Clark
PRESS PLAY
“I knew it. Thank you. Oh, don’t worry. They will be safe,” I said before hanging up the phone.
I had just added another piece to my puzzle, knowing it would be everything I needed to bring the Tyrant down. This war was coming to an end, and I knew that with this, he would be begging me to take the leash off his neck.
I glanced around my office before everything I knew of this place was gone. Since Cynthia was adamant about selling the place and I wasn’t moving smartly when I added her name to the deed, I unfortunately had to see it through.
The home I believed would transform my heart became a place of lovelessness for years.
It was now being shopped around to someone else.
Everything I knew was slipping through my fingers while karma was sitting back, enjoying the view.
However, I was going to be the one laughing in the end, showing karma who was really the fucking boss.
When I heard the front door open, I shot up. No one had been here for days, so who was taking it upon themselves to enter my kingdom unannounced?
“Clark!” I heard Cynthia’s voice.
A piece of me was oddly happy to hear her. I eagerly hurried into the foyer to greet her.
“Sweetheart,” I called out.
Unbothered by my words, she looked at me as if she wasn’t happy to see me.
Was there nothing there at all? I knew I had my moments, but Cynthia always found space in her heart for me, even on my bad days.
Or was it the idea of going through this war alone that bothered me?
She had been my backbone for over thirty years.
With every dirty deed, every scheme, and even the moments I was on my best behavior, she stood beside me, and now we stood here like strangers.
“I came to tell you that I have decided not to sell the house.”
A smile eased on my face because this was the woman I knew. Maybe I had underestimated her. “I knew you would change your mind.”
Still with no love in her eyes, she reached into her purse and handed me an envelope.
“Cyn, what the hell is this?”
“It’s your portion for the house. Clark, this house now belongs to our great-grandkids. Hope, Peace, and Savior.”
“Cynthia, I know goddamn—”
“You know what, Clark?” she shouted. “You have destroyed every goddamn thing you’ve touched.
You are an evil man, one I should have—” She paused as she started to cry, “—never been with. You took June from Grace. You lied, leaving him in that house knowing how Matthew was. You’ve cheated countless times, and you killed my baby. Clark, there is no forgiving you.”
I moved forward, and she stepped back. “History isn’t enough to save what’s been broken for years. I’m leaving, and if your things are not cleared out by tomorrow, they will do it for you.”
Something in me changed, something that screamed don’t let her go.
Who would I turn to when I needed to talk about things?
Who would I turn to when I needed a problem solved?
Cyn was truly turning her back on a marriage that had lasted over thirty years.
There was no out in this marriage. I couldn’t let her just walk away; not only did she know too much, but she had my heart somewhere in there.
“I gave you my life, and you give me your ass to kiss?” I pointed.
Her eyes closed tightly as the tears streamed down her face. “Clark, you do not love me. You love the idea of what I can be for you. You walk around with clean hands while others are dirtier than the ground they walk on. You’re evil, soulless, and everything about that screams death.”
I began to scoff before it turned into a sinister laugh. My face morphed into that of a monster, while my inner workings melted into that of a man struck by fear.
“You-you sound like my mother, Cyn, and you know how I feel about her,” I stuttered.
She nodded. “I know, and that’s why you hate him.
You hate him because he isn’t like us, weak and ready to bend at your request. You hate him because you cannot control him, just like you could not control Grace.
He’s going to kill you, Clark, and if you knew what was best for you, you’d get the hell out of dodge. ”
My hand wrapped around the back of her neck as I pulled her in. “One last dance, please, sweetheart?”
She tried pulling back, but I pulled her ass closer. “No, shh, just dance. Thirty years and I can’t dance with my wife before she walks away from me?” I said as I slowly began to rock side to side.
“Clark, you’re hurting me!” she shouted.
I ignored her screams as I continued to move across the foyer floor. My hand slowly eased up her back around her neck.
Squeeze.
“You betrayed me, Cyn,” I gritted.
Her hand began clawing at mine. Her eyes grew wide as she struggled to breathe. This reminded me of my first kill. The look of her life flashing before her eyes, the look of words she regretted saying, the tears of sympathy. I squeezed tighter.
“I am in control, and not you or that fucking Tyrant will change it.” I shook her so hard that I heard a light snap.
She sucked in a gasp, and as that last tear rolled down her face, one rolled down mine because the one person who promised they would love me until death loved me until she was backed into a corner.
I released Cyn’s lifeless body and stepped over her, thumbing the single tear that had betrayed me. It would be the last time I’d shed one.
The one thing Cyn was right about was control. I was God, and if the Tyrant couldn’t understand, then he, too, was doomed.