Chapter Thirty-Six
“What the hell?” I jump in my seat, the radio going quiet to the sound of ringing filling the car. My heart jumps to my throat as I see Home Calling on the screen.
Shit.
I start to panic, and quickly hit the decline. I’m too fucking close to give up. I’m two hours from Jared’s and I’m wired on energy drinks and anticipation. Major blinks his weary eyes as the ringing happens again.
And I decline it again.
“I have to do this,” I shout at the road. If he just would’ve listened, maybe I wouldn’t be doing this on my own. Maybe he’d be here with me. But he couldn’t get over himself enough to see this through with me.
“And he bailed on me,” I say to Major, trying to rid myself of the guilt.
The car falls into silence for nearly an hour, and I spend it lightheaded with anxiety. The fatigue isn’t great for my POTS, and I know that I’m pushing the threshold of my stamina. But I’ve eaten. I’ve taken breaks. I’ve stayed hydrated. My hands sweat on the steering wheel.
“Forty-three minutes,” I say to Major, breathless.
And then the ringing starts again.
Ugh. Why?
I decline it again, but this time it pings with a voicemail. My eyes widen as my heart leaps to my throat. Pulse in my temple, I press the playback button.
“Hey, this is Jude. You should probably know that he’s coming for you, and he’s not happy. So… You might want to prepare.”
I let the message go, ignoring it. I’ll deal with Luca. One step at a time. This is for me, and that’s what I tell myself as I finish the rest of the drive and pull right up into Jared’s driveway. It’s almost nine in the morning, which means he’s working from home. Alone. I grab the mask from the passenger seat, my heart pounding.
“Come on,” I tell Major as I open my driver’s side door. “I don’t wanna go alone.”
Major hops up from his seat as we make our way to the front of the nice, new house. It’s in a nice neighborhood, and I’m sure he shares it with his new lover, but I really don’t give a shit about that. I walk right up to the front door, my heart pounding and my head light.
And I smash the doorbell.
Major sits beside me, waiting patiently as I ring the doorbell again. I hear someone fumbling inside, so I hit it again.
And again.
And again.
“Hang on, jeez,” Jared shouts, his voice sending a wave of nausea through my body. The door swings open, and he looks up, shocked.
“Whoa…” He peers around me. “Emma?”
Major growls.
He jumps back, wearing a crisp white T-shirt and light wash jeans. “You… You got a dog? Where have you been?” His face fills with emotion. “I’ve been worried sick about you. Have you not seen the news?”
I swallow the lump in my throat. He appears so… genuine.
“Em?” His brows furrow. “Why do you have that thing on your face?”
My teeth start to chatter, and all the confidence I had starts to slip. “Can I come in?” My voice comes out wispy and weak.
“Of course,” he says, giving me a sympathetic smile.
Hands shaking, I start to doubt everything. Jared doesn’t act like someone who wants me dead. He acts concerned—the same way he used to after my mother passed away.
“I should probably call the police,” Jared says carefully as I step into the entryway of his picket fence home. My eyes flicker to a picture on the entryway table. It’s him.
And Melanie.
It doesn’t sting like I expect it to. In fact, I don’t feel anything at all.
“I can put that picture up,” Jared reaches and flips it facedown. “I know how bad it hurts to see that…”
“It doesn’t hurt,” I tell him, reaching up and removing the mask on my face. “Not at all. I’m happy for you.”
“You… You are?” Jared’s eyes light up. But the longer I study his expression, the more I question it. The more I question everything.
“Why did you do it?” I blurt out the words as Major sits down on my foot. “Why’d you hire someone to kill me?”
Confusion crosses his face—and then he laughs. “Let me call someone. I think you’re having another one of your episodes.”
“What? I don’t have episodes.” My fists clench at my sides.
“Yeah, you do,” he says quietly. “You always have, honey. It started after your mom passed. I think you need to be looked at.”
“Stop talking like that,” I snap, my memory suddenly flooding with reminders. “I was grieving not fucking ill.”
“Whoa, strong language,” he gives me a look—his look. The one that comes out when he thinks I’m being too much. “Calm down, Emma. I just need to call the police.” He picks up his phone, but I lunge for it, knocking it out of his hand. He startles backward, slamming into the wall. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Answer my question,” I demand, kicking the phone away. It skids across the floor and thuds against a wall. “I know you put a hit on my head.”
“Stop acting like this,” he grunts, trying to slip past me. I shove him back, and unlike Luca, he loses his balance and crashes backward, his body landing against the cabinets in the adjoining kitchen. “You’re unstable, Emma.”
“No, you’re a fucking coward, playing the nice guy so you don’t get caught,” I seethe, lingering above him.
He peers up at me. “Is that what you think, huh? You think I’m the bad husband? I babied you until I couldn’t any longer, and you just wanted to play the victim. I was fucking sick of it.”
“No, you got sick of me not acting like a perfect trophy wife.”
He eyes his phone in the corner of the kitchen and makes a move, but Major is faster, blocking him in with a snarl.
