Chapter 18 #2
The enclosed reception area was an odd structure beside the staircase. Thick windows surrounded all sides except the back wall, reminding me of banks. It was empty.
I scooted quickly across the grand foyer and made it to the opposite hallway. As my footsteps quickened, my eyes scanned the labels of the room. No names, just numbers.
I scoffed. To protect the occupants of this so-called wellness retreat.
1006
1008
1010
I turned right. An unseen force dragged me to the end of the hall.
1012
Of course, he needed a corner room. Two walls of picture windows facing the manicured lawn. Was this what Theo meant when he said he wouldn’t be doing harm again?
I slid the cover of the window on the door. A man was sitting in a chair and staring outside into the dark.
Jeremiah.
His head had been shaved for the surgery. The hair was growing back now, obscuring the scar courtesy of Kolya’s bullet. The bullet scars I’d given him were on his chest and shoulder.
I gripped the handle, and it didn’t budge. It was an electronic lock. I shook it as if sheer will would magically open it.
Jeremiah’s head tilted my way. He blankly stared at the opening in the door. He could only see my eyes.
“You don’t get to hide from the world and forget your sins.”
His expression didn’t change, and he turned his head back to stare outside.
“In case you don’t know, it’s Chloe. Remember me? You killed my mother.”
He didn’t react for a few seconds, then his shoulders rose and fell twice before he got up.
My heart rate escalated, hammering madly inside my rib cage.
His movements were slow. Measured. I wasn’t sure to what extent he had regained mobility.
His eyes appeared in the clear strip of glass. Slate blue and expressionless. He could be on meds.
“You’re angry,” he said.
“You don’t get to tell me how I feel.”
“It’s obvious.”
I unleashed my accusations. “You killed them. The women.”
“They deserved to die.”
His words made me flinch, but it wasn’t still a confession.
“And my mother?” My voice pitched into a thready whisper. “You killed her too?”
“Renée,” he said her name in a bland voice.
“You did, didn’t you?”
His eyes flickered. “I was told I did.”
“Told? By whom?” My laugh caught in a sob, broken and ugly.
“I remembered carving the word whore,” he replied. “I don’t remember much after it.”
“You’re telling me you don’t remember killing my mother?”
He shrugged.
My chest tightened. “You’re messing with me.”
He sighed as if exhausted and then looked away. “That’s the truth.”
“Look at me.”
He did. His eyes veiled an expression that looked a lot like calculation.
“You’ve got a sick mind, Jeremiah. They finally locked you up and you’re trying to rewrite your sins and absolve yourself.”
“They locked me up because I ceased being useful.”
My breath skittered. “Useful to whom?”
“Why are you here, Chloe?”
“I want the truth. Did you kill my mother? Yes or no? That’s a simple question.”
“They got to you, didn’t they?”
“What?” I whispered.
The silence stretched between us until finally, he said, “My mind is susceptible.” His words were devoid of emotion. Like he was a robot. “I was given things that molded my reality.”
“Drugs.”
A faint nod.
“That doesn’t absolve you!” I cried. “You still killed them.”
His gaze darkened. “If it makes you feel better to think I did—”
“Stop messing with me!”
He shrugged. There was no regret. This fucker needed to go to jail. Not live out his life in a five-star wellness resort.
He backed away from the door. He was ending our conversation.
“Wait!” My voice caught in the fury churning from inside me. “Tell me where you put my mother!”
He paused in his retreat. “She’s long gone, Chloe. No traces left.” His eyes flickered briefly. “Sister…you have to move on.”
“I don’t forgive you!”
“Asking for forgiveness means regrets. I don’t regret my actions.”
“You monster.”
He nodded briefly then turned away. “Be careful who you trust.”
I slammed the window shut. Shit, they might be looking for me now. When I made the turn into the main hallway, my heart nosedived to my feet.
Kolya and Theo were stalking toward reception, and they were arguing.
I barely controlled my gasp. There was an emergency exit near Jeremiah’s room, and the alarms would go off if I opened it, but I had no choice.
I ran past his room and pushed the bar of the emergency exit.
Alarms blared.
Shit.
It opened onto an outdoor patio with chairs and fancy landscaping.
Fucking resort, isn’t it?
I ignored the voice. So it was back. That insidious voice that slithered back into my consciousness when I was barely coping.
Jeremiah’s revelations.
I needed to get out of here. What was Theo doing with Kolya?
I felt betrayed.
Wait. They. Could Jeremiah have meant Theo?
I ran and plunged into the darkness of damp mist and soggy grass. It squelched under my feet. I landed in puddles and mud.
“Chloe!”
Kolya’s voice.
Dammit.
“Chloe! Stop.”
I didn’t stop.
It was as if the devil himself was chasing me. I fell, but I didn’t stop forging forward, crawling to stand and cartwheeling my arms, and running faster.
You’re not going back.
Your son is safer with him.
Your son doesn’t need you.
He has his father. You are a danger to your son.
What was my son’s name? Oh my God. I couldn’t remember.
It’s not important. You should forget him.
Okay.
“Chloe!”
The voice sounded closer. I sped up. I made it past the clearing, concealing myself in the canopy and shadows of trees.
My feet throbbed. I think I sprained an ankle.
My entire body was screaming with pain. I encountered barbed fencing, but that didn’t stop me.
My fingers felt a hole in the fencing like someone had already cut through and tried to escape.
Barbed wire pierced my flesh. A strangely liberating pain. The need to bleed. The need to redirect my senses to physical agony other than the crippling compactor chaos of voices mashing my skull until I wanted to howl.
I burst through only to skid to a halt.
A cliff. That was what the fence was guarding against. I peered over it. No water to break my fall. Just a yawning emptiness with no end in sight. Yet it beckoned with tendrils of peace…or the promise of it.
“Chloe…”
I was weary of my existence and my name. I glanced over my shoulder. “You win. My son is yours.”
“What are you talking about, princess?”
I turned around.
Kolya was inching closer. I couldn’t interpret his expression. It was too dark. We were all shadows under the gloomy sky of a clearing thunderstorm. Lightning continued to wreak havoc in the distance. Now and then it cast a sinister flash across Kolya’s face.
A few feet away, parallel in approach, was Theo.
“I’m an unfit mother.”
Kolya squeezed his eyes shut. It was hard to discern his expression from my declaration, but his despair reached out and touched the hollowness at the center of my chest.
“No, you’re not.”
“You said so.”
“I most certainly did not. For fuck’s sake, Chloe, don’t move!” It was the first time I’d heard panic in his voice. Kolya never lost control.
“I need to end it.”
“Oh dear God, don’t, Chloe,” Theo pleaded, desperation punctuating his words. “Don’t. We can talk about this.”
End it. Jump. It’s the only way.
“She said it’s the only way.”
Stop the drama. And just jump, bitch!
I spun around and stepped into the abyss.