My father’s cremation was nothing like that. My mother had managed to get the ball rolling on his cremation once the police were satisfied it was a self-inflicted wound, and since there was only me and my mom, there were no relatives to dispute her rush on the cremation. Two days later, he was burned to ashes, placed in an urn and that was that. I didn’t even think that was possible. I thought…I don’t know. I thought it was a longer process, but I guess…hell, I don’t know.
The reading of his will had been painful, sorrowful, and brutal. He had no kind words for my mother at all. He left her absolutely nothing. Even his suicide note made no mention of her. He simply wrote that he couldn’t live with the stigma of shame he brought on himself. The only thing the attorney had to present was the letter he wrote me and the details of the trust he opened that was, now, in my name only.
And, oh, God, that, in itself, was another thing altogether. When the meeting had concluded, my mother had lost her shit completely. Even though she’s never worked a day in her life, she insisted that the money in the trust was rightfully hers. She even threatened to fight me over it, and that’s when things got really bad. I bated her, reminding her that she didn’t have any money to fight me over the trust, and that’s when she threw me out of the house they had still been living in.
I had found a cheap hotel, called Uncle Allen, and he had paid for it on his credit card along with my plant ticket home, and I had never been more grateful to him.
And now, I was at the park waiting on Talon.
Our conversation last night had become strained after telling him about the money, but I had chalked it up to my frayed nerves and his apprehensiveness at not having me near. He’s never been shy about letting me know he struggled when I wasn’t around. It was sweet, if not a little psychotic.
When I had asked why the park, he said he wasn’t comfortable going to my uncle’s house, and he knew I didn’t have a car. The park was closer to Uncle Allen’s house than it was his.
I should have paid more attention to the tone of his voice versus the words he was saying and then maybe that way I would have been more prepared for what was about to happen.
Ten minutes later, I spotted Talon walking towards me, and I could feel all the tension leave my shoulders. My stomach fluttered, and my heart swelled.
Talon was here.
He was going to make it all better.
I jump up off the bench as soon as he was a few feet in front of me, and I didn’t care that we were in public as I threw myself in his arms.
And he caught me.
He caught me and his arms around my body were like steel bands threatening to cut off my breathing. God, I never wanted to leave his arms.Ever.
“Talon,” I cried into his neck.
He kept wrapping me tighter and tighter in his arms. “White,” he breathed against my hair, and it’s funny how a name I once hated had become to mean everything to me.
After a few minutes, he tried to dislodge me, but I wasn’t letting go. He finally got the hint and lifted me so my legs would wrap around his waist and walked us back to the bench. Talon sat down with me wrapped around him and he held me as I cried into his chest. He didn’t utter a word until I was finally able to get myself under control.
However, once I was calm enough to speak, Talon had pulled me off his lap and sat me down beside him and his cold demeanor was like a slap in the face. Not being able to pull my eyes away from his face, I asked, “Talon?”
His words were like razor blades skinning me alive. “I’m not going to compete with two million dollars, Kenzlee,” he stated, cold and matter of fact.
“Wh…what?” I didn’t understand. What did he meancompetewith two million dollars?
His eyes finally met mine, and I was struck stupid by their color all over again. But this time, it was the coldness in them and not their unique color that had me captivated. His eyes flicked towards my earlobes and back before saying, “Now, there’s nothing stopping you from getting bigger diamonds, White.”
Now,that,was a slap in the face.
I reared back, shocked, hurt, and confused. “What are you talking about, Talon?” I asked. “What…what are you saying?”
He let out an emotionless laugh, and it was ugly. “I’m talking about two million fucking dollars, Kenzlee,” he spat. “I’m talking about Rolex’s, penny loafers, BMWs, and Ivy League colleges. Isn’t that what this is? Your future back? Isn’t that what your father gave you back? Your future?”
The tears immediately spilled over and I didn’t care that they were for a different reason this time. How could I have misread the signs so badly? Talon hadn’t held me tight because he missed me. He had held me like that because it was the last time he was going to hold me.
He had absolutely no idea what I had planned for that money, and he didn’t care. All he cared about was that I had the money. Hell, I hadn’t even given the money any real thought with all that was going on, but it didn’t matter. Talon didn’t want a girl who didn’t need him financially. He was so used to being wrapped up in how he took care of his mother and sister, he didn’t know what to do with a girl who didn’t need that from him.
I was the only person on this bench who knew Talon couldn’t be replaced with money.
“So, it’smyfuture now?” I asked. “It’s no longerourfuture?”
Talon stood up and looked down at me not realizing how irreparable the pain he was causing was. “We never had a future, White,” he clarified. “You were going to come into that money, sooner or later. You were always going to end up being just a waste of my time.”
I wrapped my arms around my stomach and doubled over on the bench at his words, feeling the blow for what it was; his goodbye.
