Chapter 35 #2
‘I don’t know what to believe any more. Please.
’ She started choking up. All she wanted was to talk to her son, get the truth out of him and protect him.
If someone was setting Craig up, would this person use her to get to him or was he nothing more than a fall guy?
Or was he just a liar? ‘You’re right about one thing, when this is over, I do want a divorce.
He can have you. Actually, I bet he doesn’t even want you because look at you, Craig.
You’re pathetic.’ She stared at him. ‘You make me sick. I hate you.’ She reached down and untied Pixie.
‘But—’ He clenched his fists and the moon’s light caught the veins in his temples throbbing.
It was time to make her escape. He wasn’t going to tell her where Danny was and he was angry.
She stood and sprinted as fast as she could, dragging Pixie along.
He was right behind her, his pincer fingers pressing into her shoulders.
A thought flashed through her mind, one of her husband and Simeon together.
Her husband giving his bracelet to him. Craig stumbled to the floor and let go. ‘You’re disgusting, you know that?’
He didn’t need to respond. She knew she was right and Craig knew that his world was about to come tumbling down on him in more ways than one.
Once this was over, she was going to grovel like hell to Pia and Lindy to make things good between them.
Maybe she and Pia could support each other through the hell of their shared experience of being cheated on.
‘You say a word about seeing me tonight…’ He stood up straight, brushing his hands together to get rid of all the dirt he’d just fallen in.
‘And what?’
‘You will never see us again. I will do anything to protect Danny.’
‘You mean to protect yourself?’
‘Both. Don’t underestimate the lengths I will go to, Justine. Was it you who decorated the apartment?’
‘What are you talking about? What apartment?’
‘Don’t give me that, you must have followed me. Are you setting me up? Getting Danny to lie like that came a bit too easy, didn’t it?’
‘What? You think I murdered Kain? Get real.’
‘Innocent little Justine.’ He paused and smacked his lips together. ‘I know what you did.’
‘What?’ She scrunched her brow.
‘You think I’m stupid, don’t you? I’m not and I don’t care but there are others who will care about what you did and it will blow your pathetic life apart.
’ He laughed. ‘I will find a way out of this but you, I will make sure you get nothing when all this is over. You will never see Danny again because, guess what, he already hates you for leading the police to me and making him lie, and he chose to come with me instead of staying with you. Why, because you’re a piece of shit and he knows exactly what you’ve done.
I told him everything and he chose me. That hurts now, doesn’t it, Justine? ’
‘What do you mean, what I did?’
‘You know. You bloody well know.’
How? Justine struggled to swallow the lump in her throat.
She knew how. Her cheating husband was in a relationship with the very person who would tell him everything.
How his tone had changed. The man before her was some kind of monster given how he’d messed up.
Yes, she’d done something terribly wrong but not as bad as the things he’d done.
Was he trying to justify his behaviour or even excuse it?
No, his was way worse than hers. Just looking at him made her want to throw up.
If it wasn’t for Danny and the fact that he’d be in big trouble without Craig to take the blame, she’d hand her husband to the police on a platter but she couldn’t lose her son to whatever stupid mistake he’d made.
She wouldn’t say a word. Protecting Danny was her number one priority above anything else.
Heart pounding, she needed to get as far away from him as possible.
She turned and ran, dragging Pixie along, choking on the sobs that filled her throat while hoping that he wasn’t behind her because now he knew her secret, she was a sitting duck.
And what did he mean by set-up and decorating the apartment?
She tore through the trees as far away from him as she could get.
She lost him and hurried back to her mum’s, past the creepy scarecrows.
That’s when she heard the cracking of a branch coming from behind the hedge.
Coils of vapour snaked up above the hedgerow.
She knew that Danny had started vaping. She inhaled and was sure she could smell toffee apple, or something sweet and fruity.
‘Danny, you’re scaring me.’ Had their son seen everything?
Had he followed them or hid out while Craig attacked her?
He’d stood by and let it happen – her own son.
The coils of vapour vanished. Her every instinct was yelling for her to hurry back to her mother’s and lock the door, but she couldn’t help stepping forward to part the shrubbery.
The only clue that someone had been there was the lingering scent of vape juice.
He’d gone. Pixie whined and wagged her tail.
‘Toffee apple,’ she muttered. She knew Danny had used vapes despite her telling him she disapproved.
He obviously didn’t want to talk to her yet.
She dragged Pixie and darted to her mother’s without looking back. Lindy was missing. Kain was dead and Craig mentioned that there seemed to be another victim. Was she next? Her phone beeped.
It was an Instagram message from an anonymous user with no profile or posts. Her jaw began to tremble. How could her own son do this to her?
The truth is coming out. Everyone will know what you did and they will all hate you. You’re a skank!