“Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself with a honeymoon that I paid for!”
“That’s so thoughtful of you!” Elena giggled. “At least something got used in this.”
Daisy could feel the anger boiling now. Elena had just turned her life upside-down, and she was laughing about it?
She wasn’t having it.
“Why, Elena? Why the fuck would you do that to me?”
“Nick and I love each other. Why else would we do it?”
“Nick could have just dumped me and got with you. It would have hurt, but it would be better than cheating on me and dumping me on my wedding day!”
Elena snorted.
“Oh, don’t be so dramatic. We just did it with a bit of an overlap, that’s all.”
“A bit of an overlap?” Daisy cried. “How much of an overlap are we talking about?”
“About…two years. Around about then.”
Daisy almost dropped her phone.
“Two years? Nick and I were together for four! Half of our relationship was a lie? Why would he fucking want to marry me if he was cheating on me?”
“Well, he said you pressured him into it, and Nick didn’t want to, but he said you would make his life hell, so he agreed to it.”
“You what?” Daisy was sure her neighbors could hear her screeching, but she didn’t care. “He was the one who surprised me with a proposal! He was the one who wanted to get married! I’m the one who was happy without a wedding, but he pushed it onto me!”
“Whatever. He did it to make you happy. But he wasn’t happy.”
“If he wasn’t happy, he should have ended it. Not string me along.” Daisy wasn’t aware she was pacing until she stubbed her toe on the coffee table. “He was just with me for the money, I bet. That’s the only thing I can thing of.”
Elena let out a shriek of laughter that made Daisy’s eardrum vibrate.
“You think he was with you for your money? Seriously, Daisy? You don’t earn enough to be considered a sugar mommy.”
“Says the bitch who’s on a trip that was paid for entirely by me.”
“Nick said he loved you once, but he now loves me, and he was too scared to break it off with you because you’re crazy. And I know what he means.”
“What? You and I have known each other for years. You know I’m not a crazy person.”
“I know what you’re like. You’re a jealous little bitch, and Nick was scared of you. I just got him out of a bad situation.”
Elena sounded very smug about it. Daisy wondered how she hadn’t noticed that her friend was this psychotic. Marigold had been right when she said Elena was a bad person, but Daisy had wanted to see the good in people. She thought Elena was a good person.
She had been played. By two people.
“I can’t believe you think you’ve done a good thing.”
“Well, I have. Nick didn’t want to be with you, and he finally got the courage to leave you. We’re going to enjoy this vacation together, and then we’re going to come back and live in his apartment. So you’d better leave before we get back, otherwise we’ll call the police and have you evicted for squatting.”
“Squatters have rights, Elena. It would take time to get me out if I was still here.”
Elena giggled.
“Oh, Daisy, you don’t know how easy it is to turn things around. All we need to say is you’re a psychotic ex-girlfriend who’s threatened Nick, and you’ll be out of there so fast you won’t know what’s hit you. Then we’ll have the place to ourselves.”