Latte Darling: Book Two of The Darling Series

My fist tightens around the phone. “Not that this is any of your goddamn business, but I’m not gonna throw everything away for some piece of ass.”

I can hear her huff, “You’ve nearly done it before.”

This bitch.

“I’m 52. Not some fucking 30-year-old idiot.”

“And she’s closer to the age of your son than to you!” Aunt Janet snarks.

“You think I don’t know that?”

“Sounds like someone has daddy issues.”

 “Daddy issues?” I let out an acidic laugh. “You have no idea what you’re even talking about.”

“No? This seems like another one of your mistakes.”

“I won’t be repeating past mistakes.”

I shake my head. “I’m ending this before it goes further.” My eyes slide shut, thinking of what Maddie must have gone through. “I should’ve known you were behind this. I want you to apologize to her.”

“What?!” Aunt Janet shrieks.

“You heard me. I want you to apologize – with a letter that you’ll mail to my shop, so she doesn’t have to see your face or hear your voice – and then I don’t want you to ever say another word to her again.”

“You can’t-”

“I can and I fucking am,” I snap. “You hurt her. And if I had to pick one of you to never see again for the rest my life, I wouldn’t need even a full second to decide.”

I end the call.

There’s so much more I want to say. So many names I want to call her. But I know that no amount of shouting or reason will get through to her cold dead heart.

My mother’s sister has always been an awful bitch. Full of spite and anger and the only joy she finds in life is causing other people pain.

“Fuck!” I shout at the window in front of me.

It all makes so much sense now.

Maddie’s red-rimmed eyes. Her silence. The way she turned away from me, kept me at a distance.

She was struggling.

And she didn’t lean on me.

My molars grind as I flex my jaw.

We’re gonna need to have a chat, she and I. There’s no secrets. Not between us.

How long would Maddie have gone without telling me?

If Brian’s new girlfriend hadn’t been sitting in one of the bathroom stalls to overhear every one of Aunt Janet’s poisonous words, I still wouldn’t know.

I start to pace.

Normally I wouldn’t even bump into Brian on a Monday morning, but I did. And that’s when he asked me how Maddie was doing.

I was pleased that he was showing concern for her, so I told him that Maddie’s stomach was feeling better. Or so she’d said when I texted her this morning to ask. But Brian just looked at me like he was confused, repeating the word stomach back to me. Then his eyes widened and the way he said you don’t know made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Brian proceeded to tell me everything That Bitch Janet said.

Every shitty word.

Every insult.

Every stab at Maddie’s character.

Every comment about her appearance.

Anger bubbled into rage.

My Maddie. My sweet Maddie.

I shove my phone into my pocket.

I don’t care if it’s early, I need to see her. And we need to have a discussion.

After I give her the biggest hug.

The shop seems oddly quiet when I walk out onto the floor. None of the usual side conversations happening. No one even looks up from their work.

What is going on today?

More quiet. More averted gazes.

Not having time to deal with whatever this is, I sigh and search for Rodrigo.

Spotting him, I head that way.

I make it a few more steps before I realize something is different. Bay 4 is empty.

“What the hell?” I grumble before half shouting, “Rodrigo! Where’s the fucking Mini?”

I was planning on driving it over to her, surprising her with it. No one should’ve moved it.

Rodrigo is usually the least affected by my moods, but when he turns to face me he looks on edge.

“Um,” he rubs a hand over the back of his neck.

“Where’s the fucking car?” I snap.

“She uh…”

A bad feeling crawls off the concrete and up my legs. “She what?”

I don’t stop until I’m right in front of Rodrigo, and he won’t meet my eyes.

“She. What,” I repeat, my anger building.

“Shit, man.” He turns and grabs something off the bench behind him before holding it out to me.

Slowly, I take the plain paper bag, and the keys for my Charger.

I look inside the bag, seeing a couple of sandwiches in clear wrap.

My brain is slow to put it all together.

“What is this?” I ask the question, worried I already know the answer. “Where did you get this?”

“She gave them to me,” he lets out an uncomfortable breath.

“When?”

He finally looks up at me, “When she left your office.”

“When she left my office,” I repeat, like the biggest moron ever.

“Yeah. Look, it’s none of my business what happened between you two, but she was pretty upset.” He makes a face. “I don’t do well with crying women.”

Crying women.

“Today?” I point a finger at the floor. “This happened today?”

“Uh…” Rodrigo looks around like he’s hoping someone might come to his rescue, but I don’t care how crazy I sound. “Yeah.”

I stare at the bag of food in my hand.

She was here.

She came here with lunch. For me.

And she left crying.

I squeeze my eyes shut. Everything falling into place.

“Fuck!”

I turn on my heels and after three steps I start to run towards my car.

Whatever she overheard…

“Fuck!” I bellow.

This is bad.

Ripping my door open, I toss the food onto the passenger seat.

Maddie will be eating her fucking lunches with me. Always with me. No one else.