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“I don’t think so, Rhence,” he replies. “The woman’s furious, and she has every right to be. If you hope to have any chance of reconciling, you’ve got to give her space to heal. I don’t know which one of you pulled the bigger mind fuck on Rachel, you, her mom or yours. Maybe all three of you played a part.”
I close my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose. “She’s got to forgive me. If it takes the rest of my life, I’ll make her see that we belong together. I was just too blinded by my own pride and insecurities to see it.”
“I hope so, man. I really do.”
Chapter nineteen
Rachel
Threemonthsafterthetraumatizing events of the Paris trip, I’m feeling stronger and ready to take on the world without all the toxic emotional baggage that I’ve carried around for the last ten years.
I finally have most of my answers, at least to the ones that kept me up at night wondering what I’d done wrong to make Rhence leave me.
The only thing I did wrong was fall in love with someone who thought so little of himself that he chose to believe that his girlfriend would say such heinous, awful things about him. And then let those words eat him up, filling him with pure bitterness for a decade, only to unleash on me at his first opportunity.
I’m done. I’m over it and ready to restart my life. The one good thing that came out of the acquisition was the awarding of the $10 million golden parachute. It’s the seed money I’ll use to build a company from scratch.
I want a fresh start in a new city where no old ghosts from the past are lurking. I need a city with a strong economy and emerging financial services industry. I have chosen Houston, Texas and will relocate there at the end of the month.
Regarding Rhence Dalton, I’ve refused to take any of his calls. Refused to open the door when he came calling. I don’t know how to make it any clearer to him, he is dead to me. I wasted enough of my life pining over that man. Hell, I even sent that gorgeous ring from Tiffany’s back to him. Sure, I kept the $10 mill, but that’s business.
One pleasant surprise is that me and Eliza’s friendship survived the aftermath of the breakup. She’s gone out of her way to come see me and be a much needed shoulder to cry on, or just a listening ear.
Strangely enough, she’s starting to sour on Parker. She claims he’s too clingy and that he already wants them to move in together. She really cares for him but doesn't feel they’re ready for that move. This weekend they're going out of town again and I fear she’s going to break up with him.
Poor Parker, the first time he falls so hard, he gets crushed. I’d actually feel sorry for him if he didn’t know all along what Rhence had planned.
I’ve hardly even said two words to my mom for the part she played in this. For the most part communications are handled through my father. He’s been my rock during this whole miserable affair.
And now I’m on my way to Eliza’s to look in on Mr. Whiskers. I’m not a cat person, but he is starting to grow on me. This makes about the third time I’ve been called on for this duty. But anything to help out a friend who’s really been there for me these passed few months.
I pull up to her apartment and head up the second floor. I use the key she dropped off at my place on her way out of town. Mr. Whiskers is a beautiful gray Persian cat who immediately greets me at the door, purring and rubbing against my legs.
I check the food dispenser and satisfy myself that he’s getting plenty to eat. I brace myself to deal with the kitty litter. This used to be Rhence’s job, but I grin and bear it.
I finally sit on the sofa and grab one of Mr. Whiskers toys and play with him for a few minutes. He seems disinterested in the ball dangling from the wire. That when I recall that he enjoys the little ball filled with catnip.
Where is it? I search the floor and find it near Eliza’s bedroom sitting on top of table lamp in the hallway.
“Here you go, buddy,” I say as I toss it to him. “I bet you were looking for that, weren’t you boy?”
Mr. Whiskers goes nuts over it. Soon he batting it around the hardwood floors and running after it. I’m laughing so hard, I decide I have to video this crazy cats antics. He’s knocked it clean into Eliza’s bedroom.
“Oh, come on, Mr. Whiskers, let’s play out here.” He doesn’t listen but instead, knocks it into her closet. “Aw man.” I stop the video recording and go to retrieve the catnip ball. He’s still batting away at it pushing it further into the furthest reaches of the walk in closet. “Come on, Mr. Whiskers, you know mommy doesn’t want you playing in here.” Yeah, now I’m talking to cats. This doesn’t bode well for me.
The cat’s laying on it’s belly stretching out its claw trying to reach his toy.
“Alright, scoot back, I’ll get it for you.” I kneel down and reach for it, but no luck. I shove a box aside and two come tumbling down. “Oh, great!” I exclaim, looking at the toppled boxes and the floor covered with photos of…
I look closer. Confused at what I’m seeing, I pick up one after the other of Rhence Dalton. Not as he is now, but from over ten years ago. There are dozens and dozens of pictures of him at high school, at his afterschool job and at the trailer park where he lived. But it’s not just him, I’m in several of them. They’re all candid shots where it’s obvious that we’re unaware our photos are being taken.
What the fuck is Eliza doing with all these pictures of us? Where’d she get them? Did she take them herself?
It’s as if someone were stalking us during the whole time that we were dating. My heart is threatening to pound out of my chest as I sift through what must be hundreds of photos. This is freaking nuts!
And then my heart nearly stops as I come across the photos of me with my eyes scratched out or all sorts of horrible names scribbled angrily across them. Mostly, she just wants me to DIE according to most of what’s written there.
Finally, the last piece of the puzzle slams into place as I come across the pad of paper with my signature written over and over again. She’d been practicing my handwriting, perfecting it to the T. As I expected, I find different versions of the poison letter that was ultimately delivered to Rhence.
