“I should’ve told you what I knew. I should’ve gone after him when he threatened you. I’m so sorry, Callie.” Jake runs a hand through his thick hair. “I still can. I can try to get the money back.”
“No!” I shake my head. “Please, don’t. It’s okay. Whoknows what he would’ve done.” My brother is maybe a bit of a chickenshit, but not an asshole. I suppose his heart was in the right place when he decided not to tell me the whole story.
“I’m sorry he made you give him Dad’s money.”
I open my eyes and turn my head.
“He said he needed it. Any idea what he meant? Was it just something he said, or is there more there?”
I don’t know why I’m asking. I shouldn’t care. I don’t care. The money is gone and, hopefully, so is Shane.
Jake swallows, and his lips grow thin. “There are rumors he fucked up on an assignment. I don’t know details, I promise. But you know the family isn’t kind to members who fuck up.”
I wonder if there’s something else Jake’s not telling me. I can see a shadow of fear in the lines on his face. Jones knows about my inheritance, therefore he knows about Jake’s. But if it was really Shane’s fuck up that made him desperate for money and my half of the inheritance covers it, maybe that’ll keep Jake safe.
“I really don’t know anything else.”
“Okay, I believe you.” But do I? It doesn’t matter, I suppose.
I thought I’d feel a deep relief once Shane signed the divorce papers, but I don’t.
I’m devastated to have walked away from Wes.
I’m furious because Shane doesn’t deserve any of my father’s money.
I’m confused about my life choices going forward.
Yesterday, after I met with Shane and ended things with Wes, I texted Meadow and went to visit her at her apartment. She was kind and open, and we promised to make more of an effort to see each other. Then I got on a train atPenn Station to head back to Maine. It was a long-ass journey that had me change trains in Boston and deposited me at the station in Portland at one o’clock in the morning.
I took a car back to the apartment and collapsed in bed, exhausted from the past few days. Weeks, really.
My insides twist when I think about the look on Wes’s face when I ended things in the diner yesterday. I can’t believe I had the strength to do that. The look on his face was heartbreaking. The lies I told him! I could tell he was fighting himself to let me go. I wish he hadn’t. I wish he’d fought me harder.
“You okay, Callie?”
“Fine. I’m fine.” I sit up and focus back on the laptop resting on my thighs. I want this conversation to be over. “Thanks for telling me the truth.”
Jake lingers, and I just want him to leave me alone. Finally, he stands and walks back down the hallway to his bedroom.
I stare at the laptop screen. My finger hovers over the submit button to the master’s program I’ve been planning to apply to. I talked to someone from the program weeks ago, and they said there’s no reason I won’t be accepted. The application itself has been complete for weeks, and I’ve been procrastinating, my version of Jake’s chickenshit by not pressing the stupid submit button.
I can do it. It’s time. Everything is wrapped up here except for filing the signed divorce papers.
The lawyer’s office is closed until Monday morning, and there’s no way I’m putting the document in the mail and risking it getting lost. I emailed the lawyer to see if we can meet up, but he hasn’t responded. I’d go to his house and knock on his door if I knew where he lived.
And once that’s done, I leave.
My stomach twists. I’ll miss Lola and Jake, but I know I’ll stay in touch with them. But Wes? What about him?
I met Wes only four weeks and one day ago. It feels like a lifetime.
I feel awful right now, but I have to trust in the decisions I made when I was calm and rational and not in lo—woah, nope. When I wasn’t sort of obsessed with a gorgeous serial killer.
What a fucking joke. I truly am a disaster. First I marry a lowlife mob guy who my father did not approve of, then I fall in with a stalker serial killer.
Which just reinforces that I need a fresh start.
So why doesn’t it feel right? Not like it did a month ago before I’d met Wes. I knew what I wanted then.
