Chapter 52 Astrid
ASTRID
“Girls.” Mrs. Hemsworth smiles at us as she opens the door wide. “We’ve been expecting you. Come in.”
I’m so glad Renee and Nikki insisted on coming with me. I’m not sure I’d have been brave enough to come here alone.
“Astrid. Goodness. I almost didn’t recognize you.
” Joe’s mom pulls me into a hug. “It’s lovely to see you again.
I was devastated when you and Joe broke up.
” Sympathy splays across her face. “I’m sorry for what happened with Gwen.
I always thought there was something not quite right about that girl. ”
“Thanks, Helen.” I force out a tight smile, hoping she’ll let it drop.
“You’ll bounce back from this.” She pats my hand, and I want the ground to open and swallow me.
This is one of the reasons I didn’t want to stay in Ryemont this past summer.
I can’t stand all the pitying looks and platitudes.
I know they mean well, and I’m grateful people have taken my side, but there is only so much a person can deal with.
I’d rather people said nothing and just minded their own business, but that’s small towns for you.
“Where do we go, Mrs. Hemsworth?” Nikki asks, and I shoot her a grateful look.
“Follow me.” She leads us out to the informal living space at the back of the house, looking out over the vast gardens at the rear.
Joe is sitting in a wheelchair, facing the window with his back to us.
“Joe, your guests are here,” his mom says. “Can I get you some coffee? Tea for you, Astrid?”
Nikki and Renee decline.
“I’m good, Helen, but thank you,” I add, watching as Joe turns around.
His mom slips out of the room, closing the door behind her.
A piercing blue gaze finds mine and locks on.
I hope the shock I’m feeling is not written all over my face.
Joe’s blond hair is darker and longer, curling around his ears.
Gone is the muscular build of an athlete, replaced with the shrunken frame of a guy who has been through the wringer.
His face is gaunt, and his eyes are haunted, as he comes toward us in his electric chair.
One side of his face is littered with thin scars from the accident, and his nose is misshapen with a bump along the bridge that wasn’t there before.
My natural instinct is to feel guilty because I never came to see him, and I barely gave him a second thought after he came out of his coma. But I swat those feelings aside. I have nothing to feel guilty about. He did me dirty, and I was right to leave him to his fate.
“You look good, Astrid. Different, but good,” he says when he comes to a stop in front of me. “Sit down, ladies. You all look awkward as fuck.”
“How have you been, Joe?” Renee asks, claiming a spot on the middle of the couch. Nikki and I drop down on either side of her with Joe facing us from the other side of the coffee table.
“I’ve been better, but I’m alive, which is a good thing, or so I’m told.”
“I’m sorry this happened to you,” I say, and it’s no lie. I’m not his biggest fan, but I always felt bad his life turned out like this, even if it was partly his own fault. Like how the way my life turned out is also partly on me. My therapists don’t agree, but I can’t ignore the role I played.
Act like a dumb idiot, and you get hurt like a dumb idiot.
“I’m sorry for what Gwen has done to you.” His jaw tightens. “And I’m sorry I didn’t speak up sooner.”
“What’s this about?”
“I have some things to tell you, but the first thing I need to say is I’m sorry.
I’m so fucking sorry for how I have treated you in the past, Astrid.
I was an idiot. I did love you. I swear I did, but I made so many bad decisions when it came to you.
” He wets his lips, looking nervous, and my anxiety spikes.
“Some of this may hurt to hear, but I need to tell you everything because you need to understand how dangerous Gwen is.”
Nikki, Renee, and I trade wary looks.
“Tell me what I need to know.”
“I was fucking Gwen while we were dating.”
“Of course, you were.” I bark out a sharp laugh. “You just couldn’t keep it in your pants, huh? I’m so glad I never fucked you. I would’ve regretted it forever.”
He at least has the decency to look ashamed. “I was a piece of shit. Cheating on you with her is my biggest regret.”
“Save it for someone who cares. My interest in you died way before I ever set foot on the plane to Sweden that summer. If Mormor hadn’t been dying, I’d have broken up with you earlier. I’m only here out of curiosity, so say what you need to say, Joe. I’m already itching to leave.”
Hurt splays across his face, but I don’t have it in me to care if his feelings are wounded. “I deserve that.”
“You do.”
He clears his throat. “Gwen was the one who instigated it. Said she knew I had needs you couldn’t fulfill, but she was happy to. She said you’d never have to know. It was just sex. I should have refused her, but she can be persuasive.”
“We don’t need the graphic details,” Renee hisses.
My head swivels to look at my friends. Both are narrowing their eyes on Joe and obviously pissed. “Go on,” I say in a flat tone, wondering how much more there is to her betrayal.
