I freeze, the blood draining from my face.
What the actual fuck? What have I done?
What a horrible, dangerous thing to make up.
“That’s not true!”I yell, storming toward him.“I didn’t say that!We didn’t sayanythinglike that!How dare you twist something around that was said with kindness and compassion?! Why are you lying to her?!”
But Timmy ignores me, smirking as he continues to twist my words into something vile. “Nope! That’s what they think of you, Mom! They think you need to be in a home!”
His mother’s panicked voice crackles faintly through the phone, but I can’t make out her words.
I can’t believe the lies coming out of his mouth. He’s said some really fucked up things in the past, but weaponizing something said with love and using it to terrify a woman who’s already going through so much? I have no words.
“Stop lying!” I scream. Blood thumps in my temples, and I probably sound unhinged.“Shut the fuck up, Timmy! You’re hurting your mom for no reason! Why would you do this?!”
He smirks, his voice mockingly low and steady. “Calm down, Margaux. Just be honest about what you said about my mom.”
No doubt his parents can hear me yelling and swearing. But I’m so upset for his mother, and I just want him to stop lying to her.
I hear her sobs through his phone, and guilt shreds at my heart.
His words are daggers, designed to provoke me, to make me sound like the villain.
I can see what he’s doing, and I know it’s deliberate.
But what stuns me the most is that he doesn’t care that his evil lies are hurting his mother—only that they’re upsetting me.
“You’re a monster,” I whisper, my voice shaking.
His grin widens, and he hangs up the phone. “Wow,” he says, leaning back against the wall. “You’re so dramatic. You really need to calm down.”
As I sit on the bed later, shaking with rage and disbelief, I replay the scene in my head.
Timmy didn’t just twist my words—he weaponized a moment of kindness and compassion and turned it into something grotesque.
And for what? To hurt me? To make his mom distrust me? To sow chaos for the sake of chaos?
I glance at him on the other side of the bed, now dozing peacefully as if nothing happened.
How did I get here? How did I let someone like this take up space in my life?
It’s not the first time he’s done something like this, and it won’t be the last. I know that now.
But I also know something else—I can’t keep living like this.
Something has to change—because if it doesn’t, he’s going to destroy me.
And he’s going to enjoy every second of it.
CHAPTER 94
A VILLAIN SO GRUESOME
MARGAUX
Things were starting to look up for a moment—Timmy had been helpful, kind even, taking care of small chores and doing little things to make my life easier. I allowed myself to feel a flicker of hope, a whisper of trust rebuilding.
But deep down, I should have known better. Every time I let my guard down, he proves that my faith in him is misplaced.