Once I’m done with my food, I go ahead and wash the dishes. To distract myself, and because if I don’t do them now, they’re going to remain unwashed until dinner.
But my phone goes off. It’s Callie. Of course it’s Callie. As I said when I saw Miranda at the burger joint, “speak of the devil and she shall appear.”
I have a strong urge to pick up the phone and chew her out for the time she’s made me waste, but I conjure up some self control and instead let it go to voicemail. I make an attempt to head into my bedroom but I hear the phone ring again. I let it ring once more. But she doesn’t stop. I lock myself inside my room but the phone’s ringing continues for three more minutes before Callie gives up.
The realization that I’ve let myself be tricked by someone I was growing to love is starting to set in. The initial shock made me feel nothing but rage. The realization is the harder stage to go through in my opinion. It is fully on me to feel this way since we’ve been on dates few times I could count them with two hands, but it’s hard for me to even like someone enough that I’d even think about dating them.
Dating results in either breakup or marriage. And I don’t go into a relationship to break up. I go into a relationship with intentions to stay together and work through our problems. But how can I even do that when the person I’m trying to be with is lying to me about some very important things? I trusted her. I opened myself up to her. I told her about my dad. I didn’t even tell Miranda about my bad, though considering she and Callie might be working together, it’s possible that she knows now. I feel so foolish.
I’m not going to… but I feel like shutting down again. Just when I was ready to spread my wings and prepare myself for a new life of success, my wings are clipped by this discovery. Even Callie isn’t working with Miranda, I can’t bring myself to believe that her intentions are benign. If that were the case, she would have told me about being related to The Dennings.
Though, would I have even talked to her if I knew she was a Dennings.
Maybe not.
That doesn’t excuse her from lying regardless. I’m sick of being lied to. I’m sick of opening my heart to people who are just going to take advantage of me so much so that they tear my life to shreds. It took courage to get out of bed at 7 in the morning. It took real goddamn courage to bring myself to exercise muscles I feel I haven’t used outside of the bedroom in months. All for what? To discover that the relationship I’ve been trying to fix has been a lie from the moment it started.
I’m not going to engage with Callie. She can call all she wants. I’m focusing on what will actually change my life for the better.
I have to empty my mind. Clear my head of all Callie or Callie adjacent thoughts.
The old Declan would spend the day crying about her, and wishing I had never met her.
The new Declan is going to come up with something new. Something companies will want to implement in their devices… or work spaces. Baby steps. It all starts with an idea. Something small. It doesn’t need to change the world, it just need to get me back in the flow of things.
Necessity is the mother of invention. What do people need? What do people hate?
Something small. Slow WiFi is something people hate but that’s a much bigger task to tackle than I need right now. Small. Something like a phone. People hate… There’s a lot to hate about phones. Something small, would be… the mic? Recording sound is a pain. Hearing somebody speak to you from their phone. It always sounds staticky. A lot of that does have to do with cellphone towers,but… a better mic couldn’t hurt.
Time to get to work.
I open up a dresser replete with books I haven’t touched in ages and also pull out my personal laptop to look up whatever I can’t find in these pages. Reverse engineering a phone is something I did for fun in high school, but a refresher can’t hurt. I grab a bucket full of burner phones and spare parts and spread them out next to my laptop to read as I work.
A few hours and hundreds of dollars worth of phones later, I’m able to draw up a complete schematic of a prototype phone with a better microphone. The probability of it working is slim, but it’s only a first draft, after all. It would take a bit more tweaking to make an actual working model, and some miniature soundproof foam to border the mic, but this could be the blueprints to a future working model. A blueprint people would buy.
Just like that, I’m back.
I’m going to have to make some calls. A swell of fear comes over me as I reach for the door to the rest of my home. I’m going to have to step out into my kitchen to grab my phone and stare at a million missed call notifications from Callie. I could have spent an entire day working on my designs and building back my confidence and still have to face reality. Sooner or later, I’m going to have to talk to her. Even if it’s just to tell her to leave me alone.
The door opens slowly and the hallway towards the kitchen seems to extend as I look down it like some nightmarish funhouse. I’m able to bring myself to take some steps towards the phone resting on my dining table but just as I hold it up to my face, I hear a knock at the door. The knocking gets my attention for a second, but because of a sudden feeling I felt in my gut that it was exactly who I didn’t want to see. I press my phone’s home button and see the omen with my own eyes.
I have to see you! I’m on my way, you better be home.
“Declan, are you alright”, I hear her villainous voice scream from the outside.
Breaking up over text is much preferable to having to see the person. But this may not be all that terrible. I have so much pent up rage from Miranda’s betrayal that I can finally channel it and direct it to someone equally deserving.
