Ifinishwipingthe kitchen counter, toss the rag down into the basement to be washed, and head back into the kitchen for a drink.
Matt startles me when I find him sitting at the breakfast bar. I jump back, and press my hand to my chest, and shriek. “What the hell? How did you get in here?”
“The back door was unlocked.” He stands as I walk past him, and he follows me to the fridge. He is dangerously close. After I grab my seltzer water, I close the fridge and turn around and we are nose to nose.
“You can’t be waltzing in here like this anymore, Matt. Dom is here a lot now. Where is Charlotte?”
“Sleepover at my parents. Don’t you mean Colby?” The name comes out as a hiss, and it makes my heart stop for a moment.
Fuck. How did he find out?
I step sideways to get away from him, so I’m not pinned against the fridge, and I glance at the clock on the stove. Dom should be here any minute, and if he walks in, it will set Matt off even more.
“You’re not even gonna deny it?” Matt chuckles.
“How did you find out?”
“I felt like he looked familiar. I couldn’t figure out how I knew him. And then I happened to find an old photo album.” He shakes his head and lets out a manic laugh. His eyes are wired, and he runs his tongue along his teeth.
“You fucking left all your old photos at the apartment when we moved here. There he was. A whole God-damn album dedicated to Colby Monroe. The fucking criminal biker who got more of your love in the grave than I did when I was buried inside you making our daughter.”
I wince, because I know it’s true. Fuck, I hadn’t meant to be so mean to him. In fact, I go out of my way to be nice to Matt. I loved him, I did. I still do. But he is my friend. Someone who pulled me from the darkness. He isn’t someone I wanted, not in the way that I want Dom. Not in the way I pined for Colby when I thought he was dead.
Matt knew all of this. I was open about my feelings, always. He decided he was okay with me. He decided I loved him enough. He didn’t deserve anything other than having my whole heart. I shouldn’t have ever dragged him through the tragedy with me.
“How long did you know?” He stalks toward me, backs me against the breakfast bar, his breath hot against my face.
“I didn’t, Matt. I didn’t know. He turned up at a bar I was at, and I recognized him. I stayed away for a while.”
“I don’t want him around our daughter. That asshole can’t be trusted. He’s a liar, Andrea. What’s stopping him from pulling this shit again? Except it’s her heart on the line now, too. It’s my job to protect her.”
“It’s mine, too.” There’s no getting through to him, though. He ignores me, and there’s a distant look in his eyes. “I’m not perfect, Matt. I never said I was. But I deserve to be happy. We both do. Before things ended with us, we hadn’t had sex for months. And that wasn’t just me, it was you, too. You didn’t want to have sex with me, neither of us were happy. We deserve to be happy and we’ve both found that now. Lisa makes you happy. Dom makes me happy.”
“Dom is the reason we split up, Andrea!” His fist connects with the counter behind me, and I move away as he grabs the glass vase off the counter and throws it against the cabinets.
It shatters behind me, and like an idiot I step back, right into the glass with my bare feet. I hiss at the pain and fall to my knees to pick it up.
“Look at me Andrea.” His voice is stern, not raised, but demanding. He refuses to call me Andi because he knows Dom is the one who gave me the nickname.
I ignore him, slicing my fingers on the glass as I pile it up. I stand and blood drips from my knees, but I ignore the pain. “Fuck off.” I snap. I always give into Matt, and I’m done with it.
I wanted a small wedding. He wanted to invite every person we knew. We had 350 people attend. He wanted Charlotte to attend private school. I wanted public. She’s in private. Everything was a battle not worth fighting.
Today, I choose to fight. “Get the hell out and do not come here uninvited again.”
“Sunday brunches are over. And if I find out you haven’t dumped that asshole, I will file for full custody of our daughter.”
“On what grounds, Matthew? Look around. This home is way more inviting than your stupid fucking bachelor pad.”
“On the grounds that he is an unfit adult for her to live with!”
“Matthew.”
“He hurt you once, he will do it again!” This time, he’s by the cookie jar, and he throws that too. I’ll never understand the need to throw things. It shatters against the floor, and Matt grabs my arm before I can lean down to pick it up.
“Let go of me!” I yank my arm from his grip.
Matt leans forward, and his fingers wrap around my throat, and that’s when I realize this isn’t about Charlotte, it’s about me. He can’t bear the fact that I’m with the one man he’ll never be able to compete with.