you.” I sit down across from her and draw in a deep breath.
She reaches across the table, her smile so sincere. “Hey, girl, I missed you. I’ve been thinking about you and Tatum.”
I want to hate her, but I can’t. I don’t know why that is. With a deep breath, I stare into those beautiful golden eyes of hers. “I need to know.”
“Know what?” Her brow comes together, but there’s a crack in her words I notice.
“When? Why? How it happened?”
Her face pales as she fidgets with the straw in her cup. Pulling her curtain of blonde hair aside, she blinks rapidly. “Why would you want to know that?”
“I don’t want to, but I have to know, or I can’t move on.”
She nods and darts her eyes from mine to her coffee. She’s fragile in this moment, fearing what I might say next. “It wasn’t about you. It was never you.”
Stupid emotion takes my words and makes them broken and needy. “Then what was it?”
Remi thinks about her answer for longer than I would have thought. “I think it was a challenge for him to see if he could get me. We met at a bar. He wasn’t wearing his ring. It wasn’t until later, months in, he said he was married. He threw money around like it was nothing, fancy restaurants, and hotels with penthouse suites and champagne.”
With our fucking money!
Still, I remain quiet and let her explain her side. I can’t help it if my mind has her own commentary.
“I never had that before, and it was intoxicating,” Remi explains. “He fictionalized my world and made me believe I was everything to him. I’m young, and he knew he could control me. I was impressionable.” Her eyes focus on mine with such intensity I know she’s telling me the truth.
Every single word is her truth and sad. It’s heartbreaking to know he did this to her. Misery loves company. Do you know why? Because the only way for people like Collin to feel good about themselves is for them to have someone beneath them.
Literally.
But he couldn’t control me. Remi, he could. She couldn’t go to those restaurants and have the things he was giving her, and that was part of his control.
Remi shakes her head, her hair falling off her shoulder. “I’m ashamed to say, I let him have the illusion. I liked being taken care of and being told ‘be here at this time.’ I didn’t realize it was him controlling me.” She leans and reaches for my hands. “But you, I see you. I can see why he was intimidated by you. His personality couldn’t handle it. With you, you’re independent, successful. Because you weren’t his equal. It was never that you weren’t enough. It was that you were too much for him. He didn’t deserve you, and he knew it. Sadly, that’s why he came to me. Because he was better than me.”
My heart drops. “Remi, I hope you don’t believe that. I forgive you. I know that sounds so stupid that I would apologize to the woman who fucked my husband, but I am. I forgive you for falling for his lies.”
Remi clears her throat, lets go of my hands, and reaches inside her purse, and slides the check over to me. “I know I’ve said it before, but I’m so sorry. I knew about you, and it was easy to pretend you were completely different and holding him back. But I realize now that was his justification. That’s not you.”
I stare at the check—the accidental death policy. I don’t need this money to make it. Because of the paintings I sold, Cason renting the room, and the increase in my business the last few weeks, I’ve taken care of the house, Tatum’s school, and making a dent in the credit card bills. Deep down, if I take this money, it’s like I’m depending on a man I couldn’t trust to give me the heads-up that he’d fucked me over. I couldn’t take it.
“It’s not about the money,” I tell her, fighting through tears.
“And that’s why I know this is the right thing to do. This isn’t mine. It never should have been.”
Nodding, I give her back the check. “You keep it. Do something big with it, Remi. Don’t blow it, but do something for yourself and believe in you.”
She bites her lip, her eyes darting from the check to mine. “I can’t keep this money. It’s not mine. This is yours and Tatum’s.