Page 131 of Finally Mine
“If I didn’t hurt her now, imagine how much worse it would be a year from now.”
“She loves you!”
Lola, unhappy with the shouting, stuffed her head under the bed.
“I’m damaged. You don’t love something damaged. You try to fix it. But I can’t be fixed,” Luke snapped. “After Karen… There’s no recovering from something like that. No getting back to normal.”
“Is that why you didn’t tell her about Karen?” Gloria demanded, zipping the bag shut.
“I was selfish. I tried to pretend that I wasn’t this scarred, broken person. Harper brightens every room she walks into, and I fell for that…for a while. But I can’t love her. Not the way a normal man can.”
“Just because you’re damaged doesn’t mean you can’t live happily ever after.” Gloria’s lip was trembling, and she didn’t know why.
“That’s exactly what it means. It means I’m not capable of loving her the way she needs me to. I had to let her go so she can find that with someone who can.”
“That’s bullshit,” Gloria said, fighting back tears that had snuck up on her. “You’re making excuses for being a chickenshit.” She pushed past him, hauling the bag with her into the hallway.
“What is it with women calling me a chickenshit?”
“Get used to it!” she called over her shoulder.
“Just…wait!” he started down the stairs after her. “Is she okay? Is she safe?”
“What do you care?” Gloria demanded, rounding on him at the foot of the stairs.
“Just because I’m a monster doesn’t mean I don’t care.”
“She’s safe, no thanks to you.”
“She needs money. Let me give you—”
“Harper doesn’t need your guilty payout. She’s got friends who love her.” And with that, Gloria slammed the door in his face. She didn’t want to let his words dig their barbs into her. Didn’t want to let them damage what she was building with Aldo. But, God. What if Luke was right?
She pushed the ugly doubt away and hurried down the walk.
Back in her car, she saw Aldo was calling again. She hit ‘Ignore’ and dialed Sophie instead.
“Joni called. Harper is with her. And I just broke into your brother’s house, stole a bunch of Harper’s stuff, and called him a chickenshit.”
“Do I need to send Ty over to deal with the body?”
74
Gloria trudged through Aldo’s front door. She stopped short, avoiding Ivan’s mad streak in front of her, a toy mouse half his size bouncing in his mouth.
It had been a long, ugly day. It started around 4 a.m. with a nightmare that hadn’t plagued her in weeks. Glenn chasing her. She was in a dark, unfamiliar house, and every door she tried was locked. She’d terrified herself awake and had been unable to get back to sleep. Her therapist had warned that there would be setbacks along the way. But after months of happiness, of a consistent sense of security, Harper and Luke’s breakup and the ensuing nightmare left her feeling queasy and unsettled.
So she’d gone into work early and promptly screwed up an order that may or may not have ruined a bridal shower. She rounded out the day with a visit to see Harper.
“I’ve had my arm and ribs broken in foster care,” Harper had said. “This hurts more.”
Seeing her friend gaunt and pale with circles the size of hubcaps under her eyes had been her undoing. Gloria had cried in her car for twenty minutes before making the short drive to Aldo’s house. It hadn’t been the cleansing tears that arrived unprovoked in the early weeks after leaving Glenn.No, this was grief.
“Hey, Glo! I know declawing is inhumane, but what about detoothing?” Aldo called from the kitchen.
She was supposed to laugh but didn’t have it in her. She didn’t have anything in her.
With a feeling of detachment, she glanced around the living room. They’d been progressing without her really noticing it. Painting her color choice on the walls, stocking the kitchen with her favorite cookware, rearranging the dining room furniture.
