Page 35 of Sing Your Heart Out

Smith looks like he’s barely holding in his fury. “This is the last time I’m going to ask you to leave. After this, things are going to get physical. And I don’t like your odds, chief.”

Justin laughs in his face. “You have obviously never seen a short guy fight. We’re crazy.”

“Leave,” Smith warns.

“Like fuck I will.”

Everything suddenly speeds up. Justin punches Smith in the stomach. Then Smith pops him on the nose. Blood sprays everywhere, but Justin uses that to his advantage. He lunges toward Smith, laughing maniacally.

I slip out of my seat, standing up. “Stop! Both of you, please stop!”

Smith and Justin both look at me as if I just grew a second head. I swallow, but stand firm. “Can I just talk to Justin alone, please?”

Justin gives me a sly smile. “Yeah, Smith. Let the girl come out to my car. I bet you anything that she leaves with me.”

“Hey!” I shout. Everyone looks at me. “I’m not getting in your car, Justin. We’re going to talk just outside those glass doors.”

I point to the French doors on the patio. Justin loses a bit of his swagger. Smith shakes his head.

“This isn’t a good idea, Sarah.”

I touch Smith’s arm, looking at him with a plea in my eyes. “You have to let me do this. I can stand up on my own sometimes. Okay?”

A muscle ticks in Smith’s jaw. He glances down at my face, his eyes taking me in. Then he just nods and steps back.

Looking at Justin, I head to the back door. “Come on.”

Justin seems to gloat as he follows me. I step outside into the heat of the sun. “Shut the door, Justin.”

He raises his brows but does it. Then we both walk out into the middle of the yard.

I can see that Smith is at the back door, waiting for me in case I need him.

That gives me the strength to face Justin head on. “Why are you here?”

Justin shades his eyes, staring me down. “To get you back, Sarah. You are my wife— “

“Enough with that,” I cut him off. “We married when I was seventeen. I was young and impressionable. At least enough to think that the way you treated me was good. But I’m not a little girl anymore, Justin.”

I cross my arms. He tries to reach out to me, to implore me I guess. But I just move back. “I don’t want you to touch me.”

His face grows angry. “You are mine, Sarah. You will always be mine, no matter how many times you run away.”

My heart thumps wildly against my ribs. “I don’t think so, Justin. It took me almost a decade to see beneath the facade that you put up for everyone to see. But I did. Finally, I can see you for what you are.”

He huffs a laugh. “Oh yeah? What am I, then?”

“You are nothing but a low life, broke, has-been music producer. You cheated on me. You stole money and you leeched away my life. You told me I wasn’t pretty enough or smart enough or strong enough to stand on my own two feet.” I give him a look that is part grimace, part smile. “You were wrong about the last part, at least.”

“You think that this is what the real world is like??” Justin scoffs. “The world is gonna swallow you up. And your new boyfriend over there? He’s going to lose interest. And you’ll be so heart broken that you come crawling back to me. You’ll see.”

I shake my head. “I won’t come to you. I never want to see you again. Do you hear me, Justin? Not ever.”

“What did I ever do for you to treat me this way? Huh?”

A strangled sound escapes me. I roll up the hem of the dress I’m wearing, showing off a trio of small circular scars.

“Well… here…. You got drunk and burned me with your cigarettes because you said I looked at some other guy.” Dropping my dress, I hike up the sleeve of my shirt, showing some long, white scars that had long since healed over. “And you gave me these scars with a piece of broken glass because you said that I was so bad at singing that I wasted your recording studio time. In reality, I was hoarse from screaming and crying when you beat me black and blue two days earlier.”

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