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“Just hold on, all right?” Kyle requested urgently.
“I’m done holding on! Start talking or so help me I’m going to press it!” I threatened.
“She came on to me – not the other way around,” he informed, holding out a cautioning hand to keep me from being hasty and pressing the button.
“You’re such a liar!” I said mockingly.
“I’m telling you the truth! We had a few drinks. She threw herself at me!”
I laughed. “And of course you took her up on her offer! Your final gesture to Ryan to make sure that if he did take her back, he got her back… used.”
I heard my front door open; it was easy to distinguish subtle sounds in my home.
“And the letter?” I bellowed.
“The letter was her idea, not mine. She planned it. Just don’t…”
“I’m sure you can run before the cops get here, but where would you run to? I’ll petition the court to grant a PFA order on you. It probably won’t take more than an hour or so, after all, this was assault,” I mused, rubbing the tender spot on my forehead. “I wonder what a protection order would do to your career.”
“Okay, okay! Just don’t,” Kyle begged. “I can’t have a record. I’ll lose everything. Baby, please…”
“I’m not your baby!” I firmly stated. “Kyle, how could you ever think we’d be able to have a healthy relationship with you hurting me like this?”
“I love you, Taryn! Everything I did, I did out of love! I just couldn’t stand idly by and watch him destroy you! It was killing me!”
“This isn’t love, this is sickness. You destroyed me, Kyle. Not Ryan. You! You ripped my heart out!” I screamed at him.
“I never meant to hurt you!” he said with conviction.
“Taryn, are you all right?” Pete yelled from the other side of the door.
“Yes,” I quickly replied, watching surprise and shock coat Kyle’s face.
“The police are on their way. Is he armed?” Pete asked. I could hear the sirens.
Kyle’s eyes widened with fear. “No,” he uttered.
“He says he’s not armed,” I yelled back to my friends.
Pete plowed the door open; he had my baseball bat in his hand, ready to swing. Marie was right behind him.
“You just keep away from her!” Pete threatened, waving the bat at Kyle.
“I’m not going to hurt her.” Kyle’s derisive inflection was noticeable.
Marie tried to pull me out of the hallway and into the kitchen – to safety, I presumed.
“Taryn!” Kyle called out. “Please? I’m sorry! I can’t go to jail!”
“Well you should have thought about that a long time ago!” Pete yelled angrily.
I touched Pete’s shoulder to calm him.
“Kyle, I’m sorry too, but I just don’t trust you. If I let you go free, then what’s to keep you from coming back and starting this crap all over again?
You know I don’t feel the same way about you, but yet here you are... again!”
“I’ll stay away. I promise! I’ll leave you alone and never bother you again. I swear!” Kyle’s pleading was urgent. He knew his time was running out. The police sirens were in the alley.
I had to make a decision, quickly.
“So what happened then?” Ryan asked.
“The police took our statements. They carted Kyle out to the patrol car real fas. Ryan, I told the police that I didn’t want to press charges.”
“You mean to tell me after all the bullshit that bastard put us through, you just let the son-of-a-bitch walk?” he yelled in my ear.
“Yes,” I said somberly. I knew Ryan felt completely left down.
He huffed in my ear. “Be honest with me, please. Do you have feelings for him? Just tell me.”
“No, Ryan. I don’t. But I just couldn’t send him to prison.”
I could not condemn a man to that fate for simply wanting me.
“I didn’t press charges because I was afraid,” I continued slowly. “I was afraid that if I destroyed his life, he might come after us one day with a vengeance. He walked away a free man; he has no reason to ever retaliate. It’s over,” I sighed.
Ryan was silent. I could hear him breathing hard; he was stewing. I knew he wanted Kyle to pay dearly for every wrong he ever did to us, but in my mind, two wrongs never made a right.
“Ryan?” I called out to him, hoping to calm him so we could talk this out.
