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“I’m just asking for your forgiveness, Juniper. Don’t you think after all of the years we have invested that we owe it to each other to let go of the past?” he asks.
I didn’t plan on it. One minute I’m doing my best to hold on and the next it’s like a floodgate is opened and all of my pain and shame pours through it. My voice rises, as my anger takes over. “How dare you think you can come here and lecture me on forgiveness, Greg. You don’t get to do that to me. You expect me to just say hey, it’s okay! I forgive you for fuckingyearsof hell and torment. You’re older than me. I was eighteen, but I was a kid just the same. You played on my weaknesses, on the holes that my mother took pleasure in forming and nurturing. You took all of the ugly in my past and you made it worse. Hell, you twisted me more inside than my mother ever thought about doing.”
“Juniper, you need to calm down. You’re making a scene,” Greg says, using that tone I always hated. The one that said he was talking to an ignorant small child. God, I was such a fool.
“Guess what, Greg? I don’t give a damn,” I tell him standing up. “It’s taken me years to get back on my feet, and I was happy, finally fucking happy! I had a great guy, I had a bar I loved, and I let some fucking phone calls and an accident at the bar freak me out and push it all away. Do you know why I did that, Greg? Do you?”
“I can see this was a mistake. There never was a way to talk to you when you got in these moods, Juniper. I’ll call you tomorrow,” he says, standing up. There was a time that the censure in his voice, the anger in his eyes, and that look of disappointment on his face would be enough to quiet me, make me feel ashamed.
“You won’t,” I hiss. “You won’t call me. I let you intimidate me for way too long, Greg. You don’t get to do that again. You actually thought I would forgive you? You did more than hurt me physically, youcrushedme mentally and emotionally. You brainwashed me until I was scared to breathe without your approval!” I literally scream that last part. I have no idea who is around. My world has narrowed down to just Greg, and I want to lash out at him. I want him to feel the pain and impotence that he made me feel. For once, I want him to be the one embarrassed and ashamed.
“That’s enough, Juniper. I’m only here to offer you an apology and extend a helping hand. I got Ryker to agree to play here to help the reopening of your bar. You’re too blinded by hate and anger, but I’m trying to help you.”
“A benefit…” I let my mind go over what he just said and none of it is good. None of it. “How do you know about my bar, Greg?”
“You spent a fortune of my money on the place, Juniper. Did you forget that I was the source of that income? Did you think I wouldn’t know what it was spent on?”
“I spentmymoney. That trust was my hush money, Greg. Something paid to protect your reputation and career. Didyouforget that?”
“Obviously, you’re not concerned with my reputation now,” he says, but I don’t let him derail me. I shake my head back and forth refusing to let him take me away from my original point.
“How did you know about my bar reopening? I haven’t touched what’s left of the money for that. There’s no way you could have known—not unless you’ve been checking into me.”
“There’s no talking to you like this, Juniper. You’re seeing things where there’s nothing to see. If you decide you want my help, you have my number,” he says getting up, but I move in front of him, blocking him. One hand is still in a fist, but the other dives down in my purse to pull out my stun gun.
“It was you, wasn’t it? You’re the one making the phone calls and hanging up. It’s you.”
“Same old Juniper. I thought after all this time we could conduct ourselves like grownups, but apparently that’s not going to happen. I haven’t been calling you. I haven’t done anything to you. I never have.”
“My hospital records wouldn’t agree with that, you bastard.”
“Records only show the injury, not how they got there and we both know you set me up. I was hoping this would go a different way, Juniper, but I can tell you haven’t changed.”
“Wrong.” I yell. “I have changed and you’re not going to intimidate me anymore!” I scream.
“Junie?”
My gaze darts beside me to see Ben standing there, dressed in his uniform, reaching out a hand, his eyes kind.
“He’s not going to hurt me anymore,” I tell Ben, my attention going back to Greg.
“Officer—”
“Junie, Baby, give me your weapon.”
I look at him not comprehending what he is saying until I look at my hand.
“It’s him, Ben. He’s the one that’s been calling me,” I tell him, my voice breaking because whatever surge of anger I had is leaving, and now I just want to crumple to the floor. I can’t because I don’t want Greg to see me, but God, my knees are weak.
“I have no—”
“Mister, I don’t know you, but I already don’t like you. I advise you to shut the fuck up before this situation gets a lot worse,” Ben says, cuttingly.
“It’s not even a real gun. I fail to see—”
“If Junie feels threatened by you, her stun gun will be the least of your worries,” Ben says, his voice cold—but unlike Greg’s, his voice doesn’t scare me. I see Greg’s mouth snap shut, and that vein in his jaw is twitching so fast that I have to wonder if he’s not having a stroke.
“Ben, I think he caused the fire at the bar,” I whisper, and Greg laughs, but I can see the monster in his eyes. He’s alive and breathing behind the facade that Greg is using to hide behind. He’s really good at hiding the monster he truly is.
