I started shaking. I always knew he had the neighbors watching me, making sure I wasn’t doing anything he wouldn’t approve of.
I didn’t say a word. I hung up the phone. I took the ring off my left finger and set it down next to the car keys. I picked up the picture of us at Martha’s Vineyard from two years ago. I set it on the table and picked up the paperweight sitting next to it. I smashed it down on top of the picture, shattering the glass part of the frame.
“You thought you could break me into pieces that you could control. You thought you could beat me down to nothing…well, not anymore. You’ll never control me again. ”
I turned and walked out, knowing I would never return to New York City again. I would never again let anyone tear me down like he had. As I walked into the elevator, memories of Roger, good and bad, flooded my mind. I’d always been so afraid I would let him down. Every day, I had done nothing but walk on eggshells around him…but not anymore.
As the door to the elevator opened, I exited, standing taller, as I walked with my head raised and a smile on my face. Tim, the doorman, grinned when he saw me walking up to him. I’d usually kept my head down and never looked at anyone.
“Miss Reynolds, you look like a new woman. ”
I smiled bigger. “I am, Tim. Today is the first day of my new life. ”
He nodded. “I’m glad to see you happy. You deserve it, Miss Reynolds. I hope you find happiness, and I hope it’s far from here. ”
I stopped and looked at him, stunned by his response.
How many people knew?
I smiled and nodded before turning and walking up to Courtney’s new truck.
After I got in and shut the door, she had the biggest smile on her face.
“All right, baby girl. Are you ready to get your country on?”
I started laughing as she handed me a Diet Coke.
She held up her drink to mine as she started to make a toast. “To leaving behind the past and starting a new life. To forgetting about asshole men who don’t know a good thing when they see it. ”
“Amen! To being done. I’m done with being treated like I’m nothing because I am something. ”
“Fuck yeah, you are. Are we done here?”
I nodded. “Yes. ”
I picked up Court’s iPod and found a song I’d put on there about six months ago. Once she took off driving, I hit the play button.
Courtney looked at me. “Hell yeah!”
We started singing along with Carrie Underwood’s “Undo It,” and I’d never felt so free in my life as we took off down the road to start my new life. We noticed people waving from the cars around us. Court kept waving back as we sang along to my new theme song.
“Wow! Who knew New Yorkers were so damn friendly? Sing it, Whit!”
As we headed up the road on our way to my parents’ house, more and more people were honking and waving at us.
“My God, they act like they’ve never seen two hot girls singing in a truck!” Courtney said with a laugh.
Then, she looked in the rearview mirror. “Oh shit!”
The next thing I knew, Courtney was pulling over on the side of a bridge. She parked the truck, looked at me, and busted out laughing.
“What? What’s so damn funny, Court? And why are we pulled over? Let’s go. The farther we are away from him, the better. ”
She turned to me with tears running down her cheeks.
“Oh my God. Are you crying or laughing?”
She finally got herself under control enough to start talking. “Whit, all those people were honking and waving because they were trying to tell us that we had shit blowing out of the back of the truck!”