring, but to me it looked like handcuffs.
“Please get rid of it,” I said gravely.
I think it was Garrett who took the ring and the watch and left the house with them. I didn’t care what he did with them. I may have thought I wanted that engagement ring from Nick at one point in my life, but that was so far from how I felt now.
I eyed the last—and smallest—envelope. This was it. After this one I could leave it all behind me and carry on with the life I was building here in Love.
I ripped open the small envelope and pulled out a Polaroid image that didn’t just make my heart skip a beat but stop entirely.
It was a photo ofme.Dancing in the bar at The Rainbow during the girls’ trip weekend with Olivia and Melody. I was smiling and genuinely happy in the photo, and it reflected none of my feelings now as I saw the message hastily written across the bottom.
Come home NOW.
My breath started to come in quick bursts as my thoughts began to spiral. Had I made a mistake? I should have known it would be impossible to completely escape Nick. No matter how much I was done with him, he wasn’t done with me yet and he made that apparent. What chance did I even stand to rebuild my life when he could still make these demands and I would crumble into this type of reaction? I watched the picture shake and tried to stop it when I realized the cause of it was my own hands trembling.
It wasn’t the calloused hands I was coming to expect that finally pulled the picture out of my grip and guided me to the couch, but the comforting yet secure embrace of Trixie. “Comeon, dear. When we need to calm down our mind, we must busy our hands.”
She handed me a ball of yarn and a crochet hook that might as well have been a magic wand. I had no idea what her plan was, but after about an hour Trixie had taught me to make a chain and a single crochet into that, and my brain had calmed down to the point of being able to think straight.
All the other members of Calvin’s family had left. Patrick had to go back to the station, Mel made her way back to Cupid’s Cup, and Garrett drove Vicky back to the logging office on his way to work. Everyone except Calvin, still sitting in the arm chair across from the couch, intently watching his grandma and me like I could crumble at any moment.
I appreciated his concern but couldn’t stand the way he looked at me—like I was broken.
“I’m okay, I promise,” I assured him.
“What do you want to do?” He jumped into fixing things right away. “Patrick said they may not be threatening enough to press charges, but he’s willing to try.”
“I don’t want to do anything.”
I knew Patrick had already taken the Polaroid to dust for prints; however, we were not very hopeful. A look passed over Calvin’s face that was absolutely tortured.
“Nothing?” he asked.
“No. This is his thing—he wants a reaction out of me. That’s what makes this fun for him, he thinks he has an effect on me. And I can’t show him he does, I can’t let him win.”
“So, you think if we ignore it, he’ll just stop?”
“Yes, I do.” I nodded.
It wouldn’t be the first time. Often, the more I tried to make things right, the more I tried to grovel and explain myself and my reasoning, the worse things would get. Being blown out of proportion until not only dishes were flying but fists, too. But if I just accepted the silent treatment and let him walk about thehouse like I didn’t exist, eventually it would stop, and one day he would wake up and things would be back to our regular, loving relationship that everyone else saw. I knew this would be the same scenario, and if I could just ignore all the ammunition he was hurling my way, he would run out eventually.
Calvin didn’t look convinced but he didn’t push any more either, and I appreciated him for it.
I needed to take my power back by taking control of some of these situations that Nick was now putting me in.
“Why did you change your name?” Calvin suddenly asked as we ate lunch together on the deck. I had finally convinced him I was okay, and he could go to work for the rest of the day, but Trixie said we needed lunch first. Who was I to argue her logic?
It took everything in me to not let the familiar jacket of shame bundle me up in its warmth, but I had fought too hard today to lose this battle now. I was choosing discomfort, even if it was difficult. I hadn’t shied away from a tough conversation with Calvin before, and I wasn’t about to do it now. It felt freeing to tell him about my past; in a way it allowed me to let go of it.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have lied about who I?—”
