Chapter 36
CHAPTER 36
THE TRUTH HURTS, DOESN’T IT?
Blair
This can’t be happening right now.
I feel the color drain from my face the moment we turned to see the car skidding to a stop in the middle of the road. Because I would know that car anywhere. Not only does it not belong in this town, but it belongs to the man who drove me to leave the city in the first place.
So what the hell is he doing here now?
“Hi, babe.” Theodore smirks.
It’s a devilish smirk plastered on his face, like he’s proud of the fact that he tracked me down.
“You lost the right to call me that a long time ago,” I snap back.
He shakes his head, and his grin only grows. He takes a few steps in my direction, and I want to back away. I don’t want this man near me. But I stay rooted where my feet are planted because I’m not the same person I was when I left. I’m stronger now and him being here doesn’t change that.
I feel Griffin’s eyes locked on me, but I refuse to face him.
Not that I don’t want to.
I just don’t want to see the pain written across his features .
“What is this?” Griffin asks. “Why is he here, Blair?”
I wince at hearing my name on his lips. It’s laced with concern, and I don’t blame him. I’ve assured him my past is in the past and that’s where it was intended to stay.
Except, it’s now standing in front of me.
I just had the most explosive moment with Griffin in the barn. One I didn’t expect would happen when he brought me out here, but it did. I had every intention of using this day to tell him that I plan on staying. Hell, the words were getting ready to leave my mouth. Lily told me it’s what I need to tell him to really allow him to open up to me.
But has he opened up to me already?
He told me he’s mine, and that I own him.
He told me so many claiming words back in the barn. Words that made me eager to tell him everything, including how I truly felt about him.
“Blair,” Griffin says, his tone louder to get my attention.
I turn to face him, and just as I suspected…pain.
“I’m sorry, Griffin. I need?—”
“Don’t,” he cuts me off with a raised hand before giving Theodore a once over. “I’ll give you two a minute.” Then turns back to me, emotions void on his face. “You know where to find me.”
Griffin moves to brush past me. I can’t even find it in me to give him one glance because it hurts that he’s probably thinking the worst. His knuckles brush mine at my side as he moves, and in the last second, he hooks a pinky finger with mine. So quick that if I moved, I would have missed it.
And then he’s gone.
Leaving me alone with my ex-husband.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I bite out, stomping toward him.
He shrugs. “I heard you packed your bags and moved out here.”
“How? ”
“I hired a private investigator, babe.”
“Don’t call me that,” I say through gritted teeth, pointing a finger in his face before turning around. Bringing my fingertips to my temple, I rub the ache away and will my heart rate to slow down.
Wait, did he just say he hired a private investigator?
I would have known. I would have noticed someone?—
The man who’s weirded me out on multiple occasions and no one seemed to know who he was. How could I be so stupid?
I spin around with narrow eyes facing him. “Why did you track me down?”
He reaches a hand out to rest it on my shoulder, but I shrug it away, not wanting his hands on me in any way, shape, or form.
“After you left, I thought I’d be over us. I thought I could move on, but I couldn’t,” he says. “I needed to find you to tell you how much I love you and that I’m sorry for how things ended.”
“Sorry will never be enough for what you did,” I say. “You didn’t lie to me about taking out the trash, Theodore. This isn’t something small I can ever forgive. You were sleeping with your secretary,” I practically shout, anger bubbling up again. “I was justified in leaving you.”
“I need you, Blair,” he says in a begging tone. “I want to run for office again, but I can’t do it without you.”
“So that’s what this is all about? You hired a private investigator and drove sixteen hours to beg me to come back so you can run for office again?” I can’t hold back the laugh as the words roll off my tongue.
He can’t be serious right now .
Since the moment I first drove away from San Francisco to come here, I always wondered about what it would be like to run into the man standing before me again. I put him so far in the rearview mirror that I thought it would be easy to see him.
But it’s even worse.
It’s hard because I have to tell him to his face that I don’t want that. I want no part of being with him ever again. Now I have to tell him I don’t miss him and that I’ve moved on.
I knew before I left that I moved on.
I knew before I left that I deserve better than that life.
“Yes,” he finally answers. “I need you.”
“Have you ever stopped to think about what I need? Better yet, what I needed for years when we were still married?”
My words ring in the air as I watch him standing there in silence.
“You never once thought about what I needed,” I continue. “I realized so much after I walked away from you. I was molded into nothing more than a trophy for you to display. Nothing more than someone to show off so it looked like you were fit for office. And that’s why you came out here again. You need to look fit for office to run again because it looks better on a campaign ticket when the person running is married.”
“That’s not the only reason,” he cuts me off.
