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“Huh?”
“The marriage, Atlas meeting me randomly at work.” I blurt the words out, everything coming out in a nonsensical jumbled mess.
“Oh my God, what happened?” She ushers me inside, placing the bottles on the counter and turning toward me. “Okay, breathe,” she says, rubbing my back, mimicking exaggerated inhales and exhales with me. She sits me down on her couch, taking a seat beside me while I try to regain my composure.
“I-I’m so-so sorry,” I stutter through my apology, dabbing at my cheeks with a wad of tissues I brought with me from the house.
“Shhh, hey.” She continues rubbing my back. “Just focus on breathing. You don’t need to say a word. I’m here.” She wraps her arms around me, holding me for almost an hour as I sob into her arms.
Finally, after several more rounds of shaky voiced explanations and crying breaks, I manage to explain everything to Matilda. Atlas stalking me, the proposal, the millions of dollars, and how I knew deep down it all felt too good to be true.
“Holy shit.” She stands, starting to pace her living room floor. “Holy shit!”
“Yeah,” I say, letting out the longest sigh of my life. “All that to say, I’m so sorry for lying to you and keeping this from you. I?—”
“No.” She grabs my hands. “Don’t be sorry. You did what you had to do. You are such a badass woman.” She shakes her head and laughs. “I mean, God, I can’t imagine handling all that. And for the record, I would have absolutely said yes to marrying that man, even for the one million so don’t feel bad about that.” She squints one eye. “Actually, I probably would have married him for free.”
It makes me laugh and I do finally get to tell her how amazing the sex was, but it ends up sending me down another spiral of sobs.
“Can I say something and as your best friend, don’t judge me.”
I sit up from resting my head in her lap. “Okay.”
“I think part of why this hurts so bad is because you are in love with him. Because over the last few hours, you have shown a little bit of anger but more than anything, you’ve just been sad.” She cups my cheeks. “I think you’re heartbroken, babe.”
I can’t help it, I burst into laughter. “Duh!” I finally say. “I know that; that’s the problem!”
“Oh, well, I thought you thought were crying because of like all the lies and whatnot. I wasn’t sure if you were aware that you were in love with him.” She laughs.
“Well, I am. It does break my heart knowing he could lie to me like that but what kills me, what guts me is the fact he offered me to Mac like I was meat or something he could discard.”
“Yeah, but to be fair, he did offer you money to basically kind of cheat the court system sooo I feel like he kind of let you know upfront the kind of guy he is.”
“Are you seriously defending the megalomaniac right now?” I tease her.
“No! No, he’s a total asshole, complete bastard. I just meant that I guess I figured you liked that about him, that he’s a take charge, dominant, powerful man.”
“I know and I do Mati. It’s probably some fucked-up daddy issue stuff but honestly, that doesn’t make it better. I just feel stupid and duped and… cheap.”
“Even five million dollars richer?”
“Yeah.” I laugh again. I knew her jokes about this would help me. “I just got caught up in it. I fell in love with him and I thought he was in love with me too, and I guess just facing that reality, or rather getting beat in the face with it, is a hard-ass pill to swallow. I mean, I knew at the end of the year it would gut me if he could just walk away, but knowing he’s actively acting like he cares about me while offering me to another man is so low, so vile, so…” My voice trails off as I almost dry heave thinking about it.
“Ugh.” She grabs me and hugs me. “I wish so bad I could make it all go away. I wish I could punch him and then kick him in the balls when he’s on the ground and tell him he’s a piece of shit but also thank him for being dumb enough to think it would work, hence making you a millionaire.” She pushes me back and looks at me. “I also hate that you were dealing with all of this alone.”
“That was a wonderful speech. Thank you.” I wrap my arms around her, hugging her back.
“So what are you going to do? You can move in with me since your apartment is gone.”
I shake my head. “Sadly, I don’t think that’s an option. I’m pretty positive there’s no way out of this contract so odds are, I’m stuck in his Victorian prison castle for another ten months.”
We both let out a long sigh, leaning our heads and bodies against each other.
“Well, the good news,” Matilda says, “is ten long, probably agonizing months from now, you’ll be free and the brand-new owner of Freddy’s bar, living your best life with all of this bullshit a distant memory. Meanwhile, Atlas will still be a bitter, lonely man.”
I smile, both of us laughing even though the thought of Atlas being a distant memory or bitter and lonely has what’s left of my heart shattering into a million little pieces. Because after everything, the lies, the deception, the way he looked at me today made me want to beg him to tell me he loves me, to beg him to stay in this marriage with me.
But the thought of staying another ten months in that house with the only man I’ve ever loved slipping through my fingers day after day while I slowly die of a broken heart sounds like a death sentence.
