Page 47 of Elevate With Me

“I need you to leave right now.”

“You don’t mean that, Haylee.”

“Don’t you tell me what I do or do not mean. Leave now, or I will have you removed by force.”

“Very well then.” She stood up from the sofa, smoothing a pant leg as if it had gotten dirt on it. “But don’t come running to me if this man means trouble.”

I stepped aside when she marched past me and made sure the rose stayed hidden from her until she was out of the flat. I wasn’t quite able to breathe. My legs shook as hot and cold tremors ran through my body.

“I’m so sorry, Hallie.” Glen’s voice sounded distant, and her hands on my shoulder tugging me toward the sofa barely registered. “I thought she was here for my situation with A&R’s. I wouldn’t have let her in if I’d known she’d go at you like that. You’ve got to believe me.”

I nodded absently. I hadn’t even told her about Glen’s situation with A&R’s. I’d told Glen we could get at least her last paycheck from the antique’s shop, but after today, I doubted my mother would help us with that. I wasn’t quite sure I wanted her help with anything at all, but Glen deserved some support in the matter.

“Would you please...” I brought my hand up, still clutching the rose. It was definitely bleeding.

“Oh my god, Hallie.” Glen carefully pried the rose out of my fingers. She guided me back through the hallway and into the kitchen, where she pushed me onto one of the barely-used dining chairs.

The rose ended up on the counter as Glen pulled tissues out of a kitchen paper roll and pressed them to my bleeding palm. It stung, but not as much as the entire encounter with my mother had.

Glen’s rush of words went in one ear and out ther as she hurried about the space, bringing over an emergency kit I didn’t even know she owned and starting to wrap my hand. Her babbling was comforting despite me not registering a word. Once she was done with my injury, she brought over the rose, reading the message on it out loud.

“Yes, that sounds like a total stalker,” Glen huffed bitterly. “Should do a background check and all to see he’s not totally insane.”

I didn’t have energy for sarcasm.

Glen wrapped me in a hug, rocking us back and forth. “Do you want me to go get Luke?”

“No.”

“Okay, but you should talk to him about this.”

“No.”

“Maybe he knows how to deal with overprotective mothers.”

“I said no, Glen.”

“Will you talk to him about other things?” Glen tried one last time.

I shook my head before I buried my face in my arms on top of the dining table.