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“It is now.”
I was stunned. Completely at a loss. I felt betrayed. Helpless…
“Why would you take my things?” I said brokenly.
“Because I need them,” said Dawn. “I’m going to make a run at this, Sammara. By myself. Without the burden of you.” She paused before going on. “Maybe you’re not as serious about this as I am. You got all caught up in your lakehouse. Too preoccupied with your boyfriends to care about what we’d built together.”
Boyfriends…
The word dropped from her lips with such malice, such acid disdain. So that’s what this was about. I could sense anger in her voice now, where a moment ago there was indifference. Dawn wasn’t just doing this for business, she was doing it for personal reasons.
She was doing it out of spite.
“You can’t just—”
“I can, Sammara,” she interrupted. Hearing her say my full name now was a little bizarre. “I can and I have. None of this stuff is yours anymore, it’s mine. You couldn’t prove differently even if you wanted to.”
My mouth was bone dry. My chest was heaving, but I couldn’t catch my breath.
“I left you your computer, and all the stuff in your desk. Rent’s paid until the end of the month, so you have that long to move it.”
I thought about my furniture. All the pieces I’d collected, old and new. All the years I’d spent amassing them. Staging homes, and creating looks with them…
“I’m sorry this didn’t work out,” Dawn finished. She wasn’t even trying to sound sad. It was awful. “Goodbye Sammara.”
I stood there holding the phone, unable to move. I felt physically ill. Like I was actually going to throw up.
All of your stuff…
For the next half hour I fought off a debilitating panic attack. Worse than anything I’d ever experienced before.
E
verything.
I drove home. It was all I could do. I drove all the back to the lakehouse, crying the whole way.
I couldn’t call Melissa. She and her husband were away on some road trip to visit her in-laws. Bothering her would only make me cry harder, and that wouldn’t help. I considered Kyle, or Dakota, or Ryan. One or more of them might be available. Yet each time I picked up the phone, I stopped before I pressed the button.
I was finally alone, and I wanted them to think me strong. Looking weak right now would worry them. It would make me too much like the others…
To make matters worse, it began pouring rain. I could barely see anything, even with the windshield wipers on full blast. It made the ride longer, more agonizing. I just wanted to get the hell home.
Coming up the driveway the house was depressingly dark and lonely. Even parking as close as I could, I was totally soaked during the short run from my jeep to the front door. A minute later I was blissfully inside, engaging the alarm, shedding my wet clothing and wringing out my hair. I wished like hell there were a fire. I turned on every light I could as I moved through the rooms, stopping in the kitchen to pull a bottle of red from the wine rack.
Fuck!
I’d been so stupid! The business was in Dawn’s name. Ditto for the lease. In retrospect, I’d been far too trusting. Way too foolish not to even partially protect myself.
Swallowing my anger, I went over my options. All of them sucked. Suing her for my things would require a lawyer, and now I had no job. Besides, we’d bought so many things together it would be impossible to separate the two. She even had the receipts.
My hands were shaking so badly I could barely get the cork out. Even half a glass of wine later, I felt no better.
What next?
Thunder rumbled off in the distance — a grim portent of just how fucked I really was. In reality I had nothing. No one. For right now at least, I was stuck.
Draining the glass, I poured another and headed into the living room. Suddenly I wanted to sit on the couch. Lay back on the cushions and wallow in my loneliness, drinking wine and—
