Page 73 of Just My Ex

Henry’s stare is concerned. “I don’t want you to leave, but I understand you need to.”

“There’s less of a point of me being here now that the threat is gone. Besides, I can’t have wet confetti just sitting there in the house.”

I can’t bring myself to call it “my house.” It’sourhouse, in my mind anyway. And I don’t want to go back yet, but staying any longer is just delaying the inevitable. Henry and I can better coparent now that we’ve cleared the air on a lot of things, but in the end, he’ll go to Europe and I won’t, and then what?

A ball forms in my throat. My phone buzzes and I fish it out of my pocket, thankful for the distraction. “It’s a group text to you and Alec and Oakley from your mom. Dinner’s ready.” I look at Henry. “Youready for this?”

He shoots out a breath. “I’m ready to try to get in Alec’s good graces again.”

I can’t argue with that. And I sorta love it.

Hand in hand with Navie, the three of us head downstairs.

Halfway through dinner, where Thomas is absent because something came up at his finance company, it’s my turn to get a phone call. I silence it … you don’t take a call during a fancy meal with the Tate’s in their formal dining room. But when it rings again, I glance at the screen.

“It’s my lawyer,” I whisper.

“You better answer that,” Henry whispers back, nodding. “It’s okay.”

I excuse myself and go in the other room, answering just in time.

“Quinn? I got an interesting call from the Irvine police,” my lawyer, Steve, says.

“They called you about the arrest?”

“Arrest? Nothing about an arrest. I’d put in a call at the police department the other day because I needed information on your grandfather. Who was arrested?”

“Raymond. He broke into my house and made a mess with confetti and a toilet.”

“What?”

“Don’t ask. It’s Raymond one-oh-one. Weird rules the day with him.”

“I’m glad they nabbed him, though,” Steve says.

“Me, too. What were you saying about new information on Grandpa?”

“The police department told me they’d look into any calls or files involving him through the years. It states on public record that the police were called because of a disturbance at his house a year ago.”

“Six months before he died? Do you have the date?”

“February 12th. The file states that the neighbor called because she heard arguing. And when the police arrived, they learned the disturbance involved Ronald Delfini and Marley Delfini. They were arguing because your grandfather had just put a stop to some housing payments being made for Marley.”

“Housing payments? That doesn’t make any sense. Why would Grandpa be making housing payments for her?”

“It doesn’t say. Just that she was upset about him stopping the payments. But by the end of the visit from the police, things had de-escalated.”

“Do you think this is the reason he asked me to trust him about why the money would go to me and not the family? If he’d been paying for her house, I guess it makes more sense.”

“Maybe so. I thought it was interesting.” Steve sighs heavily through the phone. “And his arrest could definitely help your situation. I mean, it’s too bad he did that, but this could help discredit the contest.”

“That’s what I’m hoping.”

I end the call and enter the dining room, just in time to hear Navie singing a song that Henry used to sing to her called “Miss Polly.”

It’s fine. Everything’s fine. I don’t need my heart. I can just leave it where it’s at, in Henry’s hands.

It’s always been there anyway.

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