“Don’t touch me.” I hold up my hands. “Marus, what’s wrong?”
“My name isn’t Marus. It’s Mason.” The hate in his eyes sends a brutal chill down my spine. “And you need to stay away from me, or I’ll have you arrested, too.”
Hands and knees shaking, I turn to leave. My mind is in a horrifying tailspin. I don’t know what just happened.
Mason is back. He’s back.
“What do you mean, it wasn’t him anymore?” Vi asks over the phone as I pace my kitchen, my eyes puffy and red from crying.
“It’s like a switch was thrown and Marus wasn’t there anymore.” I had to Uber home, which was awful because I cried hysterically the entire hour-long drive. The woman driver kept trying to take me to another hospital because she thought I needed medical attention and didn’t get it at the ER I’d just come from.
“Did he at least recognize you?” she asks.
“I think so. He threatened to have me arrested.”
“For what?” she asks.
“I don’t know.” I whoosh out a slow breath. “His sister attacked him. Maybe he thinks I was there to help her hurt him.” Or maybe he’s a calculating, coldhearted son of a bitch like Rebecca said.
“Well, the guy’s sister did try to keep him a secret instead of getting him medical help.”
“According to Rebecca, the entire family was in on it. I think there’s more going on,” I say, biting my thumbnail.
“Give it a day. I’m sure the tabloids will pick up on the story.” She deepens her voice, “Wealthy bachelor, presumed dead for over a year, is found alive at New Jersey ice rink.” She gasps. “Oh God. I hope he doesn’t tell anyone about you. Then the press will start stalking us, and you and I will end up hounded until the day we die, and we’ll end up part of a Lifetime miniseries.”
I know she’s only half joking. “I have bigger worries right now.” Also, I want to bawl my eyes out some more. It’s all starting to sink in. I’ve lost him. A sick, heavy feeling pours over me. My heart feels like it’s being hit over and over again, with the same sharp hammer I used to break his bottle.
“I’m so sorry, Ginnie. I know you really liked Marus.”
“I think I knew this was going to happen. He was just too good to be true. It had to end like this.”
“Why?” she asks.
“Nothing good ever happens to me. Not when it comes to men.” They leave when you’re a baby. They lie. They cheat. And then they wake up from a very long amnesia and hate you. “It’s like I’m cursed or something.”
“Hey. Aren’t you the one who always says that kind of crap doesn’t exist, that we make our own luck?”
“I was wrong. Luck exists, and it wants to make me its prison bitch.”
“Oh, honey, you got through Greg; you’ll get through this. Wanna come here for a few days? Jay can cook for you. I can take you for that spa day? Maybe you can swing by Mr. Wish’s bachelor pad and see why he wants to have you arrested?”
I doubt he’ll allow me into his building. “I’m not sure I can take it—him looking at me like that. It was like he wished me dead, Vi.” I won’t ever forget the feeling either. Horror. Loss. Fear. Everything bad hitting you all at once.
“Your decision, but I know you, Gin. You won’t be able to let it go until you have closure.”
I’m afraid. Really fucking afraid. It feels like someone died and there’s a giant ugly hole in my heart where Marus belonged. He crept his way in, and then with the blink of an eye, he was gone. Just like that. Gone.
She adds, “Hiding isn’t going to make you feel better.”
She’s right. I know she is. “I’m going to get some rest and decide in the morning.”
“Okay. Keep me posted.”
I thank her for being there for me and say goodbye. So many pieces are floating around in my head. I need to make sense of it all.
I head to my garage, turn on the lights, put my safety goggles on, and sit on my stool. I start hammering chunks of glass and arrange the colors on my giant table. I spend hours and hours, without knowing what the picture will be, letting my emotions guide me.
When I’m done, I step back and stare, but there’s nothing there. No story. It’s just a bunch of incoherent colors.
I realize what it means: there are no answers. It’s up to me to decide where to go from here.
I go to bed and fall asleep on top of my covers. In the morning, my phone wakes me up.
I grab it and look at the time. It’s almost ten o’clock. “Vi?”
“Did you see the news? It’s on every goddamned channel! Every fucking one of them, Ginnie!”