as he spoke. The speed at which he seemed to sober up was startling. Gone were his slurred words and the sway in his step. I had to wonder if it was just a ploy to lower my guard. It worked. I hadn’t seen him as anything more than a drunken passing threat.
“Everything is fine, officer, just a landlord, and tenant talking through things.”
“Awful late at night for something like that. I don’t think the lady wants you around here right now, landlord or not.” The officer said.
“I don’t want him around here, and he isn’t even my landlord!” I said. “His parents own the property because he won’t release the damn deed to me and I’m getting fed up with it!”
“Now that’s something you’ll need to take up in the courts, but for right now, sir, you need to head on home.”
“I’m not going anywhere, I own this building, well my family does. I have every right to be here.”
“Fine!” I snapped. “Then you can keep the damn building. As a matter of fact, you can rip up my freaking check! I don’t want this place anymore. I don’t want anything to do with it or you. Are you happy now? Tell me how that’s going to go over with your parents.”
“You little bitch,” He hissed. “You don’t have anywhere else to go.”
I glared at him. “I have savings and nothing keeping me here. My lease was up at the end of the month when the deed was supposed to be handed over, so there you go. At the end of the month, you can find someone new to rent this place.”
“You bitch –
“Sir!” The officer boomed. “I’ve had just about enough of that. Have you been drinking?”
“No, now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to be going.”
“He’s been drinking,” I offered. “You can smell it on his breath.”
If the officer hadn’t been standing there, I was sure Neil would have reached out and smacked me across the face, but I didn’t care. I was out for blood. If he were going to make my life a living hell, I would do the same for him. The officer moved closer, sniffing the air around Neil before realization dawned on him, and he pulled out a pair of handcuffs.
“You been drinking and driving tonight, sir?” The officer asked.
“No, and you can’t prove anything.”
“No, sir, I can’t, but you are pretty intoxicated in public, and that’s enough to hold you till I can pull the cameras around here. If I’ve found you’ve been drinking and driving, this whole situation is going to get a lot worse for you.”
“This is your fault,” Neil hissed at me. “I hope you’re happy with yourself. You are nothing but a stupid useless bit –
“All right, pal,” the office cut him off. “You and I are going to take a little trip downtown.”
The officer grabbed Neil’s wrists and cuffed them behind his back; he continued his onslaught of threats against me as the pair moved back to the officer’s cruiser. It didn’t look like the cop needed me anymore. I turned to go up the staircase to the apartment and saw Matty at the top of the steps, holding Harrison. My son just looked intrigued, but Matty looked worried.
“How much of that did you hear?” I asked.
“Are you seriously thinking about giving up this place just because that guy is a jerk? We can deal with him or hire an attorney or something.”
“Leaving has nothing to do with him,” I said.
“Oh no,” Matty muttered. “You are back pretty early. I take it things didn’t go well.”
I cringed and brushed past her into the apartment. “Things didn’t just go poorly, they ended entirely. Turns out, Walker was only pretending to like me to get to Harrison.”
“So, you weren’t just threatening Neil, you were serious. Do you think we are going to need to leave?”
“I don’t see us having any other option. If we stay around here, Walker and his family will do everything in their power to dig their claws into Harrison. It was just a big game to him, Matty. He was my friend, he was kind, he was caring just to get to Harrison.”
“How do you know? Did he tell you that?” She asked.
I shook my head and sank back into the couch. “He didn’t need to tell me anything, I heard the whole thing for myself. He’s got a lawyer that’s already started digging into my past, and his mother knows that Harrison is