Chapter 35 Audra #2
When I woke up, I was alone. Sunlight was streaming through the window, and the sun seemed higher in the sky than it should have been.
I glanced at my clock, and it was 10:15 a.m. Holy shit.
I didn’t hear his alarm or hear him getting ready, any of it.
I had no messages from Donovan, but there was another note on my bedside table.
Good morning, Beautiful Chaos. I had to go to work, and you looked too comfortable sleeping to wake up.
Remember that Anna, my cleaning lady, comes at noon.
Feel free to stay and do whatever you want to, but if you go, please just let someone know where you’re going and preferably have a buddy with you.
Last night was unequivocally the best night I’ve had in Savannah Springs.
Thank you for the rainy swim. Today, I will arrange for the glass at your home to be fixed so it will look good as new when we get back from New York.
Clutching the note to my chest, I openly swooned.
This freaking man. I tidied the room and went to look for my phone to text him.
When I found it in the kitchen, the girls’ group text was out of control at a record fifty-two messages and twenty-three missed calls.
The gist of it was that Maeve heard about the bricks through the glass from Noelle, who heard it from a cop who went in for morning coffee at Savvy Sips, and knew Noelle and I were friends.
Thank you, small town. The barrage of texts stopped with a final text from Maeve.
Maeve
The single only reason I’m stopping texting you right now is because Donovan walked into the office and confirmed it happened, but said you slept there last night.
I had a hunch he might know where you were.
But you better fucking conference us when you get up.
Bricks through your window are kind of an emergency, an ANY time-of-day PHONE CALL MINIMUM.
Audra
‘Sorry about not texting, guys. I was pretty shaken up last night.’
A stream of texts flooded my phone, ranging from concern to rage to curiosity about my current sleeping arrangements.
I handled those and moved on to the voice messages.
The police called and said I could go back to my house.
Jules was back in Havenswood, and Maeve was working, so I called Cora.
I probably would have called her anyway, just because she was a little more level-headed than my two other friends.
She agreed to grab me from Donovan’s and brought me home.
Pulling up to my house brought on some powerful emotions that I was able to forget about with the distraction that Donovan provided.
I felt so violated and angry that Theo was making me feel this way in my own home and my town.
And as Cora held my hand as we walked up the steps to my porch, I lost it when I saw the wood boarding it up.
She squeezed my shoulder and ushered me inside.
“This isn’t fair, Audra. He has no right to be doing this,” Cora stated.
“I hate him for everything. What did I ever see in him?”
“Girl. Giiiiiiirl. I hear you.” Cora had had some bad luck on the man front recently.
She had been engaged to a jerk who cheated on her while using a dating app and got someone pregnant.
He called off the wedding a week before it was supposed to happen.
Then she came back here, and she and Maverick fell for each other immediately, but then he just up and left for California.
“We’ve had some winners, eh?” She rolled her eyes.
“I’m actually scared, Cora. Like, the things he’s done recently?
He just keeps escalating. I don’t know what to do.
I know I’m not supposed to go places solo, but now I can’t even be in my home?
Did he think I was here when he did this?
What was his goal? For me to run out so he could what?
Kidnap me? I was looking at stuff online on how to deal with a stalker and I have to change my entire freaking life around to accommodate this sick fuck.
I’m so angry, scared, frustrated, all the things.
And HE brOKE UP WITH ME,” I shouted without thinking …
like something inside me had finally cracked open.
“I FUCKING HATE HIM FOR SCREWING ME OVER YEARS AGO, FOR INSINUATING I WOULD BE HIS MISTRESS, FOR STRINGING ME ALONG FOR AS LONG AS HE DID, FOR TELLING ME I WASN’T THE RIGHT PEDIGREE, AND FOR NOW DOING ALL THIS BECAUSE HE REALIZED I WAS MOVING ON WITH SOMEONE.
SOMEONE I AM MESSING EVERYTHING UP WITH.
CAN YOU BELIEVE I CAN’T FULLY COMMIT TO THIS FANTASTIC MAN BECAUSE OF HOW BADLY FOUR STUPID FUCKING WORDS MESSED ME UP?
” My face was red and I had to wipe the spit off my chin.
I put my hand on my throat at my outburst, and my body shook with rage.
