Chapter 46
Alex
When I get homethat night, Harper’s sitting on the couch waiting for me. She looks like she’s been crying, blotchy red cheeks, swollen lids. She worries her lip in between her teeth. Her face is solemn, like she’s preparing herself for something and when her eyes finally meet mine, I know something is seriously wrong.
“What? What happened?” I drop my bags and cross the room to sit next to her.
She wraps her hand around mine as soon as I sit, and I feel all the tension snap tight in my body. My mind is whirring with possibilities.
“I need you to promise me that no matter what I say, you’re going to stay calm. That you’re not going to react or lose your temper.”
“Based on the way you look right now; I don’t think I can promise that.”
“Alex, please…” she pleads with me, her eyes watery like she might cry again. “I debated not telling you at all, but I can’t do that to you. I need you to understand why I’m leaving, okay?”
“Leaving?” My heart bottoms out to my stomach as I stare at her.
“I have to, but I’m going to explain. I just need you not to react, okay?”
I look around and suddenly realize that her bags are already packed. I don’t know when she had time since we normally get back around the same time from work. She must have left early, and now suddenly I’m wondering if she was going to leave without saying anything.
“Were you going to leave without telling me?” I blink through a clawing sensation in my throat. It can’t be tears. I can’t be crying. My eyes have watered a few times over injuries in the last few years, but I can’t remember the last time I cried over something emotional. I’ve been fortunate that way. I think that luck is about to wear out.
“No. I wouldn’t do that to you. You’ve been too good to me. I would never hurt you like that.”
“But you’d hurt me like this, I’m guessing, since you’ve been crying.”
“Please, promise me so I can tell you. I know you won’t break a promise, so I need that from you then I can tell you what’s going on. I’ve sat here for an hour trying to weigh my conscience on this—whether it’s worse to not tell you the truth or tell you and risk you getting pissed and hurting someone.”
“Hurting someone?”
I try to put the pieces together. The fact that she’s packed up and ready to leave. That she doesn’t want to tell me the truth about why. That she thinks I’d hurt someone over it. It can only mean one fucking thing. The one thing my heart can’t take.
“Are you going back to Drew?” I ask bluntly, and she flinches when I say his name.
“Promise me.”
“Fucking Christ. You can’t be serious, Harper. You cannot fucking be serious about going back to him. After everything?” I pull my hand back from hers and stand.
“Alex…”
“Fine. I fucking promise. I won’t hurt him. Now tell me why the fuck in a million years you would do that.”
She takes a breath, like that promise has satisfied something. I hope I can keep it. I think she has a lot more faith in me than I have in myself when it comes to holding true to that.
“Drew came to my work today. He texted first really, but I blocked him, so he showed up. He’s making a lot of threats if I don’t call things off with you.”
“What threats?” I immediately feel my heart race, the blood in my veins turning up to a simmer. He shouldn’t be going anywhere near her, let alone threatening her.
“This is where you need to stay calm. I’m almost positive he’s betting on me telling you, so that he can use that against you too. So please Alex, I’m trusting you here to believe me that we’re going to figure this out a different way, okay?”
I nod but don’t speak because I don’t have words. I can feel the anger rising, just knowing he’s threatened her. That he couldn’t leave well enough alone and let her have her life finally, after all the time she’d wasted on him.
“He has the pictures from the incident. The ones he took the next day at his office. Your injuries and mine. He’s planning to release them and say that I was cheating on him with you. That I decided to leave you and go back to him, which sent you into a rage where you hit me.”
I stare at the floor, trying to process the insanity of that statement.
“And then you what? Made our relationship public for fun?”
“He’s going to claim you blackmailed him and me. That you threatened his job by taking your business and going to his other clients if he spoke out. That you made me pretend to be your girlfriend to smooth things over, and that you promised to help me save the museum with your political influence.”
“Wow. He put a lot of fucking thought into this.”
My heart is going a mile a minute in my chest, and I want to put my fist through something, preferably his face. But I’m willing myself to stay calm for her. I know she’s right. If I react after this story he concocted, I play right into his hands.
“I imagine it’s all he’s been thinking of for the last few days. I knew he was upset when he saw me here, after he suspected when we were at the old house. But he’s on a war path now, Alex. He even threatened the museum.”
“The museum?” I ask, wondering how the fuck he could do that. Why he would do that.
“His father’s on the board. His father assured me he still remains happy to serve and that the personal side of our lives doesn’t matter when it comes to the work we need to do. But if Drew tells him a story… some bullshit about how we blackmailed him? His father won’t play nice. He can play just as rough as your father, if not worse.”
“He’s one board member. What could he possibly do?” I look at her confused. “The rest of the board wouldn’t let him fire you or do anything stupid. They’d have to see his conflict of interest.”
“They couldn’t stop him from going to the press, concocting his own story right before the vote. It would mean all our hard work is down the drain.”
“Fuck…” I run a hand through my hair. Staring at the rug on floor. Wishing I had answers instead of shock and confusion.
“Right. So… this is what I mean. I have to go, at least for now.”
