The Man I Thought I Trusted - E. L. Todd Page 0,72
with you?”
He shook his head.
“Then I’ll help you.”
Charlie didn’t decline the offer, and together, we went into my bedroom and placed her clothes into boxes. We worked in silence, packing up her entire essence like she’d never been there in the first place.
I finished one box and set it on the edge of my bed. “How is she?”
Charlie dropped her beauty products into a box, and they thudded when they hit the hard surface below. “She’s fine.”
“Fine like me, or actually fine?”
He shrugged. “It’s a tie.”
At least I wasn’t alone in my sorrow.
She’d left her engagement ring on my coffee table, and I hadn’t touched it. What the hell was I supposed to do with it? Put it in my nightstand? Every time I looked at it, it would just hurt. I wanted her to take it back, because it was a gift that showed my love, which was eternal. But she never would. “You think there’s any chance for us?”
He lifted the box then carried it to the edge of the bed, rarely making eye contact with me, like he wanted to keep me at a physical and emotional distance. “No.”
“Look, my sister was the one in charge of all that—”
“I’m not part of this, Dax. She made her decision, and I understand why she made that decision.”
Her best friend wasn’t on my side, and now I really had no chance. “But I went to you first and asked for your advice. You know I never wanted to do that prenup in the first place. You know that.”
“Yes, I do know that.”
“Then tell her,” I snapped.
He picked up the box but then decided to put it back down because this conversation couldn’t be prevented. “Everything that happened before and after that meeting is moot. She walked into a room with a shit-ton of lawyers and got her ass handed to her. That was how you decided to start that marriage. That’s the dividing line.”
I shook my head. “That’s not how I decided to start it, okay? I didn’t want it to be that way.”
“Blame it on your sister all you want, but all you had to do was move to the other side of that table. But you didn’t. You act like that money means nothing to you, but you’re full of shit. You know you are.”
“I’m not full of shit. The money has brought me nothing but misery and only made me lonely. What I do care about is my family’s legacy, for the work and dedication of my father and his father. If I didn’t try to protect that, what kind of man would I be? It’s easy for your guys to see it the way you do because you have no idea what it’s like.”
He picked up the box then gave me a long, cold stare. “And you have no idea what it’s like to be sitting across that table, to be pushed around because you only have a few dollars to your name.” He turned to walk out. “To be treated like shit by yet another rich person…”
I watched him go and felt the concrete slab land in my stomach.
Charlie carried the boxes outside then returned a few minutes later.
I had the ring in my hand and extended it to him. “Give this back to her.”
He eyed it but didn’t take it. “She gave it back to you because she doesn’t want it.”
“It was a gift. She can sell it if she wants—”
“Trust me, she wants nothing to do with it.” He turned away and kept walking.
I squeezed the ring in my fist as I sighed deeply. Then I opened a random drawer in the kitchen I never used and dropped it inside since I would hardly ever see it there. Then I grabbed another box and helped Charlie carry it downstairs, where Matt was organizing things in the back.
Matt stilled when he saw me. “Hey, Dax.” He hopped out of the van and landed on the sidewalk.
“Hey, man.” We didn’t greet each other with a handshake like we used to. “How are you?”
He shrugged. “Times are weird right now.”
Charlie walked back inside to get more boxes, like he wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.
I thought I might get more information out of Matt. “How is she?”
He slid his hands into his front pockets and gave a shrug. “You know, throwing herself back into work like usual.”
I knew exactly how she was, choosing to mask her pain by working crazy hours