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“What happened?” Ryder asked before their mother could add anything to that.
“I got a headache one day at work. It got worse, so I went home. Jolena was working from there that day. I let myself in and found her in bed with the neighbors.”
“Neighbors?” his mother said, her eyes flaring with anger.
“Husband and wife,” Sawyer said, remembering the feeling again of walking into their bedroom and finding the three of them in his bed.
“Christ,” J.D. whispered.
“She told me to join them. I told her to get the fuck out of my apartment.”
“I’m going to kill her if ever I meet her,” his mother said.
“What happened then?” Ryder asked. “Because clearly there is more.”
“I told her I was going out and she had two hours to pack her stuff and leave,” Sawyer said, back there in his apartment. “When I got back, she was still there. Naked and watching TV. She asked me if I’d cooled down now and had grown up.”
“I said nothing. I just started packing her shit. She yelled at me while I did it. I called for a cab and told her she could leave naked or with clothes on. She jumped on my back and started attacking me.”
He remembered it vividly. Her rage, the punches and insults she’d thrown at him. Sawyer had wrestled her off him and held her down. He’d told her she needed to leave, and if she didn’t, he’d throw her out. Thankfully, she had.
“She went and took her things, but that wasn’t the end. She spread it about at work that I’d broken up with her and she’d found me in bed with someone.”
“Bitch,” J.D. hissed.
“Nick and some others believed me, but it was uncomfortable, so I started working from my apartment.”
“She broke in one day while I was out and ransacked the place. Two guys followed me home one night after I’d gone out to a game and beat me up, and I’m pretty sure she was behind that too. That’s how I broke my arm.”
“That bitch!” J.D. raged. “Why didn’t you tell me? I could have helped!”
“I didn’t want her to go after anyone close to me. I got a restraining order on her and then I had a visit from her mom.”
“She told me the family had been happy when Jolena moved in with me. She was stable, and along with taking her meds, she seemed to have gone back to the girl she’d been before her breakdown.”
“Were you aware of this breakdown?” his mother demanded.
Sawyer shook his head. “I didn’t know about her meds either. Jolena’s mom said her daughter told her she’d been open with me about everything, from the schizophrenia to her medication.”
“Well hell.” Ryder whistled.
“Apparently she’d been good for years, but me telling her we were done changed all that. The night after her mom’s visit, Jolena started a fire in my apartment. That was when I talked to Nick. We both decided the startup was going well enough for me to leave LA. I came home.”
“My poor baby.” His mother came around the counter and wrapped him in a hug. “I’m so mad at you for not telling us, but her I want to give a piece of my mind to!”
“Thanks, Mom. To start, I was nervous she’d follow. I’d given her mom my number, and she called to tell me Jolena was getting help in a facility and wouldn’t cause me any more trouble.”
“You should have told us, bro,” Ryder said, now upright clutching his head. “Should have let us help you.”
“How? You weren’t in LA, and I didn’t want you in her sights. It was better this way. I packed up one day and left the next. She had no idea. Nick told everyone I had gone to London as we were looking at expanding there.”
“Why the tattoo, bro?” Ryder asked. “Surely there were some signs?”
“Nothing. We were good until that night. I fell hard for the first time in my life. She said she’d always wanted her name on a man’s arm. The day after she said yes to marrying me, I got J.D. to put it on there.”
“Love.” Ryder sighed. “Makes idiots out of all of us.”
“Amen,” J.D. said. “I tried to talk him out of it.”
