Page 2 of Destroying My Ex

“No, we’re not moving, but since you can’t do what’s best for this family, we don’t think you should benefit from our hard work.”

“What’re you talking about, Dad?”

“I’m talking about my job, my livelihood. The thing that helps me put food on the table and a roof over your head.”

I looked at my mother, but she had her usual blank expression on her face. “Mr. Sinclair has offered me a promotion with a hefty pay raise, life-changing money that could change all our lives. You can go to the best financial university in the country, the world, even, and all you have to do is get back together with Lacey.”

“If you still persist in saying no, then you can say goodbye to all this.” I stood there in shock and disbelief for as long as it took his words to make sense to my ears. I felt as if I’d fallen down the rabbit hole.

"You can’t be serious. You’re selling me? Your son? She cheated on me; doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

“Look, she said she was sorry. Why do you always have to make things more complicated than they are? You’re both young; these things happen. And besides, Lacey says someone spiked her drink at that party, and she has no idea what was going on.”

“Is that true?”

“Yes, of course.”

“So that means she was assaulted. Did her parents call the police?” I already knew that was a load of crap because everyone who knew about the encounter swore that it was a planned date and that it was not the first time. Apparently, my so-called girlfriend gets around.

That night, I walked away from my parents, both disgusted and disappointed. But the longer I laid in my bed stewing, the angrier I became. But I had to think with my head and not my emotions. It was the first time that I was going to use that choice and it has stood me well throughout my life.

By the morning, I had part of a plan formed in my mind. I did a good job hiding my anger from my parents and played along with their new tale of the spiked drink. I did a good job of convincing them that I felt bad now that I knew the truth.

Of course, I would keep seeing her if it meant Dad would get that promotion and raise. Inside, I was seething as I felt forced to say these words. I’m no fool; at seventeen, I had a good deal of money from my stocks, but it was all under my Dad’s control.

I was on track for a full ride to my university of choice, but there were other expenses that wouldn’t be covered, and I wanted the full ride with all the extras, and my parents were going to do that. They had backed me into a corner, but I don’t think they realized that they had given me a weapon as well.

When I saw Lacey that day at school, she was all smiles and cocky confidence. The first thing she said to me was, ‘I told you.’ I think that’s the moment I started hating her. I’d seen a side to her in the last few months that I didn’t know existed.

For the next year, I became an even better boyfriend than I was before, but there was still no sex before marriage. It was easy to get away with that because I showed no interest in other girls while she carried on her sexcapades behind my back.

Even if I wanted to have a fling with someone else, she’d turned me off from the opposite sex for a while, which was a blessing in disguise because it kept me focused on what mattered most to me.

Before, I always wanted to be able to stand on my own two feet while still having my family behind me to cushion the fall if it came, but now I knew that I would never trust or rely on them for anything ever again, so I needed to be wise in all my pursuits.

When I got into college, that started another dispute because Lacey couldn’t get into my school. She’d applied to one of my choices, which I convinced her was my first choice, but everyone knew the school I’d chosen was the better choice for my future prospects.

I made a big show of wanting to join her Dad’s company after college and was even thinking of interning there during the summers to get the experience. This seemed to waylay their fears that I was trying to pull a runner, and even though Lacey kicked up a stink, for once, things went my way.

I even reminded her that the school she was going to was only two and a half hours away from my school, and we would still see each other often. I think the close proximity where she could keep an eye on me added to the realization that if we went to different schools, she could carry on with her life the way she had been, and I would be none the wiser is what got her to cave.

The summer before I left for college, I talked my Dad into signing over my account to me under the guise of wanting to play the market. He and Mom were so pleased with the results of my debasing myself that they went all out with expenses for my college dorm, the new car, and a hefty allowance as long as I kept up my grades.

I left their house with everything I needed to make a clean break sometime in the future while smiling in their faces and pretending to be their obedient lapdog. They saw the boy they had raised. I was the man they had made grow up too soon.

* * *

It was my third week on campus when I met her. She was in one of my business classes, and I heard her name called. She had the same last name as my Dad’s boss, Lacey’s Dad.

I didn’t approach her right away, but I scoped her out for a week before making my approach. “Hey, do you know Evan Sinclair?”

“Yes, he’s my dad.”

“Your dad?”

“Yes, why, do you know him?” I asked her some more questions to be sure we were talking about the same person and was blown away that not only was he the same guy, but she had spent every other weekend at his home for a while and even knew of me.

To say I was stumped is an understatement, but she wasn’t in the mood to answer my questions that first day, of which there were many, but promised to fill me in one day soon.

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