Chapter 29

That Same Day

Brandt

On my way home, I picked up some flowers and some more strawberries with some chocolate for dipping and a bottle of sparkling cider for toasting at dinner, figuring she was probably demolishing the strawberries I had sent home. I knew she wasn’t upset that I had to work, but I still felt bad. She was important to me, and we had plans. Hopefully, when I got there, there would be enough time for me to give her some love before Sicily came home. I half expected her to be there already, but I never knew with her school. Sometimes she was out on time, and other times, their assemblies held them over. Either way, I was just happy to be home.

I watched the floors tick by on the elevator, thinking about those missed calls from Josie. She was probably trying to get me to allow her over to talk to Sicily again, but she had to know I was going to respect my daughter’s choice. Either way, I wanted her out of my life. It was incredibly distracting wondering if she was going to show up out of the blue or not. When the elevator reached the top, I struggled over to the door and turned the knob, thankful I didn’t have to dig my keys out. I pressed my back against the door and pushed it open. I was trying not to drop the flowers or the bag as I entered the house. I smiled, smelling the fresh flowers from the day before, still strong and fragrant in the house. I kicked the door shut and put the flowers under my chin as I kicked the door shut.

“Emma, dear,” I called out, chuckling. “I picked up some more strawberries just in case you ate the ones I sent over. This time, though, I brought chocolate for dipping. Hopefully, you’re craving chocolate too.”

“I don’t know about her, but I like chocolate,” a familiar voice from the living room called out.

I froze, walking to the side table by the door and setting everything down. I crept forward around the corner and stood there staring at Josie, leaning back against the couch with her feet propped up on the coffee table. I didn’t even know what to say. My ex-wife was sitting in my living room.

“How did you get in here?”

“Your sweet little slice let me in, of course,” she said. “Well, I kind of let myself in after she opened the door, but I won’t bore you with the technical.”

“Get out,” I scoffed, turning back around.

“I love what you’ve done with the place, minus the horrible painting over the fireplace,” she called out. “You would think by now if you were going to purchase art, you would want to get a professional involved in the process. Then again, you never were interested in using your money that way.”

Just the sound of her voice made me squeamish, and I wondered why Emma hadn’t come out to greet me. I picked up the bag and the flowers and walked them into the kitchen, unpacking them as I stared over at Josie. I hated even the thought of her in my house, much less sitting on my furniture with my girlfriend somewhere in the apartment. I finished up and walked to the guest bathroom, knocking and then entering. Emma wasn’t in there, so I checked Sicily’s room and the guest bedroom where she often took naps in the light from the windows. It was warmer in that room, and she liked to feel the sun on her face. When I didn’t find her in there, I went to my bedroom and checked for her, calling out her name. I could hear Josie chuckling from the living room, and I started to get really irritated. Emma wasn’t in the apartment.

I slowly walked over to the dresser and opened each drawer, one at a time. There was nothing inside. I ran over to the closet and found that her suitcase was gone as well. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that Emma was gone. I sat down on the edge of the bed and checked my phone, but there were no missed calls. I dialed my secretary and tapped my foot against the floor.

“Mr. Ellis’s office. Mary speaking,” my secretary said.

“Mary, it’s Brandt,” I said. “Did Emma call?”

“No, sir, no one has called,” she said. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“No,” I said. “If Emma does call, call me immediately.”

“Of course, sir,” she said.

“Thank you,” I said, hanging up the phone.

I sat there on the bed thinking about where she could have gone, not understanding what happened. I looked around the room for a note, but there was nothing, just like last time, only this time the stakes were higher. I slammed the dresser shut and rub my temples, almost forgetting that Josie was in the other room, that was until she opened her mouth.

“You know, if you were going to find a woman to replace me, you could have picked someone with a bit more class,” she yelled.

“I told you to go,” I growled from the bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed and rubbing my face. “I don’t want you here.”

“Everyone is just so hospitable today,” Josie said. “At least your little girlfriend heard me out when I came in. I really thought she was going to kick me out, but she was too sweet for that.”

I ignored Josie, trying to figure out what the hell had happened. Everything had been going so well. Why would she leave like that? Was it because I had to work? Was she only placating me when she told me she would get Sicily started on homework? Nothing about this made any sense to me, and I could feel my stomach churning.

