“Why am I not surprised?” I roll my eyes, adjusting myself so I can face her. “Your little birds have been busy.”
“Everything went well, though?” she asks, pushing her glasses up her nose with her index finger. “Did you get the information you needed?”
“Yes, Jade was very helpful,” I admit. “She filled in some of the missing pieces on what Braden has been up to over the past few months.”
If it weren’t for her, I would still be sitting here wondering what he’s going to do next. For the first time in years, I feel in control.
“Do I even want to know?” She lifts an eyebrow.
“Nope. It’s irrelevant now.”
“So that’s it then.” Clapping her hands together, her eyes crinkle in the corners. “You are free.”
“Not quite, but soon,” I say with a sigh, sinking farther into the couch cushion. “I packed up his clothes. I’ll reach out soon so he can pick them up.”
“You’re good to keep anything for him. I would burn it all. Or at the very least cut it into tiny pieces before giving it back,” she scoffs.
She isn’t a fan of Braden on a good day, but coming onto her property uninvited, then vandalizing my trailer was the final straw.
“You can leave them with me at the bakery if you want to,” she offers. “You don’t need to see him.”
“I think I do. It will help me get some much-needed closure.”
“Promise me you won’t meet him alone.” She places her hand over mine.
“Promise. I’m not sure what I want to do yet, but I will make sure I won’t be by myself,” I reassure her with a smile.
Leaning back to better look at me, she asks, “Have you considered giving him an invoice for all the money he owes you? It’s not right that he gets to walk away and not pay his debt.”
“Honestly, it’s not worth it. Sure, it would be nice to recoup some money, but you know as well as I do, he won’t give me anything willingly. If I’m lucky, he will be so happy in his new life he will forget all about me.”
Ready for this conversation to be over, I glance past her towards the kitchen and ask, “Are you going to stay and eat with us? It looks like you brought a lot.”
“No.” Her short blonde bob swings as she shakes her head. “That is for the two of you to enjoy. But I also came to tell you something.”
“Okay…” I drawl out. “Should I be worried?”
She squeezes my hand gently and searches my eyes before saying, “I fear I may have overstepped, but I was just so angry.”
“What did you do?” It could be anything; not much will surprise me.
“I called your father.”
I retract that. I’m surprised. Like me, she has a challenging relationship with her brother. They are too different to find much common ground.
“Tell me more,” I encourage, tilting my head.
“It’s just the more I thought of it, the angrier I became.”
“Auntie, what are you talking about?”
“All of it. How they treat you.” She scowls. “He continued to speak with Braden even after you broke up and you explicitly told him not to. I even threw in a few unresolved issues I’ve had with him over the years. I was on a roll.”
“And how did that go?” I ask with concern. My father doesn’t like to be questioned—or criticized.
“Surprisingly well. At first, I thought he must have hung up on me because the line was silent, but he was listening and processing what I was saying.”
“First time for everything, I suppose,” I mutter, looking down at my hands.