Cora didn’t flinch and pulled me into her body. “I fucking hate that I ever met him.”
“Oh, Audra, I could kill him for you. The apartment below me is available if you need a place he can’t easily access you. You can stay there or even with me in mine.”
I appreciated the offer, but I would never put her in a spot to bring harm to her. If I moved there, word would be around town within days, and it would open up the possibility of him doing something to her.
“Thanks, Cora. I appreciate it so much, but I can’t move to your middle apartment. And I don’t even know what else to say about this whole thing, you know? I’m sorry for that outburst. There’s nothing more.”
She just held me for a couple of minutes in silence as I calmed myself down. There was so much anger coursing through my body, but I didn’t want to keep talking about fucking Theo..
“Ok, lady,” she pulled back out of the hug and smoothed my hair.
“We are going to figure this out. It might not happen before your windows are fixed, but we’ll figure out a way to make this end for you.
I just have to brainstorm … and maybe ask my brother.
Though if I ask him about it, he might just remedy the issue immediately,” she laughed as she said it.
It made me smile, too. I bet Easton Clarke would address it real damn quick.
“As for now, do you want to keep telling me more about what’s been going on? ” she suggested carefully.
“Not really. At least until after I sort through a few more things in my head. I’m just so angry, Cora. But I’d rather not talk about that. Can we find something else?”
She smirked as if she’d been waiting for her opportunity to ask. “Perfect. Oh, hey. What do you know? I already have a question for you. Spill on the Donovan details?”
“God, I can’t imagine how that man is not running for the hills.
Do you know he has been there for me at every turn since things turned to shit?
Like it’s unreal how he just unintentionally shows up when I need him.
Except last night. Last night I called him after the bricks, because I was so scared.
I could tell you it’s because he was closest, but the real reason is that he is just the person who popped into my mind first. It’s been drama after drama, and he’s just there, hugging me, telling me he’s arranging for the glass to be fixed, kissing me in mind-altering ways, distracting me, making me laugh, comforting me. He’s amazing.”
“Audra, that is the sweetest. I’m so glad he’s here. And who knew that Sir Donovan was going to be that person? All I’ve ever heard about was how indifferent and aloof he was. That doesn’t seem to be the case with you.”
“He’s incredible, Cora. Under that exterior, he’s nothing like we all thought. And I hate talking to you about this, given your situation right now.” Maverick leaving was still very raw for her.
“Please. Don’t even think twice. So, what’s the holdup here? This sounds like a pretty great thing?” Cora probed
“Because he’s wealthier than Theo. Theo couldn’t marry me because I wasn’t the right pedigree to wed. If I was not the right pedigree”—I sneered and made a face as I said that word—“for Theo, there’s no way I am right for Donovan.”
Cora held her hand up in the air. “I’m going to stop you right there.
And I say this with love, so make sure you take it that way, but that is such a colossal load of bullshit, Audra.
Can I remind you that’s why Maverick left me in the dust?
Because of our financial differences, he didn’t feel worthy enough for me.
The hardest part of that was that he never once discussed any of that with me.
He never let me in on that conversation.
So I wasn’t even given the opportunity to tell him I didn’t care about any of that, or to explain myself at all.
Don’t do that to Donovan. Don’t take him out of the discussion of your future if it’s a future you want to pursue.
Plus, I’d like to interject that you know I never talk about my family’s wealth, but in this situation, I’m going to.
The Clarke’s wealth far exceeds Theo’s, and not once, like ever, has there been a statement or even an insinuation of marrying for business or status.
Not in my family nor any of our family friends.
I honestly thought that was an urban legend until everything went down with you and him. ”
“But what if there is, Cora? I can’t give my heart to him for years, and then, when it comes time to marry, have him reject me like Theo did. I would die.”
“Of course you can’t. But he’s already 28, and I think he is doing ok, right?
I mean, the thing with Theo was wrapped up in the trust, right?
His parents told him he wouldn’t get it if he married you.
I don’t think that’s the same for Donovan.
I mean, I know little about his family at all except they’re in New York and they’ve never been here.
Have you told him about your fears? Does he know what Theo did? ”
“I haven’t told him the details of why of why we broke up.”