“Where are you going to go? Back to that empty shell of a house? You were worried about him having the key here. He owns that whole fucking house, Saint. I won’t be there to protect you.” I feel sick thinking about it. “No way. You’ll stay here. We’ll figure something out together.”
“I’m going to stay with Violet and Ben. They have a guest room open and I’m going to stay there. He just wanted me out of your place. He didn’t make any other stipulations. I’ll be safe with them. Their drive is gated. They have that elaborate security system after that fan tried to break in. I’ll be okay there. Violet and I already discussed it.”
“How’s he even going to verify where you are? Stalk your every move?”
“I don’t know. But I don’t want to try him right now. I just want to pretend like I’m doing what he asks.”
“And what’s his end game with all of this? Keep us apart?”
“He wants me to give him another chance.”
I let out a sardonic laugh. “And he can’t fucking get you to do that unless he threatens to destroy everything you care about. That stupid motherfucker…” I crack my knuckles. I want to destroy him right now. Everything he cares about. His agency. That fucking ridiculous mid-life crisis condo he bought. Sue him for every last penny he’s worth and hand it all over to her. The alimony she should have taken from him. A black eye or two would do him good.
“Alex…” I hear the wary tone in her voice. I know she’s going to want to talk me down. Tell me to think clearly and not act on impulse. I know she’s right before she even speaks. But I can’t help how much I want to make him pay for even thinking he can hurt her like this.
“He should get his face bashed in. A few broken ribs wouldn’t hurt either. Something that forces him to have some time to reflect.” I start pacing the living room. “How does he think this works long term anyway? He’ll just hold it over your head forever? Once the levy’s passed he’s got nothing on that front.”
“He knows what I could have guessed. What I assume you know—if it comes out you lied about all of this, even if it’s the real truth that comes out about me not being your girlfriend when you hit Daniels, management is likely still going to be furious with you. If this story comes out and they believe it? You’re done.”
“They’ll get over it.”
“They’ll get over having a player infamous for abusing women, cheating, and threatening their husbands? With a history of a hair-trigger temper—hitting his teammates and bad behavior on and off the field? They’ll defend you when public opinion gets louder and louder?”
My heart sinks in my chest because she’s right. I’ve set myself up to be framed for this. People should know me better, especially people who know me well. But not everyone does or cares to.
“We can show them the truth about those pictures.”
“But who will they believe? Him or us?”
“You can tell them the truth.”
“They’ll say I don’t know myself. That I’ll say whatever I have to in order to protect you. They’ll do the same with your friends who would otherwise be able to call him a liar.” She gives me a sad regretful look, and I hate seeing it.
“We’ll get people to listen to the truth.”
“Maybe. But how long will it take? Because at a certain point, no one cares anymore.”
She’s right and the thought hits me hard. By the time we get through the initial outrage he’ll cause, even if we can get people to believe our story is the real one, it’ll be so late the damage will already be done.
“So what, he just fucking wins? You’re just going to start seeing him again?” I feel sick at the thought of losing her a second time. I can’t do it.
“I don’t know. I’m hoping there’s a way out of this. Like I said, I already talked to Violet a bit when I asked to come to stay with her. She said we’d figure out a way, and I hope so. I really do. We’ve got a week before he said he’d do anything. He gave me that much time to move out and break things off.”
“And what am I supposed to do?”
“Make it look like you’re moving on with your life I guess.”
She looks lost, and I sit down next to her, kissing her forehead before I sit back.
“There’s got to be another way. I can’t just watch you walk out the door knowing he’s threatening you, and just sit here and do nothing.”
“I don’t know, Alex. I really don’t. But I can’t… I can’t watch you go down like that. I can’t watch everyone at the museum lose everything they’ve worked so hard for because of me. I can’t do it.” Tears start to form in her eyes again and I feel guilty that I’m part of the reason.
“I know, Saint. I know.” I grab her hand and hold it in mine.
“So I guess this is goodbye for now,” she says quietly, squeezing my hand like I’m the one who needs reassurance.
“We’ll figure something out.”
“But if we don’t… I can’t let it go any other way. You know that, right?” There’s a resolution in her voice, and I can’t blame her for it.
“I know. I understand.” I kiss the back of her hand. “We’ll figure it out though.”
“And please, keep your promise? I know what you must be feeling with him threatening us this way, but you not taking the bait is key to us figuring out another solution. I don’t want to worry about you.”
“I promise you, Saint. I won’t.” It pains me to agree to it, but I don’t want to add to her stress.
“Thank you.” She kisses me and then looks at her luggage. “I should go sit in the lobby. Violet’s coming to pick me up shortly.”
“Okay. But if you need anything. You tell me. You can call me anytime. Middle of the night. When I’m on the road. I don’t care, okay?”
“Okay.” She nods. I can tell she’s trying hard not to cry and it’s ripping my heart out.
“I’ll miss you. Be safe, Saint.” I wrap my arms around her.
“You too.” She whispers the words and I can hear the tears in her voice as she presses her face to my chest.
I take my promise to her seriously. So I might not be able to bash his face in, but I would make sure that he hurts for this. Make sure that he can never fucking make her cry again. This would be the last fucking time.