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“I have no idea.”
“That bastard,” Ally bit out. I could feel the anger radiating off her.
Give it a few more hours and you’ll be where I am, I thought.
“What are you going to do?”
My eyes finally found Ally’s again, and I shrugged.
“Come on, this man is dangerous,” she said. “You can’t just do nothing. He knows where you live, he knows where you work, and he knows about Terry. You are in danger here. We have to tell someone.”
“No,” I told her, my tone so sharp it caused her to step back.
“Catherine needs to know. Maybe she can help, or maybe she can contact the media outlets and reschedule until we get this figured out. Either way, she needs to know and you can’t go to interviews or on TV like that. People will notice the marks. They’ll ask about the domestic violence work that you do, see the marks on your body, and put the whole thing together.”
A sob broke through my mouth, though I had kept it clamped down, hard.
“Oh, Mia, I’m so sorry. It was word vomit. All of it, just word vomit.” She rubbed my back, trying to reassure me and soothe me. But I doubted I would ever be able to relax or be soothed again. Not as long as Chad is out there.
Another knock at my door caused me to jump.
“Hey, it’s okay. Calm down. I’ll go see who that was.” I didn’t miss the look of pity that crossed her face at my reaction to a knock at my door.
I could hear her talking to someone—I was sure it was Terry—but I did my best to tune them out.
A few moments later, Ally entered my office, carrying another coffee for me.
“Here. He stopped and got the two of you coffee. I think someone was hoping you two would have a coffee date this morning.”
I sighed and my shoulders sagged. I felt bad blowing off Terry. I would have loved to have coffee with him this morning. But I still hadn’t figured out what to say to him yet. How much did I tell him? Did I lie to him the way I tried to lie to Ally? No, probably not. It would only make things worse for me. I didn’t want him to know. I didn’t want him to look at me differently and see me as weak as I saw myself.
“You sit in here. Get yourself together. I’m going to go see if Catherine is in yet. If she is, I’m sending her your way.”
“Mia—” The protest barely left my mouth.
“Nope, I don’t want to hear it. This is the type of thing we hired her to handle. So please, stop it. She’s coming in here as soon as she gets in, and you are going to tell her. She already knows about Chad, so it’ll be a short recap. Besides, I think she’ll be the easy one to tell.”
She shot me a knowing look and left my office. I sighed, placing my head in my hands. This wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t want people to worry about me. Exceptions being made because of me. People being given extra tasks because of me.
All because of me—and the monster who refused to leave me alone.
Before I had any more time to wallow, my office door opened and Catherine came marching into my office. Her lips were set in a firm line, her eyes serious. I could tell she was all business.
“Ally told me we have a situation. What’s going on?” She lowered herself into the chair across from my desk. I brought my hands down so she had a good view of my face. “Oh my God,” she breathed out. “What happened to you?”
“It was Chad.” A sob breaking through at my words.
When the tears continued to fall, Catherine came around the desk and put her arms around me, holding me tightly.
“Tell me, sweetie, what did he do?” Her voice was calm, soothing, and motherly. Similar to what I heard from Ally earlier.
I launched into the story, telling it through shaky breaths. I did my best not to break down, but I did. When I told her that he had threatened me, the dam broke and I bawled. I was sure she wouldn’t be able to understand me when I told her about him knowing about the business.
“I’m worried, Catherine. What if he does something to mess with my business? I built this. It’s my sweat, blood, and tears. I can’t let him take it all away from me.”
“It’s okay. It’s going to be okay. I won’t let him do anything to hurt you or take this company away from you. Trust me, there isn’t anything he can do to you that I can’t handle. I will make sure he stays far away from you.”
“How?” I felt like a child asking her mother how Santa Claus came down the chimney at night. Because that’s what this felt like: a man with a plan that was going to get to me no matter what. No matter how good or bad things were, he was getting there.
