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When I took a step closer, she curled in on herself, shakes wracking her emaciated body. Not wanting to scare her, I sat down, making myself smaller, and pulled out my phone to dial the police.
While the two of us waited for someone who knew what the hell they were doing, I hummed to her, using up only half of my arsenal of Disney songs before a police van pulled up.
Once the officer freed her and loaded her into his vehicle, my mind was made up. Whether it was fate or chance, I was the one who had found that dog, and I would be the one to make her whole again. The issues I have going on suck, but they’re nothing compared to being beaten and left tied up to die.
The roar of a heavy engine sounds from downstairs.
Mom must be working.
I sigh and shut down my computer, standing up with a spine cracking stretch. The chair at my childhood desk lacks proper lumbar support. I glance around the bedroom I hadn’t slept in for eight years until three weeks ago. At some point, Mom took down my posters and pictures, repainting the walls a warm dark brown. But the furniture is still the same. White dresser, white desk, white bed frame with a plush queen-sized mattress. It’s not a bad room.
The major flaw is that it’s in my parents’ house. A place I vowed never to live again.
An insistent buzzing from my cellphone puts a pause on my descent into self-pity. At least, it does until I read the name of the caller.
The bastard whose fault it is that I’m back in my childhood home in the first place.
Martin.
“Fuck you.” I glare at my phone as I mutter the curse, but I don’t toss the device away like I’ve been doing ever since the night I arrived to find him shacked up with someone he hadn’t committed to spending the rest of his life with.
Ignoring him isn’t a long-term solution. I should probably talk to him. Or scream at him. I still haven’t decided which when I click to accept the call.
“Hey, douche bag. What do you want?”
“Paige! You answered!”
I roll my eyes. “You have limited time. Your choice if you want to spend it stating the obvious.”
“Baby. Sweetheart. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Nothing happened, I swear.”
Liar. Maybe I would’ve believed him if I hadn’t gotten a call from an unknown number a few weeks ago. Turns out it was the mystery pixie woman, calling to apologize for acting the home wrecker. Apparently, she’s a resident at the same hospital as Martin, and they were just sleeping together as a stress relief. The affair was supposed to end before I ever got to town.
Guess I ruined their well-laid plans.
Her call was shocking and scraped away the scant bit of hope that what I had seen was just one giant misunderstanding. But, in a weird way, I’m grateful for both her sleeping with Martin and then telling me about it. Now I know what type of person he truly is.
“If nothing happened, then why are you sorry?”
That gets him to stumble, and I almost smile as he stutters over his words. “I-I well just…I mean I’m sorry you felt hurt, by me. But I didn’t…of course I wouldn’t—“
“Just stop, Martin.” I cut him off, sighing heavily and pressing the pads of my fingers into my eyelids to try staving off the headache threatening.
Why did I pick up the phone?
“Please, Paige. I want to talk to you. Face-to-face. I know you hate phone conversations.”
He’s right about that. But after dating for eight years, there’s not much this man doesn’t know about me. Too bad that didn’t keep him from hurting me.
“I don’t know.”What would we even say to each other?
“Come on, Paige. This can’t be how it ends. Just have lunch with me. Next week.”
I try to imagine it. Never having experienced a post-breakup meal, the situation is unfathomable to me. As I pace around the room, a sparkle on the bedside table catches my eye. The little shimmer comes from the diamond in my engagement ring.
The first night I slept here, I chucked the ring across the room. The next day, after I accidentally stepped on it and cursed the universe for the physical pain to pair with my emotional turmoil, I picked the jewelry up and placed it where the sharp stone couldn’t do any more harm.
From then on, the ring has been mocking me.
