28
28
Liberty
Ozzy came racing back to me with the stick in his mouth. I tried my best to smile for him despite the knot in my chest that had been there since last night, when I’d realized Liam wasn’t coming home. I didn’t have an appetite by that point and wrapped up all the food that I’d made for dinner, then put it in the fridge. I had managed to eat some for lunch today. I’d not wanted anything at breakfast.
My phone dinged, alerting me of a text, and I pulled it out of my pocket, hoping it was Liam with a very good excuse.
Unknown Number: It’s Wallace. You keep blocking me. Until you talk to me, Liberty, I’m going to keep texting you and calling. I’ll get new numbers. I need you to give me a chance. I can fix this. I can fix us. I love you. Please, baby, I am begging you. Talk to me.
I read the text, and my mood plummeted more. He wasn’t going to stop, apparently. He wanted me to talk to him, so I’d respond.
Me: Please stop trying to contact me. I am pregnant. It’s not yours. I had a paternity test done. I’m living with the father. What we had is done. It’s over.
I hit Send. Then went to block the number. That should fix that. Wallace would not keep on pursuing me once he knew I was pregnant. If only Liam wanted to text me as badly as Wallace wanted to.
Ozzy dropped the stick at my feet, and I stuck my phone back in my pocket, then bent down to pat his head, praising him before I picked it up to toss it again. We’d been doing this for thirty minutes, but he didn’t seem to grow tired of it. At least I had him for company. He rarely left my side. Ozzy might be the best relationship I’d ever had. When Liam moved me out after the baby was born, I wondered if he’d let me take Ozzy.
I’d woken up this morning to Ozzy staring at me again as he stood beside my bed. When I had gone to sleep last night, he had lain down on the floor beside my bed. I had told him to go to his bed, but he had just looked at me, then put his head back down on the rug.
When I couldn’t find his food this morning because Liam hadn’t told me where that was, he had gone over to the cabinet it was kept in and barked once. I filled his bowl to the top. There were no directions on how much I was to give him, but since he was massive, I’d figured he required a large portion.
“He’ll keep you out here for hours, throwing that, if you let him,” Liam called out.
I immediately felt joy at the sound of his voice until I remembered he’d been gone since yesterday morning and it was almost time to eat dinner.
“It seems that way,” I replied, barely glancing at him.
If he thought he was going to leave me here like this all the time, then he had another thing coming. I’d go get a job. I needed one anyway. I wasn’t going to just stay here like some kept woman, waiting for her man to give her the time of day.
Ozzy was back with the stick, and he dropped it, then ran over to greet Liam. Traitor. No, that wasn’t fair. Liam was his owner. He loved him and was happy to see him. I would be, too, if he wasn’t a jackass. He could have at least texted me. I had spent three hours on that meal last night, trying to make something he’d enjoy. Silly me had even set the table and put on one of my nice sundresses.
Never again.
I couldn’t stand out in the backyard and pout like a baby. Swallowing my hurt feelings, I headed in their direction as Liam gave Ozzy some love. I was almost there when Ozzy spotted me and left Liam to run back over and stand beside me. I got a tiny sliver of enjoyment from that, but kept my face neutral.
“Car drive okay for you?” he asked. “I see you took it out.”
“I went grocery shopping yesterday with the money you’d left,” I told him. I’d spent most of it on the dinner last night. I needed to take some of my money and go buy healthy items for me to have on hand to eat, but today, I’d been in a funk.
“Good. I hoped you would,” he replied.
I started to walk on past him and go into the house. Unless he wanted to explain where he’d been and why he hadn’t called, then I had nothing more to say.
“How were you yesterday? I thought about calling, but I didn’t know if you wanted to talk or if you just wanted to be alone.”
I paused. Talk about what? Us having sex in his bed and me sleeping in it?
I turned back around to look at him. The serious expression on his face confused me.
“I’m not sure what you are asking me.”
He appeared slightly annoyed by my response. Well, I’d left slightly annoyed behind sometime yesterday evening when he hadn’t shown up.
“Selena called me yesterday.”
Oh. Had he told her about the pregnancy? Had she said she was going to call me?
I shrugged. “Okay, and?”
His expression immediately hardened, and his mouth drew into a tight line. Did he want me to tell her? What was I not getting here?
“The anniversary of your mom’s death ring a bell? Selena was pretty torn up about it. Wanted me to come over so she’d have someone to talk to. That’s not something I can do for her, considering our situation, but I figured you’re her sister, so you’d want to at least talk to her. I was trying to understand why you hadn’t gone to the funeral and give you the benefit of the doubt, but you can see how this makes me judge your character.”
My mom? Had yesterday been Abilene’s death anniversary? I hadn’t cared enough to remember the date. But why had he called that woman my mom? Evil stepmother and my mom were not the same thing. Was he with Selena yesterday? Was that why he hadn’t come home?
He was giving me a disapproving look, like he had a right to judge me. Yet he’d gone to Selena to comfort her and was lying about it.
“I’m sorry, Liam. But seeing as how my mother died on February 15, 1999, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I snapped as pain, anger, betrayal all grew where, for a moment two nights ago, joy had been. But that was always fleeting, wasn’t it?
He narrowed his eyes. “You are aware I dated Selena. She wouldn’t lie about her mother’s death. She doesn’t have a reason to.”
I just stood there and stared at him. Selena wouldn’t lie. But I would? My hands were trembling at my sides, and I fisted them until I could feel my nails digging into my palms.
“Is it because she has an education? Because she’s a doctor? Or maybe because she’s got her own house and a car? She makes a lot of money? Is that why you don’t question anything she’s told you? My being a bartender without a car and anywhere to live makes me a liar? I can see where that makes complete sense, Liam. Did you get a college education to be the president of a motorcycle club and own strip clubs? Tell me, what degree does one get for that?” My voice had gone from a sarcastic snarl to a shout.
Tears burned my eyes, and I refused to cry in front of him. Turning, I ran the rest of the way until I was inside the house and headed up to my bedroom.
I should have stayed in Miami. They liked me there. No one accused me of lying or talked down to me. My chest didn’t feel like someone had punched their fist through it when I was there.
For almost eight years, I had lived in a house where I’d been beaten down, and when I was kicked out the door at eighteen, I’d sworn I’d never let that happen to me again.
Ozzy appeared at my side just as I opened the door to the bedroom, and I sighed, looking down at him. He probably thought we were playing chase. I let him follow me in before I closed the door. The first tear fell, and I let the rest go.
I had refused to cry over Liam ignoring me on a night that I had believed was going to be the beginning of something for us. But this accusation was too much. He had taken my already-wounded feelings and shown me just how much power he had over my emotions.
He had never asked me about my childhood or my parents. My past hadn’t seemed important to him. He thought he knew it all because of the things Selena had told him. He’d had no desire to find out from me. While Country had asked me all about my life, growing up. He knew more about me than the father of my child.
I dropped my head into my hands and let out a small sob.
Ozzy whimpered beside me, but I couldn’t reassure him. I needed to cry.