“After I lost you and Callan was sniffing around, I enlisted Gwen’s help to get you back.”
“She was with Scott then,” Renee says. “Were you still fucking her?”
He nods, and Nikki cusses under her breath.
“Scott was a pawn in her game.” Joe stares at me as he talks. “I don’t know how exactly he fit, but she never shut up complaining about how boring he was.”
“It’s scary how good of an actress she is,” Nikki says.
“She wanted Callan, Astrid,” Joe continues. “When I approached her for help, she readily agreed. If I got you back, it meant Callan was available, and she planned to make a move on him.”
“She set me up that Halloween.” The pieces are starting to fit into place now. “She bought me the sluttiest costume, plied me with drink, and came up with the plan to seduce you to make Callan jealous.”
Joe bobs his head.
There was no end to my stupidity. How fucking gullible can a person be to let someone manipulate them for years? Because it’s clear to me now that’s what Gwen did. “What did you do to me in that room, Joe?” I level him with a sharp look. “What was the goal?”
“The goal was to get you back, and I didn’t do anything to you because you passed out the instant I put you on the bed.”
“Is that the truth?”
“It is.” He maintains eye contact with me. “You’d have known if I did anything unless you weren’t still a virgin then?”
“I was.” I knot my hands on my lap. “If I hadn’t been passed out, what did you plan?”
He purses his lips before saying, “I planned to take your virginity. Not by force,” he rushes to add with whatever he sees on our faces. “I would never do that, but I hoped to seduce you into giving it up to me.”
I don’t know if I believe him. Old me would’ve accepted this, but I’m determined not to be that same gullible fool. “If you didn’t touch me, why was your shirt off, your jeans unbuttoned, and why did you have your hands up my skirt?”
He chews on the inside of his cheek. “I swear I didn’t touch your pussy, but I was running my hands over you, and I laid down beside you, trying to wake you up.”
“You motherfucker.” Renee hops up, enraged.
“I was a piece of shit, Astrid, and I am deeply sorry. I truly am.”
“What else do I need to know?” I clip out, just wanting to get out of here now.
What is with me and my shitty taste in men?
“I believe Gwen tampered with my brakes that night.”
All three of us stare at him with our jaws trailing the ground.
“That’s a very serious accusation, Joe,” Renee says. “I know she’s a crazy bitch, but attempting murder is on a whole other level.”
“Renee, Gwen is a fucking psycho. She is not just a crazy bitch. She’s not sane.”
“Do you have any evidence?” I ask over the lump wedged in my throat.
“Unfortunately, not. My dad tried to get something to pin on her, but my car was wrecked in the smash, and it was too hard to determine exactly what caused the brakes to fail.”
“Why do you think she did it?” Nikki asks, beginning to pace the floor.
“Gwen found me staggering around the side of Thor’s house after the guys knocked me around.
I told her it was no use. That Callan was obsessed with you, Astrid, and you didn’t have any interest in me anymore.
She threw a hissy fit and threatened me if I didn’t keep trying.
I told her I was done with her and I was going to tell you everything.
She said she’d kill me before she let me breathe a word to you. ”
He exhales heavily. “She hit me with a rock to my temple, and I blacked out for a bit. When I woke, she was gone, and I was lying on the ground with blood leaking from a gash in my head. I shouldn’t have gotten in my car.
I think I probably had a concussion, but I wasn’t thinking straight, and you know what happened after that. ”
“Did you tell the cops all of this?”
He nods. “I told them everything, but it was months later, and they didn’t believe me.
I was very confused when I first came out of my coma, and I had some temporary amnesia.
When I remembered, I told the sheriff, but Gwen and Scott had already given statements stating they were with each other all night and the next morning.
The sheriff said I was confused, and it happens in tragic accidents like mine.
” His eyes darken with barely contained rage.
“I don’t care what anyone says though. I know she did it.
I know she messed with my brakes and tried to kill me. ”
He directs his chair forward until he’s right beside me. “Astrid, please be careful. I don’t know exactly what went down with Callan and Gwen or what you’ve been told. All I know is she was obsessed with him, and she wanted him. She would do anything to get him.”
“Well, she succeeded,” I say, standing. “And she’s welcome to him. I am done with them.”
“I’m worried she might try to harm you.” Joe places his hand on my arm, stalling me. “She is very jealous of you, Astrid. She was never a true friend. You might think the danger has passed because she got Callan, but she is a dangerous bitch, and you need to watch your back.”
“I took out a restraining order. She can’t come near me without risking arrest.”
“Just promise me you’ll be careful. Stay well away from her. It’s why I had to tell you, because if anything happened to you and I hadn’t said anything, I would never have forgiven myself.”