“Wait, please,” I begged.
“Penny, I really don’t know what to believe right now. How could your father even take her from me?”
“He knows lawyers, judges. I’m not sure. Maybe he thought he could bribe Blair.”
He laughed a short laugh. “She would never do that to me.”
Was he defending her? “Money is very powerful, Theo.”
“You need to go.” He opened the door more, and I went through for fear of digging myself into more word vomit. I couldn’t formulate my thoughts of what I wanted to say.
I left Theo, only because I didn’t know what else to say to him. He didn’t trust me and that was all. The end. Our story was over, and I left feeling sorry for myself.
***
Once I returned home feeling defeated, I moved slowly throughout my house. I didn’t know what to do, and the feeling to give up washed over me. The fight in me was gone. Let my father win and let it all be over.
Margo knocked on my door as I sat in my room throwing the world’s most pathetic pity party for myself. Party of one. No other guests invited. I was a loser in love.
“Are you ok?”
I sobbed like a baby as I recounted the events for Margo. When I finished, she didn’t have anything to say. She just held me and rocked me on my bed back and forth.
“I feel like giving up.” I hadn’t cried this hard in so long, and it felt good to just let it all go. All the feelings I held bottled in were being released.
“No, absolutely not. Where’s the fearless Penny I know and love?”
“She’s gone.” Yeah, I was feeling sorry for myself. But, everything felt so pointless.
“No, she isn’t. Theo’s friend didn’t find out anything?”
“No. I don’t know.”
After a few more hours Margo tried to convince me to keep fighting for what I wanted. But, how could I? How could I risk Theo losing his daughter?
The next few
days I rarely left my home. I worked only a bit, which I didn’t need to worry about seeing Theo while he stayed home to heal.
To heal. I thought about this daily. Not being there for him while he suffered. It hurt me to lose someone who had become a piece of my soul, and I hated everything about my life.
It angered me every time I thought about what Dex had done to him. My emotions ranged from hurt and sorrow to anger and denial.
Dex and his mother moved the wedding up, even though I protested it every step of the way. Margo yelled at me daily to get my head out of my ass which was easier said than done. There was nothing I could do. Nothing at all.
Finding out information on my father would be hard to do unless they had access to his office. Like I did.
Now, I had a plan.
***
The sun wouldn’t be up for a few more hours still, and I was snooping around in my father’s office. Looking for anything, any single thing, which could help get me out of this mess. There was no way in hell I would be marrying Dex.
I had no clue as to what I was looking for, and yet there I was rifling through file cabinets and his desk drawers.
Please let me find something.
I ran my hand along his computer. Wonder if he keeps everything on it?