“What is it?” I say.
I feel panic sweeping my body as I look into his eyes. Did something happen to my mom? Dex swallows hard and gestures to the car.
“Get in.”
It feels like all the air has been sucked out of my lungs. I want to ask him what happened, but he’s already in the car. I hop in and Dex pulls out of the parking spot. The tension in the car dissuades me from saying anything.
“Sorry… I got a call from Gina… Ricardo bailed your mom out and she’s back at the house right now.”
There’s panic in his voice… it’s not something I’ve heard before. I’m not sure why he’s so surprised either, I just sort of assumed that she would be at the house once we got home. Obviously that’s not what Dex was thinking.
“Should she not be there?”
Dex glances over at me. He still has that same worried look on his face and now it’s starting to worry me. I want to say something… anything really, that might change his mood, but I’m scared—I haven’t seen this side of Dex and I don’t know what to do.
“She… I don’t know. I… I’m not sure that I feel, but I do know that I don’t want her in my house when I’m not there. There’s no telling what she could do.”
That’s definitely not what I was expecting Dex to say. Just a few days ago he was fine with taking care of her and paying for everything and now… now he didn’t even want her alone in his house. I know that I’m at fault for endangering their relationship, which is exactly what my mom said would happen.
I know she’s going to let me know that as soon as I see her and I’m dreading it.
“I’m not sure what to do,” he says.
I wait for a minute to see if he’s going to say something else, but he turns his attention back to the road.
“What do you mean?” I say, finally breaking the silence when we are halfway home.
“I… I’m not sure, really. I think I’m in love with her… but after last night… I never thought I would see something like that as long as I lived. I’m really so sorry about that, Amy, I really am.”
“It’s OK… it was her, she’s the one who went crazy.”
Dex sighs and glances over at me for a brief second.
“But I’m the one who chose to cast you in my film… you never asked for that.”
He shakes his head and comes to a stop in front of the gate. He sighs as it slowly opens and he pulls the car through. He turns off the ignition once we are inside the garage, but instead of getting out he turns to me.
“When we go inside, you should stay behind me… I don’t want her to direct any more of her anger and animosity toward you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes… because if she even tries to hit you again, I will make sure that she wishes she had never met me.”
I nod. There’s a part of me that wonders what that means…. I have a pretty good idea, but I wonder if he would really have her arrested again. I’m not sure what that would really do, however, the sound of his voice suggested something a little more… permanent. The last thing I need is her being pissed at me for the rest of her life because this whole thing is somehow my fault.
“Alright?” he says.
“Yes.”
We get out of the car and walk over to the door that leads inside. Dex closes his eyes for a brief moment. He takes a deep breath, opens the door and I follow him through.
Before we take more than three steps into the house, Gina rushes up to us with a crazed look on her face.
“Mr. Baldwin, she’s… crazy.”
Her voice is unsteady and it’s obvious that whatever my mom has been doing is making Gina uneasy.
“What’s happening?”
Dex is suddenly calm and his words come easily. I wonder what happened to the massive amount of stress he was feeling just moments ago… maybe talking about it helped or maybe he knows how worried Gina is and feels the need to take control of the situation.
“She… she is slamming doors and I hear things breaking, but I’m afraid to go up there, Mr. Baldwin.”
“Gina, it’s fine… why don’t you head home for the night? We can fend for ourselves for dinner.”
“Are you sure?”
Her voice is still a little shaky. I have a feeling, based on the looks she has on her face, that my mom probably said something to her that sent her into this state of shock and fear.
“Yes, of course.”
“Thank you Mr. Baldwin… I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Dex nods and smiles at her. It was a nice thing to do, but I’m starting to expect that kind of behavior from him… he really is a nice guy. It makes it that much harder to wonder why he likes my mom, especially after her recent behavior. I feel bad… she doesn’t deserve him and he doesn't deserve to be with someone like her.
Gina smiles at us, turns and walks back into the kitchen.
“You ready?” he says.
“I guess?”
Dex lets out a little chuckle and heads toward the stairs. I’m as ready as I’m ever going to be. The day when I no longer have to be afraid of her is going to be amazing. I just don’t know how or when that’s going to happen. It’s weird though, the feeling of wishing I had never come here is starting to fade—I’m still upset about what happened to my relationship with Logan because of it… at the same time I’m excited about the movie and everything that goes with it.
“I was hoping for a little more conviction than that.”
I look over at Dex, but the smile on his face tells me he was just joking.
“What? You don’t think I’m funny?” he says.
I just shake my head and roll my eyes. He is funny… I would laugh if we were about to do anything other than talk to my mom.
He smiles at me, turns and heads up the stairs. I take a deep breath and follow him. We both freeze halfway up when we hear a loud crash followed by screaming. He shakes his head and starts walking again. I can’t believe how crazy she’s acting… this isn’t the same woman who raised me… she’s changed forever.
