Page 25 of The Rogue
“What?”
“Did you know that this had been put up as collateral?”
“No, I had no idea. But we never... I guess we never transferred the paperwork. I’ve just been paying the payments.”
“I don’t know that it would’ve mattered. I doubt you would’ve been able to transfer ownership because it was tied up as collateral for this. I don’t think your grandmother would’ve been able to... Did she ask you not to go and change anything?”
“Yes. She mentioned that the terms that she had were so good and nothing was ever going to be able to be that good so...”
“Because of this. And she probably didn’t want to tell you because... she had loaned money to your parents. She cosigned for them.”
“What was she thinking?” She was still in shock, not able to fully process the implications of any of this.Because how was this possible? How was it possible that all of these things in her life were unraveling all at the same time? “I can’t get in to get my things...”
“Well, fuck that.”
Justice butted his shoulder up to the door and elbowed it hard as he jerked the handle. She could hear the lock break as the door pushed open.
“Justice!”
“What. Don’t you want into your own house to get your own things?”
“Well, yes,” she said.
“Then don’t wait for the locked door to open up on its own.”
How was it possible that she was reduced to breaking into her own house? She had never done a shady thing in her entire life and here she was sneaking out of churches and sneaking into her home. Here she was, dealing with the fallout of a broken wedding, and her, with her eternally answered text messages, now permanently broken apart by this canceled wedding, completely frozen and unable to respond. This wasn’t fair. It wasn’t the life she had invested in. That was for sure.
“Pack a bag.”
“I...”
“Some suitcases, even. We’ll go back to my place.”
“I can stay at the yarn store...”
“No,” he said. “You’re not staying at the yarn store. I’m going to pack your bed up and put it in the back of my truck. In fact, we’ll pack up as much as we can, and we’ll take it to my house.”
“What then?” she asked.
“We’re going to have to try to get ahold of thebank,” he said. “Sort all this out. See what we need to do. But the point is, you’re not going to be without shelter. You’re going to come and live with me.”
“Justice, I’d—”
“Ruby Matthews, you listen to me. If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have passed high school. It wasn’t for you, I probably wouldn’t have even made it out of elementary school. You taught me to read. You paid attention to me. You listened to me. You took care of me. You were the one that was always there. You’ve always been there. And I will be damned if I don’t show up for you.”
Her breathing was shallow, her heart thundering. She was pretty sure she was in shock, because it was really the only way to explain why she hadn’t completely lost it at this point. But one thing that felt very important right then was that she tell him this. She put her hand on his forearm. “Justice, you’ve always been there for me. It’s not uneven. This... this has been above and beyond.”
“No, it’s not. There’s no such thing.”
He was truly the most important person in her life. Her touchstone. Especially now. He was everything. And right then, she really felt it. Because her attempt at expanding herself hadn’t done a damn thing.
Working on autopilot, she gathered her clothes. Gathered her favorite kitchen gadgets. Left her living room furniture. Justice had efficiently lifted her bed and her other bedroom furniture out of the space and put them in his truck. She folded up her very lovely sheets.
“Am I really going to lose this house?”
“I don’t know. I hope not. I hope that we can figure something out. But until then, I’m just going to make sure that you’re as comfortable as possible.”
“This is surreal,” she said.
