“She’s not okay, Simon. I’ve never seen her like this. I don’t know all the details of what happened because she was hysterical last night. I just can’t—”

“I know and I’m sorry. Please just tell her I stopped by.”

“I will.”

I heard the door shut and opened my eyes. As I glanced over at the clock on the nightstand, I noticed it was one o’clock in the afternoon. I climbed out of bed and went into the bathroom. A look of horror swept across my face as I looked at myself in the mirror. My eyes were red and puffy and my hair was messy. I splashed some cold water on my face and walked into the kitchen, where I saw Giana and Donovan sitting at the table, eating lunch.

“Hey, Gabs,” G said.

“Hey.” I heated some water for tea and grabbed a tea bag from the cupboard. “Why was he here?”

“You heard?”

“Yeah. It woke me up.”

“I’m sorry. He’s worried about you. He wanted to talk to you.”

“There’s nothing to talk about. The damage is done and it’s over.” I poured the hot water in the cup and took it over to the table.

Donovan reached over and placed his hand on mine. “Coming from a guy’s point of view, he’s hurting just as bad.”

“Good. I hope he suffers for the rest of his damn life. He bought me, G. I was a fucking business deal.”

“I know and what he did wasn’t right. But, Gabby, you need to stop and think about why he did it.”

I put my hand up. “If you even think about defending his actions, either one of you, this friendship is over!” I got up from the table and went back to the bedroom.

“We aren’t defending him.”

I turned on the water for a shower and noticed my razor was missing from the shelf.

“Where’s my razor?” I asked as I stormed into the kitchen. Neither one said anything.

I opened the silverware drawer and all the knives were missing. I turned and looked at the butcher block that we kept in the corner with the sharp knives and scissors in it and it was gone.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I yelled.

“I wasn’t taking any chances,” G said in a raised voice as she got up from her chair. “You’re very vulnerable right now and you’re in a very bad place. I’m protecting you because I’ll be fucking damned if I let you go down that road again!”

“I need to shave my legs, G! Please.” I began to cry.

She walked over and hugged me. “I’m sorry he did this to you, but until I know you’re okay, I can’t.”