Page 87 of The Compass Series

AALIYAH

I was moving in with Connor Roe, my favorite superhero.

I couldn’t even wrap my head around the fact, but I felt a strange sense of comfort about the idea.

Whenever I was around him, I felt safe, which didn’t make much sense.

In the grand scheme of things, we hadn’t known one another that long, but at the same time, I felt as if we’d been connected for years.

Even so, I couldn’t really focus on the move until I handled a certain issue that kept popping up in my life.

Ever since the wedding that never happened, I’d received an influx of messages from Jason’s mother.

Voicemails, text messages, emails—she’d tried to reach out to me on every platform multiple times.

Marie: Hey, Aaliyah. Are you coming to the book club meeting this week? The ladies are asking about you.

Marie: We should grab a coffee. I miss you, sweetheart.

Marie: Have you heard from my son?

Marie: I know you need space, so no need to respond to any of my messages. Just know that I’m here, and I’m sending them so you know you are loved, and Walter and I miss you. Maybe we can grab a drink, you and me? I’m worried about you.

Marie: You have your scheduled doctor’s appointment this week, right? I had it marked on my calendar. I hope everything is going well. Please let me know, Aaliyah. I’m worried.

I was trying my best to set a boundary with Marie, letting her know I needed time and space to regroup, but I felt awful about the idea of her sitting and worrying about me and my health conditions. Therefore, every now and again, I’d shoot her a text message to let her know I was okay.

Greta from work told me I owed Marie nothing, not even a second of my time or energy.

She said Marie was being passive-aggressive with all the messages she sent me, and perhaps that was true.

But the guilt of ignoring her messages was getting to me, especially with all she and Walter had done for me in the past. Even though Jason hadn’t treated me right, that didn’t mean his parents hadn’t.

Jason and I ending our relationship was one thing, but ending the relationship I had with his parents—Marie more so—was turning out to be harder.

I felt my bond with her more than Jason’s and my connection. I considered her a friend.

But after the breakup, I knew Marie would become a casualty of our relationship falling apart.

Over time, she’d create reasons in her mind that I was at fault for Jason and me not working out somehow.

She wouldn’t even know she was doing it, either.

She’d just get information from her son, the child she raised, and he’d manipulate her thoughts into believing he’d been wronged by me.

In the end, she’d always side with her family member. That was how life worked.

I’d officially reached the point when I knew I had to cut the cord between Marie and me. Even if I’d miss her friendship, I knew I had to put a stop to it before it took a toxic turn.

“Thank you for meeting with me, Aaliyah,” Marie said as we sat down in the coffee shop we used to frequent regularly. The comfort and ease I always had with her wasn’t there that morning, though. If anything, I felt entirely out of place sitting across from her, as if I no longer belonged there.

“Of course. I figured after all the messages you’ve sent, we should just get it over with.”

“Get it over with? What do you mean?” she asked, hurt in her voice.

“Aren’t you looking for closure? I’m not sure what else could happen for us after everything that took place with your son.”

“No, not at all. I refuse to believe you and I cannot stay in one another’s lives.

You don’t know what it means to me that you’ve come into my world, that we’d crossed paths all those years ago right here in this café.

I love you, Aaliyah, and I don’t want what my son did to change our relationship.

Plus…” She hesitated as if she wasn’t certain she wanted to speak her next words. “He still loves you, honey.”

I huffed, completely thrown off and disgusted by her words. “Excuse me?”

She reached across the table, took my hands in hers, and squeezed. “He loves you, Aaliyah. I know he does. He just got cold feet.”

“His toes must be ice crystals by now, seeing as how he hasn’t once tried to reach out to me.”

“I think he’s scared of how much he cares for you. He’s never been that vulnerable with a woman before.”

I pulled my hands away from her hold. “He cheated on me, Marie.”

Her eyes widened, surprised by my words. “What? No. Where did you hear that?”

“I have my sources. Listen, I understand you’re hurting and confused by all this, and I get it. I still am, too, but this is too much for me. You know I care for you, but Jason and I are over.”

“Don’t say that. You haven’t even given a second thought to giving him another chance.”

