Page 35 of Paths

With no other option, I cross the room to my only piece of furniture—the recliner I bought when I first moved here with Crew. After I sit, I pull her into my lap. “Now we can talk.”

She’s stiff and awkwardly tries to push away from me. “What are you doing?”

“This is the only place I have to sit besides folding chairs that are on their last leg. Or my bed.” I give her a squeeze. “If you’d rather go upstairs and climb in bed with me, we can talk there.”

“You’re crazy, and now I have to worry about what Addy thinks of me.” She sighs before putting her fingers to her forehead and temples, shaking her head. “Addy’s been so good to me, I don’t want her to think I’m a drama queen who can’t show up for work.”

“Don’t worry about Addy.” I try and make her feel better, and pull her hands away from her face. “Tell me about Weston.”

She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth, and sighs before giving me a resigned look. “We were engaged for three years.”

I feel my eyes go big. “That’s a long engagement. What, could he not close the deal?”

She shakes her head, and I’m surprised I don’t have to work harder to get her to talk. “He pressed a little bit, but it was me who wouldn’t close the deal. I kept putting things off—wedding plans, coordinators,” she rolls her eyes, emphasizing, “my mother. When the date started getting close, I’d push it out.”

“Why?”

“I met Weston when I was sixteen and he was eighteen. He was my first … everything.”

I do my best not to respond to that, but it’s hard. The thought of him being her anything pisses me off, let alone everything.

She keeps going. “It was young love on crack, and up until about four or five years ago, things were fine. That’s when he started to change. As much as I tried to pull away, I always got pulled or pushed right back to him. Either by him or our families.”

“Your family tried to force you on a man you didn’t want?” That’s jacked. I could barely stand to see my sister, Raine, get married, let alone think about forcing her into anything.

“It’s complicated.” She pulls in a big breath and looks away from me to her hands. “Our families are complicated.”

That’s interesting. “Okay, then what?”

She shrugs and looks up to me. “Like I said, things were fine until about four or five years ago. He slowly started to change. He became controlling—domineering. It started when I was in college, he didn’t want me to go into physical therapy, he thought it was beneath me having to treat other people. After I graduated, he tried to keep me from working, saying I needed to focus on planning the wedding, move up the date, and once we were married, I wouldn’t need to work anyway. But I kept putting off the date, even pushing it back three times, much to the dismay of him and everyone around us.”

“What finally happened?”

“He’d get angry, but he always got over it pretty quickly and later on I found out why. Apparently, I wasn’t enough. I mean, it wasn’t like I made him wait for marriage, but still.” She looks up at me, widens her eyes and shrugs.

I have a feeling I know what that means and something comes over me. Rage. I’m surprised I haven’t burst out of my clothes like the Hulk. I’m overwhelmed by it, knowing what he probably did to her. I force myself to relax my expression and give her thigh a squeeze, hoping we can get past this shit fast.

Giving her head a little shake, she keeps going. “Anyway, I had to stop by his house one day and he was in the shower. There was a cell I didn’t recognize sitting in the kitchen next to his. It went off three times in a row, so while I was waiting on him, I went over to look. The message on the screen said three new pictures were sent from the same person. I probably shouldn’t have, but the phone wasn’t locked, so I did. I opened the messages, and while standing right there in my fiancé’s kitchen, my life came into focus. As I scrolled through, there were all kinds of pictures of a naked woman.” She closes her eyes and shudders from the memory. “Then there were more sent back to her, and since I’d been with him since I was almost eighteen, I knew exactly who the dick pics were of.”

My rage instantly turns into jealousy, and that’s even harder to overcome.

I pull her closer, tucking her tight into my lap, and this time she doesn’t push away, but she does bring her hands up to my chest. It’s easy to see she still hurts so I lower my voice. “This is what he meant when he said you were getting back at him with me?”

She shakes her head quickly, but her words conflict with her actions. “Yes, but I’m not. I’d never do that, not that we’ve done anything, anyway. I still feel bad about last night, but when you showed up, I didn’t know what else to do. I needed to get rid of him.”

“I told you not to worry about it.” I give her a small smile, wanting to make her feel better, but also tell her the truth. “Plus, it wasn’t a hardship on my part. Not to mention, from now until forever, I get to tell the world you made the first move.”

She shakes her head while trying to suppress a small smile.

“What?” I smirk back. “It’s true and I’ll shout it from the rooftops. Now, finish your story.”

She sighs, but keeps going. “That all happened a while ago. The months following, he was intent on winning me back. He wouldn’t take no for an answer, even though every time my answer was always no. My mom started to pressure me even when she knew what he did. I was messing up her big plans for the Augustines and MacLachlans to become one. She’s best friends with Weston’s mom. When his family started pressuring me—that’s when it freaked me out, because their pressuring came in the form of threats. Even though it killed me to not have any contact with my brother since we’re so close, things transpired and I couldn’t take it. I left months ago, moved around for a while before I finally settled here.”

“They threatened you?”

This time she doesn’t say a thing, closing her eyes and giving her head two slow shakes, as if to try not to think about it.

“Maya,” I call for her. She opens her eyes and I attempt to tell her some of the truth about what I do. “I told you Crew and I work in security, right?”

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