You Looked Down on Me Once Now You Look Up (Patricia and Oliver) novel Chapter 755

“Did you ever trust me, even once?”

“What do you really think of me? Do you see me as someone who doesn’t even understand right from wrong, or am I just too clueless to know what I’m doing?”

“You keep talking about putting yourself in my place, but whose place is that really? Who are you trying to understand? I told you, it was almost over. I was already picturing the day I could bring Grandma home from Springfield, take care of her, finally let her rest. I told you all of that.”

“But you still had to butt in behind my back, mess with everything I had in place. I was waiting to handle Ruby, then I was going to make sure Tina faced justice. But because of you…”

Patricia’s voice cracked, rising up with raw anger. “Because you needed your precious sense of security, you ruined everything I worked for, tipped them off, and now Ruby has slipped away in the middle of the night. I spent over ten years on this, holding it in, waiting for the right moment to take them all down. But what about you? What did you do? If Ruby gets away, I’ll never be able to live with myself.”

“I’ll never be able to let this go.”

“If you don’t pull the weeds out by the roots, how can you be sure Ruby won’t turn out just like me? That she won’t come back for revenge, maybe even try to kill me herself?”

Her shouts and tears cut straight into Oliver. He just stood there, stunned, watching the tears stream down her face. The words stabbed right through him. He couldn’t even find the right thing to say. He just let her words hit him, let her anger do its worst. All he could hear in his head was Patricia’s voice.

Your damn, so-called sense of security…

His hands shook at his sides. He felt empty, hollowed out, like something inside him had just broken wide open. He looked down at Patricia, not speaking, just slowly moving aside to let her pass.

He watched her get dressed, watched her leave, saying nothing.

Patricia was moving fast, so fast she didn’t even bother with her coat. She’d barely reached the closet door when Oliver’s flat, tired voice stopped her.

“Patricia, dealing with Ruby is easy. But how are we supposed to fix what’s broken between us?”

“That sudden? Did something happen at home?”

Marian looked at her, hesitant. “Mr. Padilla told them to come back.”

Patricia’s fingers tightened around her spoon. Her eyelashes trembled. “Got it.”

“Can you have Jackson come over?”

“Jackson’s probably at the office by now.”

“Then call her back. I need to deal with this myself.”