“You need to relax,” Josie yelled. “She’s obviously not here. She left in quite the hurry.”

I picked my head up wondering how the hell Josie knew when she left. Then I realized that I had forgotten all about the fact that my ex-wife was sitting in my living room when she definitely did not have a key. Then it hit me that all of this was because of Josie. She did something or said something to Emma that made her run. I knew Josie was trouble, but I never thought she would go after Emma. How did she even know about Emma? I could feel the blood boiling in my body, and I gripped my fists closed and rushed out of the bedroom and down the stairs into the living room. My anger scared Josie into sitting straight up as I stopped, my finger just inches from her face.

“What the hell did you do?” I growled.

The fear slowly drained out of Josie’s face, and in its place was a snide smile. She reached up and pushed my hand to the side, leaning back and looking at her fingernails. I was so livid, I was afraid of what I might do to her.

“I said, what did you do?” I said through gritted teeth.

“Nothing,” she shrugged. “I just told her the truth about you, about me, and about this whole situation that we’re in. You know you should be more careful about who you let into your apartment. You never know when you’ll piss someone off enough that they’ll come up here and ruin your perfect little existence. She needed to know the truth. She was living in some fairy tale where the rich guy fell in love promising her a life of beautiful things. She needed to know it was a complete crock of shit. Besides, she didn’t really look like your type anyway. She was too not New York.”

“First of all, you have no idea what my type is. I figured out after you left that you definitely weren’t it,” I said. “Secondly, you wouldn’t know the truth if it stared you in the face. So what truth did you tell her? The real truth or your twisted and sick version that you attempted to use so New York social life didn’t snub you right out the door?”

“What do you care what those people think? You always thought you were better than them anyway,” she said. “I had to keep some kind of credit around here. You didn’t give me a dime when we divorced, and I was there the whole way.”

“Of course, I didn’t give you a dime,” I screamed. “You left us. If you wanted money, you shouldn’t have found a boyfriend to run off with.”

“Oh, stop being so naïve.” She laughed. “Maybe if you were more attentive, then I wouldn’t have looked elsewhere. You never bought me flowers and strawberries.”

“That’s bullshit,” I said. “I always did things for you.”

“You have a short memory,” she scoffed.

“You know what? This is not worth arguing over,” I said calming myself. “You’re not going to get to me anymore. Where did she go?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “She’s probably halfway back to Podunk Maine by now.”

I turned, rubbing my forehead, assuming she was probably right. She didn’t know anyone in the city, and if she was going to run off somewhere, it would be back home to her family and friends. I groaned, walking up the stairs and sitting down on the stool. I couldn’t believe I was back to square one, trying to fix what my ex-wife so harmoniously fucked up for me.

“Oh, and congratulations on the new baby,” she said snidely. “I’m sure you’ll be an adorable little family.”

I stood up from the chair and marched down the steps, grabbing Josie by the arm and lifting her up off the couch. I marched her across the room, grabbing her purse from the table and opening the front door. I shoved her out into the hallway and threw her bag at her.

“Get out,” I said. “If you ever come back here, I will call the police and get a restraining order on you. Don’t fucking test me.”

I slammed the door in her face and turned around, walking back into the living room and over to the windows. I pounded my hands against the glass and thought about the fact that there weren’t that many flights from New York to Bangor, especially in the middle of the day. I ran over to my laptop and opened it up, going straight to the airport’s website. I searched for flights leaving LaGuardia and going to Bangor, and I found one. I scrolled over to the departure time and slammed my fists on the table. It was leaving in ten minutes, and with the traffic, it would take me at least forty minutes just to get there. I didn’t have any contacts at the airport that could stop her, and I wouldn’t do that anyway because I didn’t want to scare the hell out of her.

I walked over and sat down on the couch, feeling completely defeated. That was it? That was how this whole thing was going to end? The love of my life was chased away by my ex-wife, and she took the future of our family with her back to Camden. I didn’t know what to do, whether to call her, to run after her, or to just let it go. Obviously, whatever Josie had said had really sunk into her, enough for her to not even talk to me about it. She had obviously packed and headed out in a hurry, leaving her sweater hanging on the kitchen chair. My heart was broken into a hundred pieces, and this time, it really was my fault. If I had just answered Josie’s call when she called me, I could have stopped this before it even began. My world was crashing down around my shoulders, and I was completely out of control.