Chapter 18
I started dating my first boyfriend in sixth grade.
By dating, I mean I waved at him in the hallway and ran away while my friends teased me mercilessly. I think we maybe had four conversations in total, not a single one lasting longer than three minutes, and still, when we broke up after eight days, I thought the world was over.
I didn’t get my next boyfriend until my sophomore year of high school.
That relationship lasted six months and covered the span of two school dances.
Pictures of me with my back pressed to Jayden’s front while wearing glittery dresses I found in the juniors’ department at Macy’s were still framed in my grandma’s house before I sold it.
There was one more high school boyfriend, one college boyfriend (in between countless situationships), and a few relationships that ventured pretty far beyond their dating app origins.
All that is to say that while I might be new to Celestial, I’m not new to this particular rodeo.
Outside of being a very vulnerable and emotional prepubescent girl, I’m pretty chill when it comes to dating.
My therapist said I created walls to prevent myself from ending up like my mom.
She might not have been completely off the mark, but when it really came down to it, there was always too much going on in my own life to ever understand the appeal or find the time to chase a man.
Plus, I couldn’t live with myself if I was the reason behind a mediocre man gaining even an ounce of audacity.
They don’t call me a girl’s girl for nothing.
Not even in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would engage in groupie behavior, but if it somehow came down to that, I thought it’d be kind of glamorous.
Maybe I’d follow a band across the country or camp out in a fancy bar near whatever professional sports team was rolling through town.
I’d think it would’ve been anything other than camping out in the empty parking lot behind a high school stadium in a small Texas town.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Millie and Ciara left before the game officially ended, but long after it was over.
The final score was something like seventy-something to three.
It got so painful to watch that by the third quarter, all our starters were sitting on the sideline and I was almost cheering for the other team.
They couldn’t make it into the end zone, but at least it wasn’t a shutout.
Not that I would dare say that to the Celestial fans.
The bright streetlights illuminate the cups and wrappers littering the parking lot that cleared out almost an hour ago. I’ve told myself to go home approximately a million times, yet here I sit, alone in a parking lot left with nothing but my thoughts and bad decisions.
I know I shouldn’t, but I swipe open my phone and pull up my emails again.
Most of them are spam and reminders of the shopping carts I’ve left hanging—sorry to be a tease, Pottery Barn, but I’m never going to complete the checkout—but there’s one subject line that stands out above the rest: YOU CAN’T IGNORE ME FOREVER!
At least you can’t say my uncle is discreet.
I usually hit delete and go on with my day.
He spent my entire life ignoring my existence, and it seems only fair that I return the favor.
But lately, something has changed. His efforts to contact me are not only becoming more frequent, but there’s been a shift in the intensity that doesn’t just make me curious, it makes me nervous.
And even though I’m tempted to send it to the trash where it belongs, not knowing is going to make it worse.
So I do the last thing I want and open it instead.
From: Jack Brady
Subject: YOU CAN’T IGNORE ME FOREVER!
Luna,
As I’m sure you’re aware, I have been trying to get in touch with you for months. I know you are your mother’s daughter and I shouldn’t be disappointed, but for some reason I can’t explain, I expected better of you.
Not only did you steal my house, I’ve found out that you somehow managed to be the lone recipient of all the bank accounts she had, including the money she inherited from my dad.
A man you never met and who would’ve been just as disgusted by your mother’s relationship as I was.
I’m sure he’s rolling around in his grave knowing his only son is struggling while some little girl he never met is out blowing his hard-earned money.
As you know, elder abuse is a very serious allegation and the authorities take matters like this very seriously.
Your mother took advantage of my mom’s kindness for years.
She drained her physically, emotionally, and then you swooped in and drained her financially.
You are both leeches who have to steal from others because you’re incapable of building anything for yourself.
You manipulated my mom into thinking I was the bad guy and then tricked her into trusting you, but you can’t trick me.
I know you’re going ignore this email like you’ve ignored the rest, but if you were smart, you’d see that I’m giving you a favor that you don’t deserve.
My lawyers tell me I have an airtight case against you, but I’m offering you the chance to handle this now and out of court.
The faster you resolve this, the faster I can go back to pretending you don’t exist.
You have one more opportunity to give me what’s mine, but please know my patience is beginning to run thin. If I don’t hear back from you soon, this is going to get real ugly. And trust me when I tell you, you don’t want that.
You know how to reach me.
Jack
By the time I get to the end of his bonkers fucking email, my hands are shaking so hard, I almost drop my phone.
But it’s not from the fear I know he intended; it’s out of pure, unadulterated rage.
This little man, who my grandma removed from her life years ago, has the gall to think he can harass me into handing over money he has no right to have?
Absolutely the fuck not.
I don’t need to know Jack to know he’s a bully.
He thinks I’m the same sad girl who called him crying all those months ago.
He doesn’t know that I do home repairs and ride horses or that I’ve found a community who welcomed me in and caught the attention of the most fascinating man I’ve ever met. He doesn’t know I’m not the one.
But he’s about to find out.
I hit reply and my fingers fly across my phone before my brain can catch up.
From: Luna Starr
Subject: Re: YOU CAN’T IGNORE ME FOREVER!
Jack,
I was trying to take the high road by ignoring your ridiculous, bordering on harassing emails, but now that I see you have mistaken silence for something else, it’s time to clear things up once and for all.
When my grandma, your mother, was sick and in and out of the hospital with one problem after the other, how often did you go visit her?
How many times did you even bother to call her on the phone?
Maybe even send her one of these emails you seem so fond of writing?
When she was alive? Where the fuck were you?
I don’t know where you were, but I know you weren’t ever by her side because I was.
She has been gone for almost four years now.
If you ever thought you were entitled to anything of hers, the time to come forward was years ago.
I can only assume you didn’t because you knew my mom, the same sister whose funeral you didn’t even attend, would have laughed in your face for even trying.
My grandma was the purest, most wonderful soul I’ve ever known.
She taught me everything I know about not being a nice person, but a kind one.
She showed me what it meant to be there for others and love people even when it’s hard.
She also didn’t allow anyone to treat her or the people she loved like shit.
Which, I can imagine, is why she wanted absolutely nothing to do with you.
It’s also probably why, in all the legal documents she signed, she made me, not you, the sole recipient of everything she left behind.
I can’t help but think that the reason she did that is because I would give it all away if it meant more time with her and you would throw her to the wolves if you thought you could make a penny.
You were right when you said this could get ugly.
I would hate for all the people you know to discover what a terrible person you are and how after neglecting your sick mother for years, you’re now harassing the niece you cut out of your life because I’m Black.
Call me a leech if you want, but you’re the true parasite here.
You know how to reach me, but please, for your sake, don’t.
Wishing you the life you deserve,
Luna
I hit send before I can think better of it.
The soft swoosh confirming the email was delivered sounds more like a bomb inside my car, which is fitting considering I’m pretty sure I just declared war.
Realization of what I’ve done starts to set.
My stomach turns and my pulse speeds up, but it’s anticipation, not regret, rising beneath my skin.
I’ve spent my entire life running from confrontation only to realize at the grand old age of thirty I might love it…
just not enough to hear from Jack again.
Before he even has a chance to respond, I scroll through my phone and block his email and his phone number.
May he never know peace again.