I’m not going to lie, I also took a bath because I was avoiding Ryan. Last night I had a memory that included him. I don’t know if meeting him had sparked it. He’d come on to me one day when I was working and he'd been back home from college for a few days. I’d turned him down.
He threw it in my face that he knew I was sleeping with his brother. Thought I should be open for business for any of the men around the home. Then he’d dared me to tell his brother, saying he wouldn’t care, for one, or believe me.
That hadn’t been the reason I hadn't told Dane, though. I figured what was done was done. I turned him down and he acted like a spoiled brat who threw a temper tantrum. There was no reason to throw gas on the fire because I knew Ryan had been wrong. Dane is a very jealous man. He would not only have believed me, he would have lost his mind.
I unlock the bathroom door, peeking out to see the bedroom is empty. I go in search of something to wear. I pause, not seeing any of my clothes in the closet. All of my things are gone. They were here moments ago.
I make my way toward the living area but pause when I hear a female voice.
“Did you get everything?” she asks.
“Yeah, I fucking got everything. How many times are you going to ask?” Ryan’s laidback tone is gone.
“With you a few because you can never follow through with shit.”
“Me? I gave you the fucking money,” he tosses back. Her voice sounds so familiar, but I can’t place it. I lean over, stealing a peek out of the cracked door to see her. I freeze as it comes back to me. It’s the same woman from the picture Fawn showed me. Dane’s secretary.
“You’re also the one who thinks that Dane is going to go for her taking off again.” Fear starts to rise up inside of me. My head begins to throb. “He’ll never stop if she’s alive.” I take a step back from the door.
“We’re going to make it real fucking clear this time what will happen to her if she comes back.” Tears start to leak down my face. I remember. Everything from that day comes flooding back to me at once.
I’d made a mad dash out of Dane’s mother’s room after she tried to pay me off. She wanted me to disappear. She didn’t think I was good enough for her son, and she definitely didn’t want anyone finding out about us. I’d gone to my room and started packing everything up. Not because I was taking her money but because I couldn’t stay in that house for another second.
I was all set to leave when Ryan came barging into my room with the pregnancy test I’d taken earlier in his hand. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. He too told me to get lost or he’d tell Dane the baby could be his.
Then he went on to tell me that Dane had been fucking his secretary for a while now. That he always had. It’s how he kept his social life out of the tabloids. In his words, “getting his dick wet at work and hiding me away too.”
That was wrong. Dane wasn’t the one who had been hiding our relationship. I was. It had all been too much. Between Dane’s mother finding out I was pregnant and everything Ryan was saying before he forcibly took my engagement ring off my finger, almost breaking it in the process. I had to get away.
I’d been so numb, my own past with my parents blurring reality. I’d gotten on a bus because I didn’t own a car. I wasn't running; I needed time to think things through. I’d been so overwhelmed. Time is something Dane would never give me. I love him, but the man fills up all the space around you.
I got off at New Hope when I’d finally calmed down. I’d fallen asleep. The plan was to grab a bus back or to call Dane. I never got that far. There is still a void when it comes to the details of getting struck in the head. The last thing I can recall is that I was looking at the bus schedule to see how to get back home.
I gasp for air, realizing I’m short of breath. The bedroom door flies open, Ryan and Eve looming in the doorway. I make a run for the bathroom, praying my inhaler is in there. Someone grabs me by the back of the head, pulling me back by my hair.
“What the hell are you going to do?” Ryan shouts at Eve. I realize it’s her that has me by the hair. I turn, elbowing her as hard as I can, getting her in the stomach. She releases her hold on me, falling back onto her ass.