“Okay, so just remember to not freak out. Maybe start deep breathing now. Better to get a head start on the right technique.”
“I don’t like this, Estrella. I don’t think you should tell me yet. Maybe don’t do whatever you want to do until I come back. It’s only a few more weeks.”
“It’s already too late for that. I signed a contract that I intend to honor. And besides, there’s a penalty for not honoring my end of the deal, so after you hear me out and still want to talk me out of this, save your breath. It’s a done deal.”
“Stop. I changed my mind. I’m coming back today, and then you tell me.”
“No you’re not. You’re finally doing something for yourself. I’m fine. Things here are fine. Just let me tell you what’s going on. It’s not that bad. At least if you consider the alternatives.”
“Are we talking Vegas bad or missing satellite dish bad?”
“Vegas bad with a few damaged satellite dishes.”
I heard a squeaky inhale but knew that I had to tell her or Willa was going to faint.
“Okay so you know how I moved out of my family’s house six months ago?”
I had already lived with Maisie during the semester but my mother insisted I come back once I graduated. I had no direction and felt lost, so I gave in, thinking now that I had had a taste of freedom I could handle her emotional manipulation. I moved out again two weeks later and she had been trying to guilt me into moving back home ever since, the final move her misguided kidnapping attempt.
“My mother finally lost her patience and wanted me to move back home,” I continued explaining how I got myself into my current predicament.
“Back up the truck, is this why you got attacked? Nora said it was a burglary. You dirty liars. You lied to me and told me some lame-ass story about a robbery.”
“I didn’t want you to worry.”
“Didn’t want me to worry? I was already worried and now you’re telling me that your mother was trying to kidnap you?” her voice was in a high pitch and the yelling would soon follow.
“Not exactly. She just used someone else to persuade me to come home. No kidnapping happened,” I tried to calm her down.
“Only because Mason and Landon were there,” she wheezed, her voice sounding like she’d been sucking on some helium.
“This is not even the main part of the story. It’s just so you understand why I did what I did.”
“Not the main part? Are you trying to kill me? How is you getting kidnapped not the main part? Get on with it or I’m going to pass out.”
“Just remember to take deep breaths. At least until I’ve told you everything. Anyway, so in the end I agreed to marry David.”
Whew, I felt better finally having told someone. And it didn’t sound so bad when I said it out loud. Just a little crazy. But not like there was no coming back from it crazy.
“You got engaged without me? And to a guy who labels his underwear with the days of the week?” Willa yelled and then there was a crashing sound. I guess she dropped the phone.
“Stella? It’s Jameson, we’ll call you back in a few minutes. Don’t do anything else that seemed like a good idea at the time but will come back and bite you in the ass. Just sit down somewhere until Willa stops hyperventilating and I can get her back on the phone.”
He hung up, and I fell back on the bed with a groan. Great, that couldn’t have gone any worse. David wasn’t so bad. He just liked order in all aspects of his life. He had an outfit for each day of the week and probably labeled his underwear. But each to their own. Who was I to judge?
My phone rang again five minutes later. I picked it up from where I had flung it on the bed next to me and sat up.
“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” I said before Willa could get a word out.
“I agree. It’s worse,” she said and released a very long and drawn-out sigh. “But we can get you out of this. Send me the contract, and I’ll get Jameson’s lawyer to look over it.”
“I’m not going to send you the contract because I have no intention of getting out of this. I gave my word and signature and that means something to me. And besides, why not go through with it? I have nothing else going for me except my last name. I have no job, no future, and I’m petrified of making the same mistakes over and over again. It’s an endless loop with my mother and this is the only way of getting myself out of it. It’s a good idea, Willa. Please don’t be mad, it’s not like he popped the question and you missed it. This is a contract agreement, not a romantic proposal. We talked about it, came to an agreement, he gave me a ring.”
A look at my hand confirmed that the ring was still as obnoxious and in-your-face as it had been when David gave it to me when we got to his house. He didn’t waste any time making things official. Not sure where he got the ring from on such short notice but since I didn’t care what it looked like I didn’t care where it came from.
“You’re petrified?” Willa whispered.
Fuck me and my big mouth. Too much honesty, Stella.
“I can’t go back to the person I was when I was living with her,” I said, my voice wavering. This was harder than I thought it would be.
“Estrella, why didn’t you talk to me?” Willa’s voice was breaking on the last word, and I