I take a deep breath and walk briskly towards the door.
“Goodness, there you are. I’ve been worried sick, is something going on with your phone?”
She seems so innocent and genuinely worried. But I know it’s all an act. Before opening the door I was considering toying with her, trying to fool her into telling me what I already know. But I can’t bring myself to do it. I’ve never been one for acting out on vengeful feelings.
“We’re… over, Callie. We’re done. Please don’t come back here. Don’t call me, don’t message me, just leave me alone”, I tell her slowly closing the door on her.
“Wait, but I have something to tell you”, she cries out.
Callie jams her foot on the door before I can close it completely.
“Ow. Can you please open the door? It’s big news!”
I open the door but only to finally let out my frustrations.
“Callie, I know you’re related to Miranda. She’s your stepsister.”
Her eyes widen and she tries to come up with a response but doesn’t speak anything outside of incomprehensible mumbling.
“Goodbye, Callie.”
Another attempt to close the door is thwarted when Callie holds the door open with both of her hands and walks into my home.
“Callie, you need to leave.”
“Hold on. I can explain everything”, she says.
“Oh, that’s gold. If you can explain everything, why haven’t you already? Was it so you could scam more money out of me? Your sister didn’t bleed me dry enough already?”
“Wait, wait, please. I hate Miranda just as much as I do.”
“I’m done listening to your lies. Get out.”
“Now, hold on, I came here to give you some big news, can you at least hear me out?”
“I just said I’m done with your lies. I don’t want to hear you say anything else. What is it? That you’re a big shot baker now? Yeah, I saw your face in the news, right next to you and Miranda’s dad.”
“Stepdad”, she corrects me.
“Like it matters! Come on, Callie. What was it? Did Miranda put you up to this or did you just overhear her talking about what a gullible fuck i am and thought it’d be fun to test the waters and see if you could get money from me the same way she did. It certainly worked. You got a whole new wardr
obe, a new fancy dress. Goddamn. You and your sister are demons. I put my heart out for you two and you both walk all over me!”
“I found your old designs, Declan!”
“So what? YOU’re going to sell them now? Why should I even believe you? You’ve lied to me for weeks now about knowing Miranda!”
Her voice cracks while she tries to explain herself, making me think she might be speaking sincerely for a moment. “I swear I’m not trying to fuck you over like her. I didn’t know she dated you until very recently. I found out after we started seeing each other.”
“You didn’t know who your own sister was dating? Very likely. Please leave, I’m losing my patience.”
“It is very likely! Because that’s what happened. I’m not close to her, Jake, or Jacob! I don’t see them often at all. I hate Miranda just as much as you do!”
“That would have been really comforting to hear when I was complaining about her. Or really any time before right fucking now. So forgive me if I don’t really believe your hatred for your stepsister.”
“Don’t call her that. She’s just a bitch I’m tangentially related to. I don’t even call her my stepsister.”
“Clearly! You never mention her at all?”
“Would you have dated me if you knew I was related to her, Declan? Tell me that!”
I knew she’d ask. Quite frankly, I don’t have an answer for her. I fell for her hard while we were shooting the breeze in Taryn’s kitchen. I would have wanted her no matter what. I still want her. But if I allow her to stay in my life, I’ll only be setting myself up for disappointment.
“I would have been suspicious but… yes. I would have. Maybe that’s stupid for me to say and I truly don’t know because that’s not what happened. I’m sorry, Callie, but I just don’t believe you. All I hear from you are lies. That’s all this relationship has been. One big lie after another. Hell, I’ll take the blame for some of them but I ended up telling the truth”, I explain.
“I’m telling you the truth now, doesn’t that count for something?”
“You know what, it really doesn’t. You’re just telling the truth because I backed you into a wall. You had no choice but to tell the truth about knowing Miranda. And that’s all I need to know.”
She continues to try to explain herself out of the whole she dug herself in, but I’ve had just about of her and Miranda. I want them out of my lives permanently. I grab her from the shirt collar and pull her back out into the hallway. She wriggles out from my grasp and tries to push herself back in, but without thinking I place my palm right in the middle of her chest and push her back, shutting the door immediately after.
I can feel my blood pumping up to my ears. The adrenaline hasn’t worn off. Physically pushing her out of my property may have been rash but it had to be done, otherwise she’d have wasted more of my time with her filthy deceits.
My failure of a love life is no longer going to affect my work. Until I’m hired or commissioned by a company, I will not stop working on designs and blueprints. I’ve got enough numbers of people in the industry to fill up an actual phone book. I’m going to call them one by one and try to get a good standing with them. My name may be tainted but there has to be someone willing to give me a second chance. Someone who I may have declined work from, or a business smaller than those I normally worked with.
