Page 83 of The Girl with No Name
“It was a breakup. I was really in love, and then all of a sudden…” She slams her palms together. “Boom. Reality check. He was faking the whole thing. It was kind of like your song, actually. He was a rambler who liked to lie, I guess.”
“How did he fake the whole thing? How’d you find out?”
“I followed him and finally found out the truth.”
“Whoa.” I move a little closer to her. She takes a sip of her drink and looks off into the distance.
“He still calls me. Last time we talked, he asked if I’d do a porno with him. That’s when I cut him off.”
Now my jaw is basically on the floor. She’s opening up about everything. “Why are you telling me this now?”
“Because for some reason, Reed, I trust you.”
“Okay. I won’t tell a soul.”
“Thanks.” A tear rolls down her cheek. “He… I thought we were in love. And then I got pregnant.”
“You have…a kid?”
She shakes her head. “I terminated the pregnancy.”
Not sure what else to say, I take her hand in mine.
“I’m not saying I wouldn’t have chosen that myself, but he convinced me to do it. He flipped out when he found out I was pregnant, told me there was no way I could keep it. Not long after that is when I found out he was sleeping with other women. He had been the whole time we were together.”
“That’s awful!” I rub her hand.
“I know. It’s…I still think about her, about the whole thing, just about every day.”
“Her?” I ask, and then realize the answer to my question before she says it.
“She felt like a girl.”
“Luna.” I tip her chin toward me. I can feel this woman’s grief emanating from her soul. “This isn’t your fault.”
“Thanks.”
“No, really. It’s not your fault. You’re a spectacular woman. ”
“Thank you. I just—it’s a hard thing to process. And this was after I had already done a whole year of healing after something else that happened to me.”
“What happened?”
“So you know how I said I used to be big in the EDM scene?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, long story short, I was at a yacht party after a concert in Florida, and next thing I knew, I woke up in New York City in this guy’s apartment.”
“Like the movieTaken?”
She nods. “It was insane. I don’t want to go into more detail, but I’ll just say when I woke up in New York City, I prayed to God, even though I wasn’t raised religious. My prayers were answered, and I made it out alive. That’s when I went to live with Aunt Sarah. I got out of the EDM scene, and I converted to Catholicism. That might sound crazy, but I don’t care. It worked for me, and I needed it at the time. I worked really hard to get myself back to a healthy place.”
“Sounds like it.”
She laughs. “I even thought about becoming a nun. I researched it and everything. But I eventually merged back into normal life. Found a cool job as a bartender. Made some new friends in Chicago. And then…I met my ex. I thought we were going to be together forever. We had lots of good times, but…it was all a lie, like I said.”
“Luna, I’m so sorry.” I hold her gaze for what feels like an eternity. I just want to make sure she knows I’m really listening, really absorbing every word. “I’m so glad you’re here. You’ve meant so much to me and Dunn this weekend.”