No. The DA isn't going to do shit to me.
Because I'm going to put a stop to it.
I stand up. "This fucking ends now," I tell Joyce. She looks at me for a long second. I think she sees the resolve in my eyes or something because all she does is nod.
"Okay, boss, sure thing," she says with a bit of smile. Is it one of relief? Reassurance? "What do we do then?"
I pause for a second. That's a pretty fucking good question.
"Call a press conference," I tell Joyce. "Make sure the New York Daily Journal has as many seats for as many reporters as they want. I want them front and fucking center."
Joyce nods to me. "Okay," she says as she takes notes. "What should I tell them the conference is about?"
I smile.
Now I can see exactly how I'm going to fucking beat them.
I'm going to wear them the fuck down. Take their questions and throw them right back at them until they realize just how stupid and nonsensical they are.
"Tell them," I say and think for a moment before it comes to me. "Tell them it's about my feelings for my stepdaughter, Penny."
Joyce looks at me with a flash of concern.
I nod to her to tell her that she heard correctly.
She shakes her head as she walks away to go make the arrangements.
She probably thinks I've gone insane.
Maybe I have. Maybe I'm going to fucking explode.
But before I do, I swear to fucking God I'm grabbing some of those motherfuckers and taking them down with me.
32
Penny
God. If I had to describe the last three days without Magnus, I'd probably have to use the word...anguished.
Have you ever loved someone so much that every minute that you're not with them feels like a moment where you'd rather be dead than separated from them?
Where you just want to know where they are in the world so at least knowing makes you feel calmer and safer.
Where you feel happy knowing that they're out there in the world with you?
I think I once read somewhere on Facebook or wherever that love is actually an emotion that arose as an evolutionary step in humans. That we experience love so that we can form family groups and protect each other. So that we can care for our young when they're vulnerable. So we don't run around having sex and then forgetting who we had it with and never taking care of our babies.
I don't know honestly what the answer is. I don't know if I believe in evolution or what.
But I do know that if there is a God on this planet, that he must have created love for just me and Magnus.
That's right, babe. I know you have your significant other. I know that the world doesn't revolve around Magnus and me.
But that's what it feels like. That's what every moment I think of Magnus Davion feels like. That the world was made for me and him. That every touch, every taste, every feeling and every breath were made for each other. That the vast entirety of this world - that all of history - was designed solely so the two of us could enjoy it.
There is no way I will ever leave this man. There is no way I will ever betray him. Every fiber of my body, every atom of my existence, cries out to be next to him.
And you know what?
I know he feels the same way about me.
I know, in my heart of hearts, that this man has reoriented his life to have it revolve around me. I am the sun to his existence.
He doesn't need to tell me.
I don't need to be near him to be able to understand.
I don't need to see him do or say anything.
It's almost as if...as if...
As if it's faith.
You either have it or you don't.
And I have faith in Magnus Davion.
That's why I'm standing outside the Davion Development building in Midtown East this morning as I watch him, dressed in a smart charcoal black Tom Ford suit, walk to the podium and speak into the microphone.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he says and he scans the crowd. I don't know why I inadvertently shrink back.
I didn't tell him that I was going to be here today. In fact I haven't talked to him for the last three days.
I don't know why.
A part of me realized that maybe I should reach out to him. I wanted to.
But he seemed so busy fighting everyone back.
The world is after him. They're not after me.
I know what it is, actually. I think I felt that if I stayed away from him, then this whole thing would blow over.
Don't look at me like that.
It's not guilt that brought me here. I'd be here whether I wanted to or not. Knowing he was going to be putting himself out there in the public for me - for us - there is no way I'd not be here.
And I think that goes for the entire borough of Manhattan too. It seems the steps to Davion Development are just packed with New Yorkers who have decided that they want to see what this press conference is going to bring.
There's a large contingent of reporters here at the press conference. By far the largest contingent is from the New York Daily Journal.