Page 9 of Destroying My Ex

There were a lot of things I could do to make money if I wanted, most of it online, but the whole point of using my parents was part of my plan. To me, I was owed that money, since they saw nothing wrong with selling me to make it, so why not?

If I’d gone with my emotions, I would’ve cut ties with them long ago, but there were still another three and a half years left of this nightmare. There wasn’t much I could do now without my degree, so I had to toe the line pretty much. But if I get to my parents before Sinclair does, I can swing things in my favor.

All I had to do was threaten to go no contact if they even hinted at me leaving the school I was at, and they’d backpedal because if I cut them off, then I would as easily cut off the Sinclairs. It wasn’t the best strategy but it’s all I had for now.

I would use breaking up with Lacey as my trump card every time going forward and let the chips fall. I really didn’t care one way or the other, I was just using them at this point to pay my way. Why not spend their money and save mine?

As it stands, I have enough for a nice house somewhere in a decent neighborhood, plus a nice little cushion to see me through until I find the job that is right for me, but that’s years down the line. Right now, I need to get Lacey off my back about school, which is what she’s after now.

I called my Dad and told him I didn’t know what was going on with her, but I had exams, and she was losing her mind because I heard her sister’s name on campus.

I played it as if we didn’t even have any classes together, and I didn’t even know what she looked like. I told him about the erratic phone calls and asked that he speak to her parents to see what was going on with her. I never called her myself and claimed that I didn’t want anything to distract me right now and the drama was just added stress.

As much of a piece of shit as my Dad is, he’s very strict about education, plus he has bragging rights because his son was enrolled in one of the top schools in the world on a full academic and partial sports scholarship. What would he tell his friends if he talked me into moving to a lesser school that had nothing to do with my major or the career path I wanted?

It was only later that night, as I lay in bed thinking things through, that it hit me just how messed up what I’d been contemplating was. Was I really going to ask her to pretend for the next almost four years that we didn’t know each other?

Was I really going to keep up this farce of a relationship with Lacey while stringing Lily along just for revenge? When did I become like the people I despise? The thought of what I had been about to do made me so sick to my gut that I sat bolt-upright in bed.

Why hadn’t she called me out? It’s not like her; she’s not the type of girl to be used like that, so why hadn’t she said anything? I was in full panic mode when I grabbed my phone to call her.

“I’m coming to you.” I didn’t even give her a chance to say hello.

I hung up and barely had the patience to look for my keys because I knew how stressed she was about me not walking anywhere alone late at night, but I really just wanted to run back to her place as fast as I could to apologize and to reassure her that I am not that guy.

I made it in half the time, and it usually takes only five minutes or so to reach her condo. I bolted up the stairs to her door, and she was there waiting. “What’s….?”

That’s as far as she got before I snatched her up in my arms and held her tight.

I’m sure she could feel my heart beating like crazy, and it was all I could do to keep the tears I felt burning my eyes from falling. I haven’t cried since I was about five or six years old. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

“What’s happened? Talk to me.”

She tried pulling back to see my face, but I couldn’t release her just yet. I was so afraid that I’d fucked up royally. That as soon as she had time to think about what I’d been planning, how I’d planned to keep her like some dirty little secret, that’s she’d be pissed, and rightfully so.

I can only imagine that the reality hadn’t set in for her yet, and that’s why she’d even let me in the door. “Forget my stupid revenge. I can’t ask you to do this. I can’t ask you to wait on the sidelines while I go on pretending that your sister and I are in a relationship. I don’t know where my mind was; forgive me.”

This time, when she pushed to be let go, I let her slip out of my arms, but I wasn’t expecting the grin on her face or the way she pulled mine down to hers and pecked my lips with hers. “Thank you, but I don’t need you to give up your revenge; in fact, I don’t want you to.”

She took my hand and pulled me along to the couch. “I don’t understand; what are you thanking me for?”

“For putting me before your revenge, that’s what I was waiting for.”

“I don’t understand. Why didn’t you say something?”

“Because it had to come from you, not coerced by me. I wanted you to make the decision on your own.” She seemed really pleased about something, but I was still too much in the fog to understand exactly what was going on. I thought I was about to lose her because of my stupidity and that I would never get the chance to tell her that she had come to mean more to me than the revenge I’d been plotting for years. That I was willing to give it all up if it meant I could be with her.

“But what do you mean you don’t want me to give up on my revenge?”

“I mean, we can have it both ways if we use our heads. You can have your revenge, and we can be a couple, a hidden one, of course.”

“But I don’t want to hide the fact that we’re together anymore.”

“Oh, but you have to.”

“I don’t think you understand what the next few years are going to look like if we continue with this.”

“I know what you’re worried about. You think it would be hard for me to see you with her, but there are ways to get around that. Wait right here.” She left the living room for the bedroom and came back with her phone.

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