“I’m sorry…did you not hear me? He cheated on me.”

“Young men cheat sometimes—that’s what they do.”

Her words baffled me to the point that I was left speechless.

That’s what they do? That was her response to finding out Jason cheated on me?

“I’m sure it was an accident,” she told me.

“Did his penis accidentally fall into some woman’s vagina?” I mocked.

I saw the flush of color hit her cheeks, and I couldn’t blame her. That was the most straightforward I’d ever been with her, but there wasn’t really another way around it. He had screwed another woman. There was no accident involved. It was a choice he made.

“I know my son isn’t easy, and he has a history of mistakes, but I see his potential. With the right woman, he could be as stable and grounded as his father. Walter used to be young and wild, too. I tamed him.”

“Potential isn’t something worth staying for because it may never come. Plus, it’s not my responsibility to tame a man.”

She released a heavy sigh. “Maybe if you meet with him. Maybe if you talk in person…” She was spiraling, and it was all becoming a little too much for me.

When would she start connecting the dots that whatever it was Jason and I had shared was nothing more than a made-up story?

There had been a point when I’d thought what we had was real, but it was wishful thinking.

He wasn’t the only one in the wrong for what had happened. I had make-believed for too long in the situation. I was in a rush, trying to settle down before my time ran out. I wanted a family so much I fell into the arms of a man who was never strong enough to hold me.

I took the blame for the mistakes I’d made, trying to create love in a place where it was never meant to grow. I owned up to my flaws, and I’d have to deal with them in my own time. But I knew for certain that going back to Jason would never, ever be a situation I’d fall back into.

“If he wanted to meet with me, Marie, he could’ve, but he doesn’t, and I don’t want to meet with him either. I’m moving on with my life. I’m moving out of his place this Sunday, and I will be leaving the key at the front desk for him whenever he’s ready to return. It’s over.”

“You can’t truly believe that, Aaliyah. After everything we’ve been through…” The tears fell from her eyes, and she wiped them away, only to have more begin to fall. “You’re our family.”

I hated that she was crying. I hated that I was the reason behind her hurting.

She’d come into my life at one of my lowest points, when I was scared and alone, and given me comfort, not to mention all the medical expenses she and Walter had covered for me without a second thought.

They truly had been my family for a short period.

But if I stayed in her life, I knew it would become toxic. I didn’t want that for either of us.

“Plus, there’s the issues with your health,” she said, trying to compose herself. “You need me.”

“What do you mean?”

“When we met with the transplant team, you selected me as your designated support person. If you do end up receiving a heart transplant, you’ll need me.

Remember how they told us that you’d need that person to look after you before and after a transplant?

I have to stay in your life. You have no one else, Aaliyah. ”

I knew she didn’t mean for her words to sting me, but they did. It felt like a punch to my soul.

I have no one else.

I cleared my throat and blinked away the emotions building up inside me. “If that becomes an issue down the line, we’ll deal with it. I’ll switch it over once I find someone new.”

“But—"

“I’m sorry, Marie. I can’t keep holding on to this.

You’ve gone above and beyond for me over the years, truly.

But now that Jason and I are over, I think it’s time to let go.

” I shrugged my shoulders and grabbed my to-go cup of coffee.

“Maybe some things just aren’t meant to be forever. I’m sorry, Marie. I have to go pack.”

“Where are you moving to?” she asked.

“I don’t really feel comfortable telling you that information.”

She combed her long straightened black hair behind her ears and shook her head. “You’re making a huge mistake, Aaliyah, by walking away from my family.”

It was already happening. She was beginning to shift blame to me, as if I were the one who’d caused the current issues.

She made it seem as if I was the one who had called off the wedding and was severing our connection.

That blame would only build over time, making me the villain in the story.

Leaving now was the best option for everyone involved.

I cleared my throat and stood from the chair. “I wish you the best, Marie, but please, to make this easier for everyone…stop calling.”

I hadn’t received a message from Marie since I told her we needed to cut all ties. Therefore, my attention was completely on packing up my things and moving on from Jason’s world.