“Aren’t you going to even ask how I got your number, darling?”
“I’m not your darling, Jimmy. I never have been, never will be,” she snapped.
“You’re just no fun at all, are you?” he mocked.
“Why don’t you tell your fiancée—I know you stole my number from her—that you’re a rapist and extortionist? I have nothing to say to you.”
“I wouldn’t hang up if I were you, Grace. I know that high-and-mighty tone. You think you’re so much better than me—that you always have been. But you see, I’ve managed to pull myself out of that trailer park I grew up in. I’ve managed to make a name for myself—and find me a real respectable whore to marry, even. A very wealthy whore, at that,” he said with a laugh.
“Then go back to your whore and leave me the hell alone,” she snapped, her fingers itching to hang up, but she knew this wouldn’t end until the filthy man said what he intended to say.
“I can’t do that. You see, she’s begun to grow suspicious that I’m not exactly who I say I am. She doesn’t think I’m quite as wealthy as I’ve implied.”
“So that’s why you finally came out from hiding behind your future bride and let me see your face—you want money.”
She fought to keep her voice even, to make it sound almost bored. What good would showing him emotion do her? None at all. It would give him power, and she was through with giving this man power over her.
“I need more money, darling. You know, not many people will want to hire an event planner who so willingly took slutty pictures when she was barely out of high school.”
Grace was silent as she counted to ten and then twenty silently. She’d promised herself she would never again let this man manipulate her, and she wasn’t going to do it this time.
“I’m not afraid of you anymore, Jimmy. You see, when I ran to my mother and told her I was raped, and she acted like it was my fault and made me go clean myself up before she was able to even look at me, I felt shamed and alone. I felt that way for years, until the day I walked into her bedroom and found her on top of you. Neither of you looked ashamed—you looked pretty damn hot for each other.”
“What does that have to do with your pictures, sweetie?”
“I didn’t pay you off because I was ashamed, Jimmy. I paid you off because my mother was ashamed. If you want to publish those pictures, you go right ahead and do that. But just remember that I know some pretty powerful people, and I figured something else out as the years went by . . .” She stopped, a smile creeping into her tone.
“And what is that?” The more she taunted him, the angrier he became. Good. She wanted him angry, because she was sure as hell pissed off.
“No one controls me. Try and use those pictures and I’ll have you in jail for slander, extortion, and rape.” She wasn’t bowing down to him ever again.
He was silent as he tried to comprehend what she was saying. She waited.
“You can’t do that,” he finally spluttered.
“Oh, yes, I can, Jimmy, believe me. I don’t know whether you still even have those pictures or whether you were smart enough to think of using them against me twice. But all the same, those pictures are evidence of what you did to me.”
“No, they aren’t, you stupid whore! They are consensual sex as far as the public will see it. I made damn sure of that. Your beautiful little face was posed just right—I placed your fat lips over my cock!”
“It’s not that I have fat lips, Jimmy; it’s that you have an incredibly small penis,” she said.
“That’s it. I’ll show the world what you really are.”
“You go ahead and do that. And then you’ll see exactly what I’ll do to you!”
The other end of the line was silent as Jimmy considered. She didn’t care. Finally, she was able to tell this scum he held no power over her.
“No one will believe you. They never believe the woman,” he spluttered.
“Oh, no, Jimmy, it’s not a lie. It’s the full-blown truth. And if you’re the one breaking into my place, trying to scare me into doing whatever you want, though I don’t know how you could think I could be scared of you, considering how pathetic you are, I suggest you stop. I won’t stop until you’re destroyed.”
“You can’t do a damn thing to me, you trashy rich bitch!” He was losing it more and more by the second.
“Oh, I can, Jimmy, because, unlike you, I have friends—very powerful friends who don’t like to see me get hurt. You’ve broken the law, you’ve tried to scare me, and you are the one who will pay. You’re not coming after me, you pathetic excuse for a man,” she told him grimly. “I’m coming after you!”
“You won’t get away with this! I guarantee you.”
“I already have, Jimmy. If you so much as call me again, I will have you in jail so fast your head will still be spinning a week later. Stay the hell away from me, from my friends, from my town, from my life. Or pay the consequences.”
Grace hung up the phone to the sound of Jimmy spluttering on the other end of the line. And as she sat back on her friend’s couch, she smiled. A feeling of freedom filled her unlike anything she’d felt in a very long time.
Somehow she knew Jimmy would be too scared to retaliate against her. She could finally go home. So much had been happening to her in such a short period of time that she hadn’t even had a chance to analyze how she felt.