Chapter 4 #2
“Alive?” I burst out laughing. “Are you insane? I mean, yeah, prison almost killed me, but I’m not that weak. As far as being here, let’s just say I got bored."
Complete lie. I haven’t been bored in seven fucking years.
"What about before?" She whispers. Why the hell is she shaking? “The, the funeral.”
"Hell no. You do not get to talk about the funeral. Not now. Not ever...” Rage courses through me. I don’t talk about it. Nobody talks about it, least of all her. It’s because of her!
She swallows hard. “After everything…”
"After…" I repeat. “Are you doing this on purpose? Acting like you don’t know?”
Funny how she can't even say it. After. Shit. I can’t even believe we’re having this conversation right now. I saw it going a bit different but okay, I’ll bite. I lean in closer. “After prison you mean?”
The blood leaves her face completely. “I don’t understand, you said prison, you never went to prison.”
"There it is." I clench my teeth.
Her breathing stutters. “What did you just say?”
I laugh. It's not a pleasant sound. It’s full of pain, drenched in anger. “What? Nobody filled you in?”
“Jude—”
“You testified,” I remind her, taking another intimidating step in her direction. “I went to juvie like you wanted, like everyone wanted. I paid for your lies.”
Silence.
The world seems to stop spinning. "Jude, that's impossible."
"Funny, because it happened." My smile turns vicious. “And I remember thinking that exact same thing when I saw you there on the witness stand, this is impossible, this is impossible.” I repeated it over and over again in my head until I thought I was going crazy.
“Prison.” She repeats like she hasn’t just heard me talking. “S-since when?” Ahh, the sound of panic in her voice may as well be a symphony to my ears. Now she gets it. Is playing dumb and lying just her thing now? Does it come that naturally?
“Ohhhh…” I love the fear in her eyes. It’s delicious, intoxicating. “Since, the beginning I think, since my dad let me know he stamped your application for approval a while back.”
“Three years ago?” Why does she look so fucking hurt about it? She’s lucky I stayed away as long as I did.
“If you’re being technical, I spent time in prison, then I went to school, you signed a lease three years ago, math isn’t really my thing, I’ll let you figure it out, or don’t, I really don’t give a shit.
” I grin. “Sweet dreams… Oh, and remember to carry mace. There’s some real psychopaths out there.
” I wipe the knife on my jeans and wink.
I don’t think she finds it attractive and yet the tiny part of her lower lip wobbles, it’s not a grin not really a frown either, it’s fucking interest. It’s mine.
Just like she is.
She just doesn’t know it yet.
I’ll be whatever I need to be to get her close and then when she least expects it, I’ll destroy her the way she destroyed me.
Tit for tat.
It’s only fair.
She lied. I want to know why. I need to know what she saw.
The past seven years led me to this moment, one I tried to avoid until it was actually unavoidable.
Do I think it’s coincidence that the trail that led me here has her at the end of it?
No. I just wish I could do it without having to deal with her directly without being forced to stare at what I stupidly once thought was my future.
Even at a young age I knew what I wanted.
I thought if I could just stand by her side, if I could just hold her hand, maybe I could face the future despite what my dad had planned for me.
I wonder if my mom thought the same thing once about my dad.
I wonder if he broke her slowly the way Lilah broke me, or if it was sudden, like one day she just woke up and she was married to a monster.
Does it really matter? In the end she lost the daily battle, he won the war, and now I have an entire dynasty to bring down.
Only this time, I’m not the one taking the fall.
She’ll be getting off easy after all, at least nobody will die. Though I have plans for that too. Suffering is always worse isn’t it?
I nod. “I’ll see you around, Delilah.” I use her full name on purpose; the name she’s always hated that truly fits now. The name of a betrayer. A name of someone who’s only out for themselves. A name for liars.
“Jude,” She takes a step toward me. “Why, why are you doing this, what do you want?”
I frown. “I already told you. I own the building.”
“I don’t need favors.” She says quickly her eyes darting to me and back to the ground. “I didn’t know you were in prison.”
Lie. I laugh. “Yeah, okay, I really don’t want to hear any more from that mouth of yours, Lilah.
What’s done is done. I just hope you’re ready for retribution.
Besides, who said giving you cheap rent was a favor?
It’s more, I have you under my thumb and you can’t do shit about it.
Don’t ever mistake my kindness for weakness…
it would be extremely poor judgement on your part. ”
“But—“
“I have an early class,” I say. “And so do you.”
I don’t give her time to say anything else.
But I do see the look of confusion on her face.
Damn, she’s a good actress. Did she really think that the minute I got out I’d search for her?
That I’d find her? To say what? Why? Is that what she wants?
Me to beg? And does she really think I don’t know about the bribe that my family gave her?
I didn’t believe my dad back then and it was still hard to believe him now.
“She took it.” Dad grinned. “She wanted money. I told you she was just like your mom only after what you could offer her, could give her. Women like that are all the same. Your mom would betray me in a heartbeat never forget that.” He sniffed.
“Good riddance. You’d think that she’d hold out for more but it was only ten thousand, imagine, she knows you’re worth millions but was so desperate she only took ten thousand.
How does it feel to know your actual physical worth from your best friend?
From the girl you said you were going to marry some day?
The girl you love?” The knife kept getting shoved deeper and deeper into my chest until all I felt was pain, and then numb, that’s what was left, numbness.
“She’s gone. Left town the minute she heard about your mom. Good riddance.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “She was there, dad, she knows the truth of what happened.”