Chapter 9 #4
“I always wondered how some of Jemmy’s clothes ended up under my bed,” Drake said grimly.
“When I asked Tracey how they got there, she said they must have fallen under there when she was putting away the laundry.” He turned to look at me, pain flooding his eyes.
“She never put away the laundry. That was my job. That’s why my drawers were all messed up too. ”
“You think she did it, but how?” I asked, hugging him close.
“I’m sure we’ll find out,” Drake’s voice hitched.
“You’re not leaving me,” Tracey screamed in Damon’s face, spittle landing on him.
“Why not, Tracey?” Damon asked. “You’re barely home anymore.
I’ve been raising our kids on my own since Jemmy was a newborn.
We haven’t been intimate in years. I’m tired of being your punching bag.
I’m tired of you tearing down Jemmy and making her lose any sense of self-worth she needs, especially in these formative years. I can’t do this anymore.”
“I won’t sign any divorce papers. We can drag this out in court for years. Can you afford that?” she smirked.
His nostrils flared for a moment. “Can you?” he inquired.
“You’ve been hiding money from me,” her eyes narrowed on him. She seemed to be back to this song-and-dance routine.
“Have I?” he shrugged carelessly.
Out of nowhere, she struck him in the face, leaving scratches from her nails on his cheek, inches from his eyes. He calmly reached into his pocket and began to dial a number. Before he could hit send, she snatched the phone from his hand and threw it against the wall. It shattered into pieces.
“You really think I’m going to allow you to call 9-1-1?” She let out a manic laugh.
“What happened to the scratches on his face?” Anna frowned. “Didn’t anyone think that was suspicious?”
Drake began to respond when everything around us began to pulsate. I had never taken acid or any drugs for that matter, but I imagined this was what it would feel like. The walls seemed to melt away, and our surroundings seemed to fade. I closed my eyes as nausea washed over me.
“My visions show me relevant information, though sometimes they skip around,” Patrick said as I let out a sound of distress.
I opened my eyes to see that we were now standing in the kitchen, and Tracey was furiously talking on the phone. She hung up when Damon returned to the house from the garage.
“Where are my keys, Tracey?” Damon sighed wearily. “I’m going to be late for work, and I have a huge pitch today.”
Tracey shot him a look of fury. “When were you going to tell me that you were pitching an app to a well-known company?”
Damon cursed under his breath and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
Tracey laughed coldly. “You didn’t think I would find out, did you? That’s why you’re so determined to leave me now. You’re that confident it’s going to be picked up and that you’ll be rich, after years of me supporting your ass.”
“You made a little more money than I did in the first few years after college, but you forget my grandfather left this house in my name only. For years, I had to hear you go on and on about what you did for this family, and I let you. Be honest with yourself: the house is mine, my vehicle is mine. My paychecks go toward our groceries, utilities, electricity, cable, and phone bills. Your paychecks? They go to the luxury vehicle you had to have. They go to the designer handbags and clothing you don’t need to show off for people who wouldn’t know the difference between a Hermes and a bag you got from Target.
You don’t support us in any way, and,” he smirked, “reality’s going to be knocking on your door soon enough.
Good luck, sweetheart.” He opened a drawer filled with junk and pulled out his keys.
At her look of shock, he shook his head.
“If you ever cleaned around here, you would realize I always kept spares. My lawyer will call yours about when you need to vacate my home and when you can see the children.”
“I’ll just go pick up the kids now. What are you going to do then?” she smirked.
Damon looked down at his watch before smiling. “I already emailed the teachers and told them you can’t pick them up. Once my lawyer gets all the pertinent information, he’ll be filing for me. I’ll get emergency placement for them.”
The smug grin faded from her face, replaced by pure rage. “What. Did. You. Do?”
“I didn’t do anything,” he said with a weary sigh. “You did. Why is Jemmy wearing a cast?”
She paled for a moment before her lips curled into a sneer. “I told you she was goofing around in the store and fell. I can’t help it if your daughter is just as clumsy as you.”
He let out an incredulous laugh. “Is that your final answer?”
“It’s the fucking truth,” she screamed. She seemed to overreact to a simple question. My stomach roiled, assuming why she was so angry.
