He pauses. “What?” I can see the guilt all over his face.
“Oh, please. I know you and Melody were a thing. She cheated on you with your own brother in hopes of landing herself the heir of the family. I know she’s money but not enough. She needs someone like your brother to make her the top of society. You were clearly crushed. And your conniving mother decided it might help us end our relationship a little sooner if Melody came back into your life to remind you of the good old days. If you can’t see all that, then you are far less intelligent than I had given you credit for.”
He looks like I’ve kicked him in the balls, but I don’t let it end there. “You think I don’t see the song and dance at this palace? I see it just fine. You lie about me because I’m not good enough. My years of military service aren’t enough for your family. So I have to pretend to be a doctor. Well, fuck you, and fuck your family. Defending my country means more to me than either of your PhDs do. I know you’re smarter than I am with books and science and all the other things people deem important, but I am smart enough to see you are happy with me. You and I are happy people. I didn’t even know there was this other side to you, because I don’t think this is who you are. This guy, I fucking hate this guy. And I know I can’t ever be the girl you need me to be. I can’t have kids; thanks for letting your mother rub her need for grandkids in my face. Benjamin Dashiell—stupidest name ever!” I turn and storm out the door, not even waiting for the entirety of my hateful words to hit. I’m in the car, speeding down the driveway, before I realize what I’ve said and done. And all without proof. The very thing I work to find in every case I work. I have assumed every bad thing about him.
But it isn’t as if he denied any of it.
I curl up and let the driver whisk me away to the airport as I message for a flight to be booked in my name. I am so cliché I almost wish I’d left a shoe behind.
14. You forgot that you still love me
His fur smells exactly the way I remember it smelling. I curl around him, kissing his soft head. He’s a ticking time bomb, and I’m going to be scratched any moment. But I don’t care. I just need a hug from a safe person. When the microwave dings, letting me know that Mrs. Starling’s pasta primavera is done, I kiss once more and jump up for my carb-filled feast. I love eating my feelings.
The doorbell rings as I touch the microwave. I sigh and walk to the door, assuming it’ll be Angie and she’ll want to share my dinner and listen to me go on and on like a regular girl about Dash and the fucking mess in the South.
I open the door, jumping back a bit when I see Dash holding my purse. “You forgot this.”
“Keep the damn thing.” I close the door in his face. It’s been three days since I left him in Virginia, and if I get a say in the rest of the evening, I can wait another three days before I have to see him again.
Instead he opens the door with his own key and walks in. I turn away and grab my meal from the microwave and slump with it at the table.
“Jane, we have to talk. You actually left this on my pillow and came back to DC? You really broke off our engagement over my brother lying, and my mother conniving, and Melody being the money-grubbing bitch she was when I was in twelfth grade? I was head boy at school, all because I was a Townshend. And she wanted the title of being my girlfriend. Then when we broke up, I discovered she and my brother had been sleeping together for a long time. He saw how ridiculous she was then, and he sees it now. She wants him to marry her. And she is under the misapprehension that catching my eye and making me like her again might get her back in with my brother since he always wants what I have. Like having everything else isn’t enough.”
I clap my hands slowly. “Bravo. That’s the meanest I have ever heard you be.”
“Oh, screw off, Jane. I’m not a simpleton, and I’m not some polite ass everyone can take advantage of. It just took me a bit longer than you to see their scheme. But you naturally go in skeptical, so what do you expect? Of course you’re going to find the worst in them, you were looking for it.”
“It’s self-preservation.” I take a steamy bite, burning my lips a little. “I don’t actually care about your family at all. That was a fiasco, and the fact you led me down there under false pretenses and let me be humiliated makes me pissed at you, not them.”
He sits across from me, taking my plate and my fork and getting himself a bite of cheesy pasta. “You care. You and I love each other.”
I shake my head. “You fed me to the wolves. I never would have done that to you. You made up so many lies I honestly doubted my being in my own body. I thought for sure I was mind riding. No one’s life is that silly.”