“Holy fuck, Emma, keep your dog under control.” He raises his hands in surrender.
I roll my eyes and retrieve his phone, unlocking the screen to a picture of Melanie. “Cute background,” I comment. “Does she know how much credit card debt you’re in?”
“Shut up,” he snaps.
“No,” I laugh. “I don’t think so.”
“You’re better when you keep your mouth shut,” he sneers.
I smile. “Ah, there it is. The monster you’ve been hiding for a decade.” I lift his phone up and then smash it against the granite counter. However it only cracks the screen.
“What the fuck?!” Jared screeches, Major growls. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Aren’t you still curious to know what happened to me?” I glare at him. “Don’t you want to know?”
He takes a deep breath, eyeing me warily. “Just let me call the police, and we’ll talk it through with them. You can tell them you were kidnapped, you escaped, and this is all water under the bridge.”
“The divorce was finalized yesterday.”
“I know,” he says through gritted teeth.
“Had to hurt knowing you’re not getting my inheritance.”
“Fuck you, Emma,” he growls up at me, and then begins to stand to his feet. “You don’t know what you’re doing, showing up here like this.”
“I’ll be out of your hair as soon as you answer the question.”
“Okay, fine,” he snorts, leaning against the counter. “You wanna know why I hired someone to kill you?” He laughs, shaking his head and my heart sinks at the sarcastic tone. “It was always going to happen. Do you really think I married you because of anything other than your fortune? I mean, yeah, you were cute and all that. But come on, you’ve always been so… complicated.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means I made a sacrifice for a good life, and I was fine until your mom died—and then you went weird. I was sick and tired of playing the nice guy. I was tired of hiding the other women I was seeing.”
“What?” I catch the plural version, and I get hung. “You were seeing more than Melanie?”
“Of course I was. You weren’t… The sex just… You weren’t ever really my type, Emma. You know that. We made things work because that’s what was expected of us. I was tired of dealing with you, and then you filed for divorce… It was a sign that it was time.”
He was always going to kill me.
“You bastard,” I whisper. “You’re psychotic.”
“I’m a sociopathic liar, talented with appearing to be empathic to get what I want. And no offense, but you were so… gullible. You’ve always been gullible. You have this thing in your head that makes you think you’re smart, but you’re just… not.”
“I loved you,” I say softly. The realization that he never loved me settling in. “And a decade of marriage was nothing but a game for you.”
“It was, I guess. I liked you for a while, but it faded. It’ll fade with Melanie, too, if it makes you feel better.” The sympathetic expression on his face sets something off in me…
And I see red.
“Fuck you,” I shout at him, causing him to jump.
“Never thought you had it in you,” he laughs, shaking his head at me. “Maybe you’re the crazy one.”
I shove him back again, but this time he’s ready. He pushes me back. I stumble backward, but I don’t fall.
“Tough bitch,” he snorts. “So what kept them from killing you? They’re supposed to be the best in the business.”
I smile at him. “I fucked him when he tried to kill me.”
Jared’s face grows red. “So you let some random asshole fuck you? But you cockblocked me for months.”
“You were boring,” I say with a shrug.
“Cunt,” he growls, coming at me. Major cuts him off, knocking him back to the floor, and I burst into laughter. “Get your dog!” He lets out a scream as Major latches onto his arm.
“Apologize,” I snap, ignoring his painful cries. He”s being a fucking pussy.
“Fuck, Emma,” Jared whines. “Fine. Jeez. I’m sorry. You win. Divorce is done. Water under the bridge. Call off your dog.” His voice breaks as a tear rolls down his cheek. ”Please. We’ll go our separate ways.”
I take a deep breath, a foreign emotion washing over me. “Enough,” I call off Major and he returns to my side. Jared grabs his bloodied arm and stands to his feet, grimacing.
“Just get the fuck out of my house,” he groans. “Go live your life, and I’ll live mine. I lost. You won. Good for you. I’m going to clean up.”
I blink as he slides past me, leaving me standing there off the main entryway, halfway in the kitchen. I don’t feel closure. I don’t feel better. In fact, this entire confrontation feels…anticlimactic. And suddenly, I need the one person who would understand me. Luca would know what to do. But he”s on his way here to get his own revenge—on me. I choke back a sob.
“I hope you get killed for escaping,” Jared mutters under his breath. “Stupid whore.”
His words quiet my mind, but awaken something else, something deep in my chest. The only thing I can hear is static, and it”s similar to the same rush I got when I smashed the computers. But this time, the red in front of my eyes fades to black. And before either of us realize what’s happened, the filet knife from the block on the counter is lodged in Jared’s throat.
“What the…” his voice trails off into a gurgle as he stumbles back against me. Blood spurts across my blouse, my chest, and my face. I step back and let him crash to the white tile floor.
He stares up at me, weakly grabbing for the knife. His attempts are futile, and I stand there frozen, mesmerized as the light fades from his eyes.
I finally feel better.