I found it deeply ironic.
Did Dana really think this was about money?
He kept talking.
"Pamela, but I have one condition too."
"This whole thing started because of you. Bella got hurt because of you, so you're going to apologize to her. She's all alone in New York with no one to lean on, and while she recovers you'll stay at the hospital and take care of her. It'll be the perfect chance to clear up the misunderstanding between you two."
"I'm saying this for your own good. I can't stand the thought of you losing a good friend."
I couldn't help laughing, and my voice came out cutting.
"You're so good to me. So thorough, thinking of everything on my behalf."
I'd raised it before, that I wanted to buy my mother a home so she could live out her later years comfortably.
I'd use all my savings and never touch a cent of his.
But at the time Dana had frowned and said,
"Pamela, our families are already worlds apart. My mother has never approved of me marrying you. If you blow through all your savings now to buy your mother a house, my family will think you're calculating, deliberately leaving yourself a way out."
I didn't want to put him in a difficult spot, so I let the idea go.
And my mother went on living in that same old house.
Yet now, for Bella, he was more than generous, ready to hand me a whole villa.
And still calling it doing me a favor.
He really did take me for a fool.
I laughed, cold. "Dana, I told you I won't marry you. We've already broken up. Do you not understand plain words?"
"If you care so much about Bella, then you go take care of her. Why should I be her unpaid nanny? And why on earth would I need to apologize to her?"
Dana's face began to sour with impatience.
"Pamela, don't be so ungrateful."
"She jumped off a building just to prove her innocence to you. She nearly died. She cares that much about your friendship, and you can be this cold-blooded?"
"She thinks of you at every turn, and all you've done is push her toward death. How can you be so selfish? You misunderstood her and slandered her over some passing prejudice of yours. Do you have any idea how long Bella cried over it? And then you deliberately wrecked her reputation, made everyone think she's a mistress who wedged herself into her own best friend's relationship. Shouldn't you be the one apologizing to her and admitting you were wrong?"
I looked at him.
"That's right. I did nothing wrong."
"Every bit of the wrong here belongs to the two of you. You shouldn't have done things that gave people the wrong idea. Stop making excuses."
"If she isn't a mistress, then why did you kiss her?"
Seeing that nothing was getting through to me, Dana forced down his temper and said,
"I won't make you nurse her for free. I'll pay you well for it."
"As long as you go public and say everything you posted was fake, that you were the one smearing Bella, I'll give you anything. Name your price."
Without a moment's hesitation I hurled the bottle of antiseptic at him.
And turned to go.
I should have seen it long ago.
I was the one who was slow and stupid, letting myself be deceived this far.
So it turned out Dana cared about Bella even more than I'd imagined.
And what was I to him, really.
Behind me, Dana's voice rose in anger.
"Pamela, you'll regret this."
