The Muse's Undoing

“And was there some incident in a mailroom she might have stumbled on?”

Fuck.

If Ravenna had been coming in instead of going out, like I thought she had been, she could have definitely gotten an eyeful of Fischer and me mauling each other before he dropped his cane and she called out his name. Why she would have gone running to Nicole about it is a question for another time. “What the hell does this have to do with Vaughn?”

“I’m not sure. I’m planning to call her, but we’re all kind of freaking out right now.”

“Who’s we?”

“Mom, Dad, Stuart, his parents.”

“His parents?” What the hell?

“I think our mom called his mom whose close with the Gallos—I don’t know, but they’re all breathing down Stuart’s neck, and bottom line is I think we all need to stay out of it—let Fischer and Nicole sort this out.”

“How do you know about all this?” I ask even as the leaf I’m messing with comes off in my hand. I rub my thumb over the etching and stare down at it, trying like hell to focus and make sense of what’s going on.

“Fischer called me yesterday after Nicole filed the paperwork, and that’s the only reason I know anything. I haven’t talked to her.”

“So you called Mom about it but not me?”

“I figured Fischer would call you.”

“He didn’t,” I snap at her.

“Oh. Well…I might have told him to stay away from you. At least until…” Her voice trails off as her words sink in.

“You told him to what?”

I can hear her sharp breath. Like she’s bracing herself. “Can I explain?”

“Yeah, you better start.”

“Look, I understand everything you told me about you and him last week. I grew up in that house too, but I wasn’t with you every second, so I can’t even be called to say, no they were never alone together. Like as in when you were underage, and he was a grown ass man.”

“No,” I say. “No, no, no, no…this isn’t right. You know for a fact he wanted nothing to do with us.”

“Nicole doesn’t. And Matty, I’ve gotta be honest with you. The way you two are together—the way you’ve always been…I don’t believe you about when it started either.”

“Please tell me you are fucking joking.”

She sniffs like she’s started crying. Like she’s the one who’s losing something. I could fucking reach through the phone and strangle her. “Just be honest with me, please. I won’t say anything. I just need to know you were okay.”

“Un-fucking-believable. What kind of person do you people think he is? What are you accusing him of? Touching me? Grooming me? What?”

“I don’t know,” she whines.

“He wanted even less to do with me than he did with you. You’ve all gone fucking crazy. Nicole I get—she didn’t know him back then, but Mom?”

“What is she supposed to think? You’re her baby, and he made himself a complete stranger. And you just moved in with him—like you could have been planning that for years?—”

“What the fuck?” I’m shouting now.

“You can’t blame Nicole for wanting to protect her son.”

“Oh my God.” All the scattered bits and pieces gather together in my mind all at once, and I get the full picture.

It’s devastating. I wobble on my feet and reach for the counter again, the leaf of glass falling to the floor, bouncing but not breaking.