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“Rogue gave my rings back to me last night. He’s been holding onto them while I healed.” She’s seen them before. At the wedding. Maybe she didn’t have a chance to see them up close though. I’m a little fuzzy on the timeline. How long before we broke up did we exchange vows? I suppose that’s something I should ask Rogue after I thank him for the roses.
I locate a card sized envelope in the bunch and pull it free from its pike. I don’t recognize the handwriting but that’s to be expected since no doubt the florist was the one to write the note Rogue dictated.
With a loopy smile on my face, I tug the gold edged card out of the envelope.
“You’re so lucky.” Dizzy clasps her hands together in front of her and makes heart eyes at the ceiling. “Rogue is such a sweetheart. He really adores you.”
Leave him. It’s for your own good. Do it before it’s too late.
The blood drains from my face and curdles in my belly.I cover my mouth as the acid rises in the back of my throat.
“Ivy, is everything okay?”
“Huh?”
Dizzy peers at me like I’m frightening her. She takes my elbow and steers me into the closest chair. “Are you okay? I thought you were going to faint dead away.”
“I-I’m fine.” I struggle to pull in a breath as the rushing sound in my ears fades. Who would send me this?
“You’re anything but fine.” Dizzy snatches the note out of my hand and glances over the text. “It’s not a very good threat if you ask me. There’s no… or else. No mention of repercussions.”
There’s a QR code taped to the back of the card. I try to keep my phone from shaking as I scan it.
“Perhaps it’s more of a warning.” Dizzy chews the inside of her cheek and twirls a loop of pink hair around her finger.
A video comes up on my screen. In it Rogue hits a man over and over. There’s a darkness in his eyes and the way he holds his jaw is full of anger as he lashes out. The video is on a loop. It takes me a while to realize that. At first it looks like he hit the man many more times than is actually in the short clip.
A clip I’ve already come across while I was obsessed with the video of Rogue kissing that girl. “My mother said he was dangerous.”
“No.” Dizzy’s voice grows louder. “I’m sure there’s an explanation.”
“She sent me the roses.” She found a way to get to me. It was only ever a matter of time. And this card might be worded as a warning, but I have no doubt it’s only the beginning. She waited… probably hoping that Rogue and I would implode on our own, but now that it’s clear that hasn’t happened…
“Your mother would do that?” Dizzy gapes at me.
“My mother…” I don’t know why I keep referring to her like the woman has a maternal bone in her body. “Nicole will always do what is in Nicole’s best interest.”
I have no idea why making me miserable is in her best interest. Unless it’s simply that she enjoys it.
“I am so sorry. That must be hard.” Dizzy sits next to me. “I guess I was lucky. My mom was the kind of mom who baked cookies, and read us bedtime stories, and as we got older gave good advice. There wasn’t a thing she wouldn’t do for us.”
“Was? Did you lose her?” Her mom sounds like everything I wish Nicole had been, but there’s a nostalgic tone to her words that make me wonder.
“I hate to think about it,” Dizzy says. “I usually tell people that she’s back in Phoenix. She is… just not the way they imagine.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine.” She glances away with a shrug and when she turns back the sadness is gone from her expression. “So are you going to tell Rogue about the card?”
“I have to.” I’m so done with allowing secrets to cause us pain.
“You’re a braver woman than I,” Dizzy says. “If it were me...if I showed that card to West, he wouldn’t hesitate to go after Nicole. He would be hell-bent on protecting me even if that meant putting her in the ground.”
“West? That’s your brother? The therapist?” I put the name with the info she gave me in the cafeteria at Sunny. I haven’t met him, but I can see that they share a strong connection. “That’s family, though.”
“Rogue is your family, right? He chose you to be his family,” she says. “I’m sure he would move heaven and earth to take Nicole down for trying to get between you.”
She might have a point. Rogue is always sweet to me and I don’t believe for a second that he would act violently toward me. But that video isn’t fabricated. He assaulted that reporter. Whatever the circumstances behind it were, it’s not a stretch to believe he might handle this warning poorly. Strike Nicole harder. Go further. And then what? She has him locked up? She wins anyway? I can’t let that happen. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
