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“I do care.” He grips my arm, turning me to him. “I didn’t do this, Kayla. It infuriates me that you don’t believe me.”
I yank my arm free. “Because you act like a fucking brute when you’re upset. So who the hell else would do it?”
He grunts. “I haven’t been in the room since the last time you were here.” He pauses in thought and mutters, “The security cameras…”
I suck my teeth and push past him.
“Kayla, stop!” Brandon follows me into the living area and seizes my arm. “It wasn’t me.”
“That mess in there is the limit of what I can handle with you!”
He flinches as if I’ve slapped him. His eyes darken, and his jaw twitches. “If you say that, then maybe it’s best I don’t share what happened to me. Clearly, you can’t handle it.”
A sudden ache rips through my heart. “What happened to you? Tell me.”
He releases my arm. “I don’t want to talk about that now. It feels like you’re looking for more reason to believe I’m responsible for the shit back there.”
“No…I…” I massage my temples at an incoming headache. “Who would maliciously destroy my stuff?” I look him straight in the eye.
“I don’t know, Kayla. I have to check our cameras.”
“Fine.” I inhale and exhale deeply. “I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt. But right now, please just take me home. I have to get my mind straight and try to work on something else to submit next week.”
Brandon frowns. “I’ll buy you another easel and—”
“Don’t,” I snap. “I’ll use the one in school.”
He doesn’t respond, only steps past me to the sliding door. We remain quiet as we walk to the car, and don’t speak the entire drive to my house.
“Whoever did it, I’ll make them pay,” Brandon affirms when I open the door to leave. The seriousness in his tone makes me shudder.
I don’t utter a word. Instead, I exit the car and march to my front door.
He speeds off once I enter.
While I believe Brandon, a minuscule part of me wonders if he turned into a monster and took his anger out on my paintings. And a faint voice akin to Doreen’s asks me, what if he does that to you one day?