We turn toward the noise, which is coming from the master suite, when we reach the top of the stairs. There’s more screaming followed by another crash, but this time it doesn’t even slow Dex down. I cringe as I wonder what she’s breaking and how expensive it is. I have no idea how Dex is seemingly so calm right now, I would be furious if I were him.
I hold my breath as we turn right and head down the hall toward the master. The door is open and I see my mom rush by with a suitcase in her hands. It suddenly makes things much more clear. Is she really going to just pack up and leave this all behind? I can’t imagine that she would… what would she do? Go back to Greenville? I really doubt it. If I had to guess, she’s probably trying to make Dex feel bad and make sure that he insists she stay. I’m not sure what Dex is going to do, but I guess it doesn’t matter because this is his house. If it were up to me, I would ask her to leave and never come back.
Dex slows for a moment and glances over his shoulder at me. I can tell by the look in his eyes that he wants me to stay in the hallway—he’s afraid that it could get messy and he doesn’t want her to hit me, again. I nod and stop in my tracks. Dex disappears into the master suite and closes the door.
I take a deep breath and mentally prepare myself for what’s about to happen. I look down at my hands as they start to shake. Who lives like this? Even with all the great opportunities Dex has given me, I wish I could be back in my old life… where my parents were still together and I visited them in Greenville on the weekends. I feel so far removed from that life… it almost feels like it wasn’t me.
“What do you want?” she says.
My mom yelling pulls me out of my near dream state and back to reality.
“This is my house,” Dex says.
She screams again.
“So?”
“So… so… I’m not going to let you act like this, in my house.”
“That’s why I’m leaving!”
Dex doesn’t respond… I think about what he said earlier, but I somehow still expected that he would try and stop her.
“What… is that what you want? You want me to leave?”
He doesn’t answer her, but I hear what sounds like glass shattering.
“Stop breaking my things,” he says, in a calm tone.
I don’t know how he can be so calm, unless he’s just acting that way… but I doubt it. I would be screaming right back at her, if I were Dex. I guess I should give him some credit because she doesn’t respond by yelling… instead she’s silent.
The door to the room swings open and Dex walks toward me. He doesn’t have a panicked or worried look on his face… instead he just looks… he looks peaceful.
“What?” I say.
“I think you better go to your room… I have a feeling this is going to get out of hand rather quickly.”
I wrinkle my brow… I want to stay and listen. I want to find out what’s going to happen, but I can tell by the look on his face that he’s not going to let me stay. I don’t think that he doesn’t want me to hear what they’re saying… it’s more than that, like he thinks she might do something like she did last night and he wants to protect me from that.
“OK.”
I force half a smile on my face as I turn around, slump my shoulders and head toward my bedroom.
“What are you telling her?” she says.
I resist the temptation to turn around and keep walking toward my room. I do slow down a little, just so I can hear what they are saying while I walk.
“What do you mean?”
“What did you say to her?” she says.
“That’s none of your business.”
I hear glass shatter and I stop. I know I should keep going… I know I should go into my room and lock the door, but I can’t help myself.
“It is my business! She’s my daughter!”
“You don’t get it, do you?”
She breaks something else, not glass… but it still shatters. I cringe at the thought of the sheer amount of monetary damage she’s causing to his things—it’ll probably amount to more than I’ll earn in my entire life.
“You’re so stupid,” she says, “Amy is still seventeen… not for much longer, but that doesn’t matter.”
It’s quiet for a moment. I realize what she’s saying… and I want to run back down that hall, but I’m going to follow his wishes. She… she’s telling him that if she walks out of here, and leaves him, she’s going to force me to go with her.
I want to scream. There’s no way I’m letting her take me. She got me to leave Logan, to come here, but now… now I’m not leaving here until the movie is done.
“Don’t do this… I need her… and she wants to be in my movie.”
My mom laughs… a sick, twisted laugh. That’s exactly what she wants to do. I have a feeling that it’s what she’s been planning from the moment she was taken away in handcuffs. She knew she wasn’t going to stay with Dex, not after he had her arrested… so she decided to do what would hurt him the most and that was taking me away.
“And this is why you should have listened to me and fired her.”
“You can’t make her leave,” Dex says.
“Yes… Yes, I can. Until she turns eighteen, I can do whatever I want.”
She can try, but there’s no way I’m leaving… not this time.
“I will never forgive you, if you do this.”
“Ha! I’ll never forgive you for having me arrested!”
“What did you expect me to do?”
“I expected you to listen to me about Amy and I expected you to take my side. I’m leaving and I’m taking her with me and there’s nothing you can do or say to change my mind.”
I do the only thing I can think of.
I grab my purse and run.