“I’ve moved on,” I keep going, ignoring his lies as I make my way to stand directly in front of him. “I’m sure you thought I wouldn’t, but I did. I’ve picked up every broken piece you shattered,” I say, poking at his chest and fighting back emotions, knowing I can’t let him see me fall apart. “I put myself back together again. I’m done hanging onto the past.”
He gestures toward the ranch where Griffin went to give us some time. “Is that who helped you move on? Are you with him now?”
I stare at him in shock that he just asked that.
Contrary to what he assumes, Griffin isn’t the one who picked up my broken heart. I did that all on my own before stepping foot in Bluestone Lakes. The last step for me was getting out of dodge and making a life for myself that I could be proud of.
Falling for Griffin wasn’t in that plan.
Falling for Griffin happened when I least expected it .
I’m not about to admit that to my ex right now to set fuel to the fire.
“He’s just a friend,” I lie.
Theodore scoffs. “He didn’t look like just a friend. I saw the way he needed to touch you when he left us alone here. Dumb ass. For even leaving you alone with me. You’ll always be mine.”
I narrow my eyes and feel a smoke cloud forming over my head. Theodore doesn’t deserve his heart handled with care at this point.
“You know you miss me,” he says, not giving me a chance to respond. All the while bringing himself closer to me and successfully placing both hands on my shoulders to hold me in place. “Stop trying to play the victim here, Blair.”
And I hate my name from his mouth .
I look deep into his eyes, trying to find the man I fell in love with all those years ago hidden somewhere in the irises. But it’s long gone. It was gone years before I left.
“Not a single piece of my heart misses you,” I admit without even a single blink of an eye. He doesn’t move, and I don’t push him off me even though his touch burns me. But not the good burn. “I didn’t know then what I know now, and I deserve better. I have better. You might have been the one to put the ring on my finger, but those vows meant nothing to you. The same way your apologies and begging to take me back mean nothing to me right now.”
I expect my words to force him to remove his hands from me, but they don’t. He stares at me with such intensity. Hoping I’ll change my mind or that I don’t mean what I’m saying.
“You and me…we were never right,” I continue. “When I’m in his arms, it feels the way it should. It feels safe, and it feels right.”
He steps back, removing his hands from me and averting his gaze from the dirt around his feet.
“The truth hurts, doesn’t it?” I add.
He looks up at me again, emotions in his eyes, but I will not let them affect me. Deep down I know the emotions don’t stem from the love he has for me; it’s the love he has for the office and his job. The future he won’t have because I will never go back to him.
“You don’t want this, babe. You know it. Don’t listen to what other people have been feeding into your head. They are just telling you this because they don’t like me. But you love me.”
I rear back as if I’ve been hit.
Not physically, but definitely mentally.
Has—Is this what it’s been like all long, but I was too blind to see it? Has he always played this narcissistic and manipulative game on me? I want to rage and blow up on him right now. But what good is it going to do with a man like this standing in front of me?
“Theodore,” I say with a sigh. “All I ever wanted was to be loved by you, and you crushed me. You destroyed me. If the tables were turned, and you saw what I did that day in your office, I’m betting you would feel the same way…” I pause, watching his face as he winces. No doubt understanding that he would feel the same way. “I have too much pride in myself to let that happen again. What you did to me never deserves a second chance.”
“So that’s it? I drove out here for nothing?”
I nod, feeling the energy shift between us.
I know he’s angry at everything I just said, he’s ready to turn the tables and make this my fault some more.
“You wasted your time. Go home,” I say quickly, not giving him the opportunity to throw more manipulation my way.
I turn around to make my way back to the barn, unsure if Griffin is even still here. Did he leave with Storm to go back out for a ride?
“You’re going to regret this,” he shouts from behind me.
I cross the arch leading to the ranch entrance, stopping my feet. I inhale a deep breath as I look up to the sky, silently praying he gets back in his car and goes home .
When I open my eyes, I read the words Barlow Ranch . Directly under it are small words I didn’t notice until right now.
The best view comes after the hardest climb.
I suck in a sharp breath. The words mean more now than ever before. The words carved in the wood as if they weren’t originally there. As if it was a thought someone had after the sign was already in place.
Griffin.
I turn around, grinning from ear to ear.
“Not a chance in hell,” I respond to his jab. “You’re going to regret the things you did for the rest of your life, Theodore. As for me, I’m going to live. Happily, in the bliss of knowing you lost the one thing you need to thrive in your job, and the one thing you will never get back.”
Turning on my heel, I start jogging toward the barn. I make it halfway without another look back when Theodore’s words stop me in my tracks.
“Fuck you, whore.”