It’s true. She showed me desire like I’d never felt before. All along it was desire, not love. It was hard to tell the difference when I’d never felt anything that’d rendered me so powerless.
Sophie knew how to bring me to my knees, offering me the world on a silver platter. She held my heart in her teeth for years, breaking me time and again until I finally snapped.
“I didn’t come here to rehash the past with you.” My arms cross. “Came to tell you to stay the fuck away from me, my family, and Odessa.”
She cocks her head, resting it on her hand and sinking back into her overstuffed sofa. “That’s cute. You’re all protective. Never thought I’d see the day.”
“Tell me, Beckham. I get why you’re protective of the baby, but why the girl?” She takes a swill of her drink. “You afraid I’ll tell her the truth about you? About your past and that sick-as-fuck cult you were raised in and how you were used in those rituals where the church elders would fuck you in the ass?”
Her head tosses back. She’s pure fucking evil in a pale pink twin set.
My face pinches, my chest heaving. I charge at her and see a hint of terror in her blue eyes for the first time.
“You stay away from me and my family. You don’t speak of us. You don’t follow us. You don’t so much as fucking think of us. We don’t exist to you. You’re dead to us.” My face is inches from hers. It’s all I can do not to strangle the psychotic bitch. “If I hear you’re bothering Odessa, if I see you anywhere, I swear to God, Sophie, I’ll go straight to your father and tell him the real reason we ended it.”
Her face pales. She’s frozen.
“You and I both know the substance abuse clause your father put in your trust is ironclad. He’ll disown you and disinherit you if he knows you so much as tried a single fucking illegal drug.” I don’t need to remind her. She’s well aware.
She swallows, and I storm out before I do anything stupid. Sophie fucking Glass is not worth it. My priorities have shifted. My concerns lie elsewhere. I don’t want to fight dirty, but when it comes to protecting the only thing that matters to me, I’ll do what I have to and not think twice.
Chapter Thirty-Six
ODESSA
I find an empty park bench in Central Park and finish my pretzel-and-coffee lunch, composing my thoughts before I call my parents. It’s time to tell them about Jeremiah: that it’s officially over.
For good.
My fingers shake as I dial my father’s cell phone. He deserves to hear everything from me now, not secondhand through Mom.
“Hey, baby cakes!” His voice is a whistle, breathless.
“Hey, Dad.” I can’t help but smile when I hear his voice, though it disappears when I remember I’m seconds away from breaking the poor man’s heart.
“Good to hear from you,” he says. “I was getting worried. Everything okay?”
“Yes,” I say. “I’m doing well. Really happy.”
“I saw Jeremiah’s TV show the other day. You didn’t tell us the season started two weeks ago,” he says. “Trying to play catch up with the reruns. It’s a good show. Your mom made his southern fried chicken last night for dinner.”
“Daddy, you’re not supposed to be eating that kind of stuff.”
“Everybody’s going to die someday, right?”
I hate when he downplays his health. Cracking jokes isn’t going to make his chronic illnesses disappear.
“Your mother told me you and Jeremiah were going through a bit of a cooling off period,” he says. Leave it to my mother to put a delicate spin on some heavy news. Two years ago when my brother and his wife were having marital issues, my father damn near had a heart attack when he heard they’d legally separated. “Everything okay?”
I rake my hand along my leg and reposition myself. Attempting to find comfort on a wooden park bench is pretty much impossible.
“I’m sorry,” I begin. “I know you liked him a lot, but I don’t want to marry him anymore. We ended things. For good.”
My face pinches as I wait for his reaction, fingers crossed that this news doesn’t land him in the hospital.
“You still there?” I ask. The raspy breathing on the other end tells me he is, but I need him to say something. Anything.
“Back in high school,” he says. “I dated this girl. Marian Tisdale. She was incredible. Smile like you wouldn’t believe. Captain of the cheerleading squad. Hottest girl in school. We went off to college together, and I thought I was going to spend my life with this girl. I loved her more than anything.”