All of Me

Chapter 6

Her day ruined, Diana chose to go home rather than wedding dress shopping, which upset her because she still hadn’t found a dress. Her feeling were jumbled after the encounter with Ronaldo, so she wouldn’t find anything anyway. He had behaved much worse than she had expected, refusing to accept that she wanted nothing to do with him. And he had grabbed her, something he had done when they were dating. She glanced down at her bicep, frowning when she saw bruises that resembled fingers. Her skin was dark, but not dark enough to hide the marks from Marty. She would have to tell him what happened.

Once home, she called Rena and asked her opinion. “Call Cameron,” Rena ordered, referring to their friend who was an FBI agent. He had graduated with Diana, and Rena had met him a couple of times, enough to understand he and Diana were close, sister and brother close.

“You think so?” Diana asked, nibbling on her thumbnail, a habit when she was nervous or worried.

“Yes, I think so!” Rena exclaimed loudly enough Diana had to jerk the phone away from her ear. “The man is dangerous. He bruised your arm, Diana. He might not have threatened you out loud, but that is threat enough. And he’s probably been stalking you.”

“Stalking me?”

“How the hell did he know where you’d be? You aren’t speaking to him. Somehow he found out where you’re working and followed you. I’d bet a million dollars I’m right,” Rena swore.

Diana nodded, close to tears. She swallowed them before speaking. “Okay, you’re right.” She sighed, and a single tear slipped down her cheek. “I have to tell Marty,” she whispered.

“Yes, you do,” she stated plainly. “He has a right to know. But Marty is level headed. He won’t do anything stupid.”

“No, but he’ll be pissed,” Diana murmured. Her anger erupted. “That son of a bi*ch! He ruined my day, he is affecting my life, and telling Marty is going to be a nightmare! I can’t believe this is happening!”

“All of that is true,” Rena agreed, “but like you have before, you’ll leave him in your past. And to make sure he stays there, you should call Cameron.”

Diana’s face was marred with the frown that deepened as her thoughts whirled in her head. “Should I tell Marty first?”

“Doesn’t matter. Just do both,” Rena told her. Diana heard a voice call to Rena. “Hey, I have to go. Let me know what happens.”

“Will do. Bye.” Diana ended the call and put the phone against her chin, her eyes staring into space as she dug for the right words to tell Marty. He wouldn’t be home for hours, so she unlocked her phone and found Cameron’s name in her contacts. After two rings, she heard his voice, deep and somber as always, answer.

“Hi, Diana! How’s life?”

“Hi, Cameron,” she smiled. Though they were the same age, he felt like a father-figure with his booming voice and large body. After the usual platitudes about his family and her fiancé, she said, “I have a little problem, Cameron, and I was wondering if you could help me.”

“Anything,” Cameron replied instantly. Diana had introduced him to his wife, the love of his life, and for that he was eternally grateful. “What’s up?”

“Well…” she began, embarrassment flooding her face with color even though he couldn’t see her. “Um, do you remember Ronaldo?”

“Of course. Has he contacted you?” His voice had changed, was harder and no longer friendly. He remembered Ronaldo because the last time he saw him, Ronaldo had tried to fight him, accusing him of screwing around with Diana. When Diana had tried to intervene to tell Ronaldo to get out, he’d lifted a hand as if to hit her. Cameron had wanted to beat him to death, but he’d knocked him out cold with one hit instead. They’d left him lying on the pavement outside of Diana’s mother’s place where she had been living.

“He texted me a while back, can’t remember when. Very persistent. I answered him, told him to leave me alone. He continued to text, so Marty and I decided to change my number,” Diana told him. “That’s why I texted before I called, so you’d know who I was.”

“Good thing,” he grunted. “I don’t answer unknown numbers.”

“I know,” she chuckled. “Anyway, today I ran into him at the Starbucks around the corner from the building where I work. We had a…an altercation.” She repeated the conversation perfectly, told him about leaving the Starbucks, that Ronaldo had followed her and grabbed her arm in a vise grip. “I have bruises on my upper arm I’ll have to explain to Marty,” she finished.

“He grabbed you so hard your arm is bruised?” Cameron asked, his calm voice containing a bit of an edge.

“Yes. I tried to walk away, he didn’t want me to,” she explained, shrugging as if he could see her.

Cameron sighed over the phone. “Take a picture of the bruises, just in case we need proof he’s been physical with you. Also, did you save the text messages?”

“I got a new phone and number, like I said, but I have the old one. They might still be there.”

“Go ahead and contact your phone company. They can send you a transcript of all the texts from that billing cycle. Keep those as well as the picture of the bruises,” Cameron told her. “How did he know you were at the Starbucks?”

Diana frowned, thinking about Rena’s statement. “I have no idea. I just assumed he happened to walk in there.”

“You’ve never seen him there, not once?”

“Um…” Diana knew she would remember if she’d seen him. “I’ve never seen him. I didn’t think he even lived in this area.”

“He doesn’t. I just looked him up. Dude lives in a different county, about sixty miles away. And as far as I can tell, he wouldn’t be in this area for work,” Cameron explained slowly, as if he was reading the information while he spoke.

“What are you saying?” Diana asked as fear snaked down her spine. Cameron thought he was stalking her as well. “If you’re suggesting he was there just because of me, I don’t see how that’s possible. How would he know where I am? I haven’t spoken to him since we broke up.”

He interrupted her. “Social media?”

“I blocked him on everything, and I don’t friend people on Facebook or allow people to follow me on anything if I haven’t met them in person,” Diana assured him.

“Hmmm,” Cameron hummed through the phone. “What about Marty?”

“No way,” Diana defended. “Marty has accounts on Facebook and Twitter, but I can’t remember the last time he was on either one. And he wouldn’t be friends with that asshole.”