Chapter Text
“I don’t ever want to see you again,” I said to the man standing in the doorway. “You lied to me, and I’ll never forgive you for that.”
“You can’t blame me!” the man shot back. “I was well within my rights! You don’t know what it’s like to be in my situation!”
“It’s not your fault you were in that situation to begin with,” I replied. “But it didn’t give you the right to do what you did to me.”
“Now go away, or I’ll call the police,” my girlfriend Jenny said.
“Please forgive me, Jane,” the man said. “If you don’t come back to me, I’ll kill myself. You don’t want that, do you?” Little did he know that his chauffeur was listening to our whole conversation through the open window of the car.
“I don’t want that,” I said. “I misspoke. I do forgive you, but I don’t want you in my life anymore. Like Jenny said, you need to leave right now or else she’ll call the police. This is her house, and she knows I don’t want to see you.”
“What’s your relationship with—” the man began, but I put up a hand to silence him.
“None of your business,” I said angrily. “Now get back in your car.”
The man turned around, walked down the front steps, and got in the back seat of his car. His chauffeur drove him away, and I hoped more than anything that the chauffeur was taking his boss to a hospital. The man had threatened suicide, and he needed mental health treatment. Despite what he had done to me, I didn’t want him to die.
“Jane, honey, who was that man?” Jenny asked.
“My old boss,” I said. “Our relationship was…complicated.”
“Can you tell me about it?” Jenny asked, taking my hand in both of hers.
“It’s a long story, Jenny,” I said. “But I suppose I can tell you.”