I’ll work nonstop until Callie and Miranda are just memories.
Mistakes I never should have made lost to the past.
Chapter 12 - Callie
Declan blocked me. After 35 missed calls and over 50 text messages, he really blocked me.
I haven’t been obsessively trying to contact him. Every hours or so, I’ve made an attempt to get his attention and tried explaining my position but it doesn’t seem like he’s opened any of the texts I’ve sent, or listened to any of the voicemail messages I’ve left him.
I may have lied and I understand the root of his anger, but I feel like if he had only listened to me, things could have worked out. I believe things still can work out. I just need him to understand that I’m on his side. I even want as far to resort to letter writing. But two days later, the letter I sent him was returned to me. In that message, I had explained every last thing. I even detailed my plan to retrieve his plans from Jake and rightfully incriminate Miranda for the crimes she committed against him. But he refuses to listen.
The only way I’m going to get him back on my side is by going through with the plan. Tonight, I’m going to have to see Jake and go on a date with him. To prepare emotionally, I invited my mom over for some lunch. She’s the only person I can confide in as of late since Sheila’s been bedridden.
“Alright, so let me get this straight”, my mom says incredulously shaking her head, “he wanted to see you naked but just settled for a date… and this is all because he and Miranda stole something from your boyfriend?”
“That’s the short of it, yeah”, I tell her.
“Jesus, honey. You’ve… you’ve got some life.’
“That’s it? No advice? Or would you like to interfere in some way? Maybe tell Jacob to leave for the day so I can sneak in and steal the flashdrive?”
“I don’t want to seem spineless but Jake just doesn’t listen to me. He doesn’t treat me like his mother. Besides he’s a grown man, he doesn’t have much of a reason to listen to me. I’m sorry, hun, but my hands are tied.”
“Can’t you tell Jacob”, I beg.
“Tell Jacob that his only son is a major creep and that his precious little daughter committed a litany of crimes for no reason other than she seemed to enjoy it? That’s a hell of a thing to break to someone out of the blue, don’t you think?”
“But here’s the thing, Ma. You know now. You have a responsibility to tell him the truth. Oh god… I could have used some of this advice myself… But nevermind that, you have to tell Jacob”, I tell her.
She takes a long sigh and realizes I’m right. “Why did you have to tell me? Shit. Well, I might not mention the Jake part but I… I’ll try to bring up the whole Miranda situation to him. But Jacob won’t be home until midnight tonight so, unfortunately you’re going to have to see Jake. Besides, it would be easier to talk to Jacob about his kids being criminals if I had some evidence backing me up.”
“Fine. I’ll do it. For both of us”, I declare. “And for Declan. I’m really hoping he’ll take me back once everything is said and done, but… he seemed pretty adamant about not seeing me ever again.”
“That’s a bit drastic, honey. I’m sure you could just go up to his place and talk it out--”
“I tried, Ma. I’ve tried everything. Whatever. It’s not important. What’s important is that his work is given back to him and that Miranda and Jake get fucked over.”
Before heading out to the mansion, I ask my mom to drop me off at Sheila’s place. Sheila seems to be feeling a lot better and is ecstatic to see me.
“Callie! Oh, god, I’ve only been sick for what, a week? But I feel like I’ve been so shut off from the outside world. I was thinking about going on a walk later, see if I can make it past the street without yakking on the sidewalk.”
“That’s great, I’m so glad you’re feeling better. But I actually came here for something, um, do you still have pepper spray?”
Her eyebrows nearly bounce right off her face. “Pepper spray? Yeah, but what exactly do you plan on doing with it?”
Having already given my mom the whole spiel earlier, I gave Sheila a more condensed version but made sure not to leave anything important out, especially the stomach churning details of the awful night I had with Jake.
“Huh… I’m gone for a week and your world falls apart, that’s… Man, I must be your god luck charm or something, Callie.”
“About that pepper spray?”
“Oh right, feel free to empty it out on that little fucker. Blind him. He deserves it. And if you can, get it on film. I’d love to see footage of that wimpy kid sniveling and crying. Creeping on his own s
tepsister. What a fucking creep. I can’t believe this is the first time you’re considering pepper spraying the freak.”
“I’ve definitely thought about it before. Tonight might be the night”, I say wearily. Though I’ve never thought about filming it. Interesting idea.
Sheila disappears for a moment to retrieve the pepper spray. I thank her and reach for it but she pulls it away from me.
“Are you sure you want to do this? Declan is just one guy.”
“He’s an innocent guy a who has had a lot of shitty things happen to him for no reason. I’m his only chance of getting justice, whether he wants to accept it or not. Besides, I need to prove to him that I’ve been on his side from the beginning”, I tell her.
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