Chapter 80 – Bonnie
BONNIE
Her husband groans, finally waking up and his eyes flutter open. His eyes widen, and for a moment, I think he’s actually concerned for his wife, but his eyes look right passed her to me.
“You,” he spits out and I give a little wave, sitting back in the chair I claimed after tying his not so perfect wife to hers.
“Me.”
“You’re alive.”
“I am. Oh, don’t look so shocked. We both know the two of you not only knew, you arranged for Johnathan to kidnap me with orders that I never be found again. Spoiler alert, I was found. You really should have accounted for him-” I point to Mitchell, “-in your plans.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I snort at his lacklustre acting skills and roll my eyes.
“Of course not. Just like you know nothing about the PI you hired to find me. The three of us had a great chat.” Well, Mitchell and he did.
“What, you kill him too?” he sneers, and I hum, not correcting his assumption.
“Maybe.” We didn’t. “Would serve him right. Afterall, imagine our surprise when we realised it wasn’t you who deleted the emails between you to cover your tracks. It was him.
“Now, why would an innocent man do that instead of going to the police when he realised he had been used to help kidnap two people?”
“What did you do to him?”
I shrug. “Let’s just say…he won’t be taking anymore jobs.” Ever. I don’t know what was in the envelope Mitchell handed him, but he assured me it was more than enough to ensure he never worked another day as a private investigator.
I watch as their throats contort, and they share a worried look. “What’s wrong? Nothing to say?”
“What do you want?” she cries, and I tilt my head, pondering her question. For the longest time…I wanted them dead.
I used to daydream about their deaths, along with their son’s, in the early days of my imprisonment. I’ve pictured at least a thousand different ways to make them suffer, to make them feel even a scrap of the fear and pain their son made me feel.
“Do you know what today is?” Why am I not surprised at the confused and blank look on their faces? “Figures you wouldn’t remember the day you condemned me.” Afterall, it was just another day for them.
“Did you know every time you came to visit, that he had me locked up beneath your feet?” My voice rises and I stand, no longer able to sit still. “Did you know what he was doing to me?”
“No,” her husband answers after a long pause and I narrow my eyes, not sure I believe him.
“Would you have helped if you did?” They both look away. “Well?!” I scream.
“He was my son.”
“He was a monster!” I whip my shirt over my head, not giving a fuck that it leaves me standing before them in my bra. “Look what he did to me! He kept me in that cage like a fucking dog for two years!
“He carved each of these into my skin for his sick satisfaction. And when he grew tired of that-” my voice cuts off, emotion clogging my throat. “-he starved my baby to hurt me. He forced me to carve into my own skin with his knife before he would feed her. That is who your son was.
“If either of you had had a shred of decency, you would have helped me that day. Then I wouldn’t be covered head to toe with these scars.
With the physical reminder of the torture, I endured because you-” I turn to her husband, “-called me dramatic. And you-” I look at his wife, “-said it wasn’t my place to tell him no.
Then you both called him and told him where I was. What I was trying to do.”
Picking my shirt up off the floor, I stare down at the fabric in my hands, trying to shove the kaleidoscope of memories back where they belong, in the past.
“Tell me…what do you think you deserve? If the roles were reversed. Do you really think you deserve the money, the houses, your freedom, any of it after what you and your son did to me?”
“And you think you do? He was our son, and you killed him!”
“Yes I did. And you want to know a little secret?” I whisper, putting my shirt back on. “I enjoyed it.”
And there it is, my real secret.
I killed my husband.
And I loved every second of it.
“I enjoyed hearing his screams. Watching the life drain out of his eyes. He died painfully, you know. In the very basement he intended for me to spend the rest of my life in.”
Reaching behind me, I grab the knife I brought with me, running my finger up the blade. They both shrink back in their seats at the sight, making me smile. It’s not the same knife I used on their son, but it’s pretty close to it.
Stepping up to my ex-mother-in-law, I kneel down and run the blade gently across her ankle, mesmerised by the light pink line that forms. “I enjoyed slicing through his ankle with the very knife he used on me. The knife he forced me to use on myself.” She jumps, whimpering and crying as the cool metal brushes her skin.
I look over at her husband, half expecting him to tell me to leave her alone. To say something, anything to defend his wife, but I shouldn’t be all that surprised when he stays quiet.
“He deserved everything he got. So did Johnathan. So do you.”
“So, what. You’re going to kill us next?”
“No,” I say after a long pause, standing up and tossing the knife on the table.
There was a time when I wanted that. Then I met the lawyer who has been in charge of Michael’s Will and listened to him detail everything they’ve done over the years to maintain their image and try and get their hands on everything. “I’m not going to kill you.”
Killing them wouldn’t really make them suffer. Life isn’t what they desire most. Their image is. Their money and status.
Despite what their son did, they managed to maintain that image. All of their ‘friends’ turned their backs on them when the public learned of their son’s crimes. Yet, with money, they managed to claw their way back.
They might think themselves better than everyone else, but they have no one in their life who actually cares about them. No one who would remember them or try to help them if they disappeared. And I can’t prove just how little they mean to this world if they’re dead.
Mitchell reaches into my ex-father-in-law’s pocket, grabbing and unlocking his phone without asking for the password. I don’t need to see the screen to know what he’s doing, what he’s about to show him.
I just sit back at watch it happen. Watch the shock on his face turn to denial, then outrage.
“I’m erasing you.” From this day forward, they don’t exist. Their money is gone. Their records and names erased from every system, including Michael’s birth certificate which we left untouched.
Mitchell has been working hard the last couple of months to ensure there’s no trace of them left in any digital system and their never will be.
I watch as it sinks in, as she realises what this means for her. Then I plunge the syringe I’ve been hiding into her neck. The liquid inside the syringe disappears into her bloodstream, and Mitchell does the same to her husband. Within seconds, they’re both out cold.
Mitchell checks his phone then nods at me, and then we leave, walking hand in hand away from that horrible house.
As we turn onto the next street, I see the nondescript van drive passed, disappearing around the corner to clean up the mess we left for them.
I told Mitchell I didn’t care what happens to them after this and I meant it. I don’t care if they take this opportunity to try and start a new life from scratch, with no name or money to get them started. Or if the crew he’s sending in now kills them.
I don’t care either way. I don’t want to ever think about them or their son again. And after today, I don’t have to. Both of their houses are set to be demolished by the end of the week.
Gone from this earth.
Forgotten.
Erased.
Just like they deserve.
Meanwhile, I have people who will always remember me. People who love me as much as I love them. People who are waiting for us. Waiting to show Mitchell and my daughter every inch of the town we grew up in. To share that love with our growing family before we return home in a week.
It's still a little hard to believe sometimes. It feels like a dream.
I have Charlie and Jace.
I have my daughter.
I have Mitchell.
I have everything.
Mitchell holds the door open for me, and I climb inside of the car, pausing when I spot the rainbow off in the distance and smile.
Huh. Guess I was wrong…guess there was a happy ending at the end of the rainbow after all.