Chapter 23
Ariana
It’s been two weeks since I came home from the hospital. I still haven’t spoken to Eric. When Dad said Eric didn’t want to stay, I was in shock. How could that be? But he assured me that Eric had left. Kimberly said she had checked and everyone from my work had decided not to stay. I don’t trust Kimberly, but I’m not sure why Dad would lie. I was in so much pain that first week. And they didn’t release me from the hospital for a few days. I don’t remember much from week one or two. Dad hired nurses for around-the-clock care. I start physical therapy in another two weeks.
I just want Eric. I’ve cried myself to sleep every night since I came home. I don’t want to be here. I just want to be back on the farm. And I hate that with my leg like this, I have zero independence. Just when I was starting to feel like I could do anything, I suddenly find myself unable to do a single task alone.
I stare at my ceiling as my phone buzzes. Katia has been calling nonstop, but I don’t want to hear her lecture me about falling for Eric or being stupid with farm equipment. I know I need to go get my things and wrap up my work. I wonder how the grand re-opening went. I didn’t even have the heart to check our social media page. It’s probably not even up to date since no one else there knows the passwords except Eric and he certainly never posts on there.
I look at my nightstand and am greeted by the letter I received last week in the mail. It’s for my medical leave from the farm. Apparently, I have very good health insurance and benefits. Even Dad was a bit surprised by this. Although he covered my entire bill saying he wasn’t going to let some nobody’s insurance pay for it. I swear, only my dad would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket completely out of spite.
The letter said I could take off as long as needed and to contact Joy when I was ready to return to work. It was all very formal, and I cried when I read it. Eric didn’t even sign it, it was his e-signature, which makes it even worse. I’ve texted him twice and received no reply. I’ve started to text him again a hundred different times, but I can’t bring myself to hit send. I’m too hurt and too proud. I thought he loved me. Why won’t he reply? Did I imagine the entire thing? Was I so na?ve that I didn’t even see we weren’t a real couple?
My leg itches and I want to rip this cast off. I get it changed to a soft cast in a few days. I can hardly wait. At least then I won’t have the weight of this giant brick on me. It’s hot, itchy, and gross.
I’m drifting off to sleep for the third time today when my door flies open.
“Wake up, beotch!” Katia yells as she steps into my room. My head turns and Katia’s eyes widen as she surveys the damage that is my leg.
“Fuck! That looks bad,” she mutters as she walks to the bed.
I throw my arm over my eyes. “Tell me something I don’t already know,” I mumble.
“That’s it. No more pity party. We are getting you out of here. It’s jailbreak time,” she declares.
I glare at her. “Uh, first of all, I can barely move, this cast weighs a ton, and second, where the hell are we going to go? My dad basically has me on lockdown,” I protest.
“When do you get this cement block off?” she asks as she taps it with one of her long fake nails.
“Hopefully, in three more days,” I grumble.
“Hmmmm…well, we’ll just have to make the most of it until then,” she says as she sits down on the edge of my bed. Her face goes from happy to a little sad. “How are you, like, for real?”
My eyes well with tears. “Not good,” I admit.
“Oh, Ari-bear-y. I’m so sorry,” she whispers as she pulls me up into a hug. I cry for a good five minutes before she pulls my head away from her chest. “Tell me everything. I’m ordering us sushi. You shouldn’t drink, but I’m getting sake.”
She pulls out her phone and taps the screen a few times. “It’ll be here in thirty-five minutes. Now, spill it.”
I press the remote so the head of my bed rises. I look at Katia and then back at my hands. “He doesn’t love me,” I start, feeling the tears well again. And then I spend the next three hours telling her everything, every little detail that I can recall, including my dad yelling at me for, like, two days about lying to him. But clearly, he’s not too mad at Katia because she’s here and not blocked from the penthouse. She listens, not interjecting except for a few questions, which is very un-Katia-like. And when I finish, I lean back, popping the last bite of salmon sushi in my mouth.
“Wow. Just…wow,” she says. “First of all, Kimberly needs to go. She totally told your dad and the fact that she knew about the farm is super sketchy. We need to figure out a plan of action there. Two, there’s no way Eric just stopped loving you. He was totally falling for you one second, saving your life and shit, and then he ghosts you? That doesn’t add up.” She pauses as I consider what she’s said.
“So what do we do?” I ask.
She smirks. “We’re going to get you out of this”—she knocks lightly on my cast—“and then, we’re going to fix this mess. I’ll admit, I like you better here in the city where we can hang out, but I like you even better when youre happy, and you were so happy there, Ari. It was like Ari two point oh, and we need to find her again. But first thing is first, we are most definitely getting you a shower because you reek. I don’t know what shit helper your dad hired, but they are not earning their keep.”
I roll my eyes. “I can’t get this leg wet. That’s what reeks,” I explain.
“Ewww. Seriously?” she asks as she pulls her hand away from my leg as if it’s diseased.
“Well, nursing definitely isn’t in your future,” I mutter with a glare.
She grimaces. “Nope. Definitely not for me.” She looks at my hair. “At least let me wash that mop on your head.”
