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She turned to me sharply, eyes burning with fury. “Stop acting like an idiot,” she snapped. “You are many things Julian like annoying and stubborn, but you are not dumb so stop acting like it.” She took a deep breath. “For nearly four years I waited. I thought you were in mourning, and I wanted to respect that. I waited by your side until you were finally ready. I fucking waited for you. Do you know what that cost me?”
“Yes,” I acknowledged. “And for that I’m grateful….let me finish. I am grateful that you stood by me when my company was collapsing, and because of your father’s money which I took to help rebuild everything, I am grateful. I promised I would hold up my end of the deal, and I will. But I need time.”
“I gave you my entire heart Julian not just my brain!”
“Gia was gone for five years!”
“Is that what you call her now? Gia? She is no longer Rylie?” she scoffed. “After what happened five years ago, she is just going to walk in now and take control of everything again with another name like it makes everything okay?” She came closer to where I stood, until she stood inches away from my face. “If you don’t remember, let me refresh your memory! She took our company and ran it into the ground!”
“I know what she did.”
“And then she disappears for five years, and you are going to take her back like that? Just like that?” her voice quivered. “Tell me, what is this thing I hear that she came back without your son, and without her memories, is that true?”
“It is none of your business.”
“I am making it mine. After all, I own some percentage of your company, and her coming back might affect that. Oh, and also because we’re getting married soon.”
“It is a contract, Marissa.”
She let out a bitter laugh. Why was she being this way?
“You no longer call it marriage, but a contract? I wouldn’t expect anything less from the man who might have funded TheWonder Project. By the way, you are very welcome.” She smiled coldly and stepped into the car.
“What did you just say?”
“Ask Dylan, I think you two go a long way back.”
She started her car, backed up, and sped off. I felt sorry for her because she was a dear friend who might just have loved me a little too much. I had nothing to offer other than a broken heart, and an absent mind.
I took a taxi home.
All the while at the back of the taxi, looking outside, my thoughts danced around in my head, a voice in my head telling me I had failed. At Boy’s Ville, they made us believe that our existence was our fault, and nobody would love us. I thought I had gotten past all that but maybe I was still broken and damaged. I was not capable of loving Marissa the way she needed, neither was I able to keep Gia or Rylie. Whatever I was supposed to call her.
As I stepped out of the taxi in my driveway, Orson and Drummer both hurried over. I held up my hand to silence them. I just wanted to be left alone.
Opening the front door, Juanita’s cooking hit my nostrils and I paused to inhale the comforting aroma. When I opened my eyes, she was sitting on the stairs. Her light brown hair was in disarray, and she looked tired.
When I moved toward the stairs, she stood and stretched out her arm.
“Julian I…”
“Leave,” I bit out through clenched teeth. “You want to leave, then fucking leave!”
“I-”
Whatever her excuses were, I did not want to hear them. I brushed past her and started climbing the stairs.
Halfway up Orson came through the front door, and I turned, “I don’t want any interruptions. I’ll let you know when that changes.”
I felt her eyes on me as I went upstairs to my room. As soon as I closed the door, I locked it then peeled off all my clothes and left them in a pile on the floor. I turned on the shower and waited for it to heat up while cursing to myself.
