Once she had calmed herself enough to stop crying, I told her we should both take a break from this conversation.  From the look on her face I could tell she thought I was going to ask her to leave.  I reassured her that I wasn’t ending our talk tonight, I just thought we both needed a few moments to calm ourselves and collect our thoughts before we proceeded.  She agreed and went to my bathroom to freshen up and I put the dishes in the dishwasher and headed to the living room with my wine.

She’s taking longer in the bathroom than I thought she would.  The extra time is giving me my own time to sit here and think about what she’s confessed to me thus far.

I was ashamed.  Well, she should have been.  I couldn’t face you in person after what I’d done.  That’s why she made that video, she couldn’t face me in person.  I find that to be nothing more than a cowards excuse.  I allowed him to turn me against you. I let myself believe everything he said about you.  I hate Danny.  I knew it wasn’t true.  If she knew it wasn’t true why did she believe him.  Whatever he said to her, why would she believe him and do that to me. 

I can feel myself getting angry.  Angry at him.  Angry at her.  Angry at everything.  Before she leaves tonight she’s going to tell me what he said and she’s going to tell me why she believed him.  All I did was love her.  How in the hell could she believe him and hurt me that way when all I did was love her?

“ehhem”

I’m pulled from my thoughts by the sound of her clearing her throat. She makes her way over the couch and sits down across from me.  I see that she decided on a glass of wine after refusing my offer for one before.  She’s holding it between her hands while tracing her right index finger around the rim, nervously.  Her head is facing me but her eyes are looking down at the glass in her hand.  I wait for her to speak first.  Still waiting I decide if she’s not going to talk then I will.

“What did Danny say to you Dylan?”  Her eyes move up to meet mine, but she still says nothing.  “It was Danny you were referring to before, right?”  Looking back down at her glass she just nods, confirming I was right.  “What did he say to you about me?  Tell me, Dylan, what did he say to you?……………………DAMMIT, DYLAN, TELL ME.”

“HE SAID…….he said……….that you were Helena Fucking Peabody.”

I’m waiting for more, but that seems to be all she has to say. That’s all she has for an answer.  Can she really be serious?  “That’s it?  That’s all it took?  My name, with an expletive in the middle.  That’s all it took for you to decide to use me for my money?”  I feel my anger quickly reaching it’s boiling point.  I stand up, ready to throw her out of my house physically with bare hands. “DYLAN…..

“And you think she wants you. He was laughing at me when he said it. I told him that night Helena.  I told him that night, after you left my editing room.  I told him that I loved you and that I knew you felt the same way about me.  I knew you loved me.  He said he thought I was out of my mind.  He said you were Helena Fucking Peabody, heiress to Peggy Peabody’s fortune…….he said…….And you think she wants you, Dylan Moreland, bastard child of…….."