He made a buzzing noise. “Wrong answer. I noticed how Jemmy seemed even more frightened of you than normal. A couple of nights ago, after I tucked Drake in, he told me she said that you did it. You got so angry at her that you snatched her up by her arm. When she tried to get away, you slammed her against the shopping cart repeatedly.”
I gasped, hearing my shock echoed in Drake’s sharp intake of breath. I looked at him with wide eyes.
“I don’t even remember how or why Jemmy had the cast,” Drake said, frowning in discomfort.
“It was a traumatic time in your life. It’s easy to forget some things. You were young,” I soothed, leaning into him.
“That seems like an awfully big thing to forget,” Kade frowned. “Drake was what… twelve? You should have remembered.”
“I should have,” Drake said, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes.
Damon huffed, bringing our attention back to them.
“What kind of mother does that to her own child? You have Drake and Jemmy for eight hours tops every other week. I can’t remember the last time you actually acted like a real mother.
It bothered me. I even gave you excuses, thinking you didn’t have a great relationship with your own mother. But this. This is unforgivable.
“And to top it off, you weren’t shopping for groceries. You were picking up condoms. I got a vasectomy after Jemmy because you didn’t want any more children. Why do you need condoms? We wouldn’t need them, and we haven’t been intimate.
“Come on, Trace, normally you can come up with lies a lot faster.”
“She lies,” Tracey’s face was pale now. “And the condoms were for a friend.”
“You know what doesn’t lie? Cameras,” he coldly regarded her. “I went to the drugstore. I told them my situation. The manager on duty remembered you. Said you were screaming at Jemmy the moment you walked into the store.”
“She was the one who insisted you take Jemmy to the hospital after she heard her screams and ran over. Jemmy was nearly inconsolable, and her arm was swollen, yet you refused to take her and told the manager to mind her own damn business.
“Does any of this jog your memory? What did you do next?”
Tracey opened and closed her mouth. Clearly at a loss for words. When they didn’t come, tears filled her eyes. They weren’t sad tears though. They were more like tears of frustration.
“You brought her home. You made Drake take care of her while she sobbed and cried for the next hour. Then Drake had to call me, asking me to come home and take her to the hospital. Where were you? Where were you!” he screamed, causing her to flinch.
“You were on the back deck, drinking wine and talking to your lover,” she opened her mouth, and he cut her off.
“Don’t lie,” he hissed through clenched teeth. “Remember the phone bill I pay? I asked the phone company for the records. You spoke to your lover the entire time our daughter lay in her room with a broken arm.”
“I was going to wait to tell you the real reason we’re leaving, but you’ll find out by the end of the day.
Hope the police officers don’t embarrass you too much in front of your ex-lover and current lover.
” He snorted, opened the door, and paused.
“For years, you kept your ugliness toward Jemmy hidden from me. I wasn’t aware how bad it was until recently.
I don’t know why you dropped the mask these last few weeks, and honestly, I don’t even care.
All I know is I will protect my daughter from you, especially since you escalated to physical abuse.
I can’t and won’t allow you to hurt her any longer.
“My lawyer will have all the evidence of your infidelity if you try to fight me on the divorce. And if that isn’t enough to make you think twice before challenging me, I’ll make sure Denny Dawson’s wife gets copies of you two in the hotel a few days ago.
You could probably have played it off as a business meeting, but the photos of you two on the balcony of a hotel room are very clear.
There’s no doubt who you were with and what you were doing.
” He gave her a fake frown. “Isn’t Denny the son-in-law of the owner of the company you work for?
I can’t imagine the CEO or his daughter wanting to continue employing a married woman who was well aware of his marital status.
That is, if you still have a job after the police visit you sometime today. ”
“Damn,” Anna muttered. “He was more than prepared.”
“And she’s angry enough to do something about it,” I said, my stomach sinking in trepidation.
Damon slammed the door behind him, and Tracey seemed momentarily shocked before panic crossed her features.
She turned and ran after him. Drake’s dad hadn’t seen her enter the garage as he started the vehicle and buckled his seat belt.
As he looked down, Tracey threw open his door.
Sparks seemed to leap from her fingertips before she pressed them against Damon’s pulse in his throat.
His entire body seized and jerked violently.