“Fine,” I mutter.
“Great. We can start scheming about how to fix everything else,” she says excitedly. She claps her hands. “This is just like the good old days.”
It’s my turn to grimace because our college plans never seemed to go right.
* * *
Katia’s been camping out here for three days. We’ve binged countless episodes of our favorite shows. We’ve video-chatted with our college friends. She’s told me all about this guy she met while sailing around the Mediterranean. Kimberly has been surprisingly absent until today.
I just got back from getting my cast off and I’m dying to take a proper bath. I still have to use the wheelchair, but at least my leg isn’t the weight of a concrete pillar.
“Your father wants to see you,” Kimberly says as she stands in my doorway.
Katia looks her up and down. “How’s it feel?” she asks.
Kimberly frowns, clearly not understanding. Oh shit. Katia is about to call her ass out.
I hold up a hand, stopping Katia. Katia freezes and looks at me because this has never happened before, but I’m a changed woman. I can stand up for myself.
“Why’d you tell my father where I was?” I ask her, crossing my arms and giving her my best pointed look.
“Because he was worried sick and he has a right to know where you’re at,” she says deadpan. Oh, she’s good.
“Then why the veiled threat before you left for your trip?” I ask.
She shrugs. “I was merely giving you a little time to wrap up your charity farmer project. I was being nice.”
I roll my eyes. Kimberly doesn’t have a nice bone in her body.
“Right,” I state sarcastically.
“Believe what you want, Ariana,” she huffs and walks away, leaving Katia fuming.
“That bitch is up to something!” Katia stews.
“I know. Like I told you, she called with that threat. I just don’t get it,” I state.
“Let’s get you soaking in the tub. Where’s that nurse?” Like clockwork, a woman named Diedre walks in and looks at me.
“Ready for that bath?” she asks.
I nod.
“Great. I’m gonna go snoop,” Katia says.
“Katia, be careful. You’re not exactly Nancy Drew, more like Scooby Doo,” I state.
“Whatever. She’s up to something. I’m going to figure out what. Stay here and take a bath,” she adds as she waltzes out of the room, leaving Diedre to help me to my bathroom.
A few minutes later, I’m soaking in a tub and it feels like the most amazing thing ever. Diedre has given me some privacy. I’m leaning back on my bath pillow with my hair piled high on my head. I glance down and see my bright red scar. With the stitches gone, it looks bad. What would Eric think of me now? I’m…hideous.
It’s like the accident stole my physical beauty and Kimberly’s antics stole my internal beauty. I feel dead inside.
“Holy fucking shit,” Katia’s voice comes from the doorway, drawing my attention away from the scarred flesh that doesn’t resemble the leg I used to have.
“What?” I ask.
She stares at my scar. “That shit is intense. Oh well, at least it’s above your skirt line, so unless you’re in a bikini, no one will see it…well…almost no one. Anyhoo, look what I found?” she squeals as she flips her phone around.
I frown, trying to read the print.
“What the hell is that?” I ask.
“Your father is rewriting his will,” she says.
“I’m sorry, what?” I question as I try to sit up in the tub.
“So, I was just…snooping around…and I hear your dad talking to some guy about rewriting his will and the guy asks if he’s going to marry Kimberly and your dad is all like, probably, and he’s like, so you’re redoing the will, and your dad is like, yeah. Then the guy asks if he’s going to need a prenup and your father is like, I don’t know.”
I frown. “Wait, my father isn’t sure he wants a prenup? Is he crazy? That’s totally not like him.”
“I know, right? So then I maybe waited until your dad was showing the guy out and I snuck into his office,” she says with a wink.
My eyes widen. “Katia, Dad would kill you if he found you in there.”
She rolls her eyes. “Whatever. He’s such a fucking amateur. He had this on his screen. So I poked around. Kimberly is a C-U-N-T. She’s been emailing him about you and all this bad stuff you do, which is total fucking lies. She’s always telling him how much she loves him and what can she do to help him. It’s like she’s figured out that your dad is a total narcissist and all she has to do is pump up his ego and he’s like putty in her hands. She’s trying to get you out of the will so she’s his sole heir. And there’s something hella suspicious about the farm where you worked. It’s like she’s the one suggesting he buy it as some kind of gift to her.”
My mind wanders back to when she suggested I find a job and then mentioned something about the farm.
“I’m an idiot,” I state dryly as I fill Katia in on the conversation that started this whole debacle.
She listens while sitting on the edge of my tub, and when I finish, she sighs. “This woman is a fucking bitch! What a terrible human!”
I nod, suddenly feeling angry, really angry. This is all Kimberly’s fault. Well, except Eric, I’m glad I met him, even if everything we had is over. I wouldn’t change that, at all.
“We have to get her to show her true colors and figure out what the hell is going on with the farm,” I state.
“How?” Katia asks.
“That’s what we’re going to figure out tonight. New plan, take Kimberly down,” I declare.
“What about…you know…everything else?” she asks.
I purse my lips as I consider her question. “Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone,” I begin with a smirk.
Katia grins like the cat who swallowed the canary. “Oh, do tell,” she whispers conspiratorially.