Chapter 4 #3
“The truth is what I say it is. She testified, there’s nothing else I can do son.
I’m sorry to give you this lesson but this is how you protect your family and those who truly love you.
This is love. It’s better you see it now than later when it’s not just a year or two in prison.
You’ll be out on good behavior, and you’ll be doing multiple favors at once.
Think of it as a gap year to save your family, we have too much to lose. ”
“Gap year.” I repeat. “Sorry dad, I don’t think that when college students think about gap years they imagine fucking prison!”
He sat back against his leather chair, it tightened and moved as he moved his weight. “Yeah, well, it’s either that or…” He drummed his fingertips against the table and chuckled. “The easy way out.”
I looked up. “The easy way out?”
He reached into the top drawer and pulled out his old revolver. “One bullet. You take the fall. A life for a life. The easy way out. Death.”
The hard way out. Life. Time.
Tears burned the back of my eyes. “And when I’m out.”
“Your life is still mine.”
“And hers?”
“She bought her freedom, you’re halfway there, Jude.”
I hated him. I hated him more than anything in the world.
And I hated that he turned the one person I had with me against me.
I had nobody to turn to. My mom was dead.
My dad was a monster and my best friend just fucking sold me for thirty pieces of silver.
It was getting harder and harder to breathe, so I closed my eyes and tried to find my peace.
Except, my peace was her smile, her eyes, her mouth, and I realized that peace was a lie, for me there would never be peace, because peace and Delilah were the same thing.
And both were dead to me.
I don’t turn around to see if Delilah’s still staring at me.
Instead, I keep walking to my car and when I get in and start the engine I look up.
Her light is on. She’s standing at the window.
I say nothing. Adrenaline courses through me, so rather than go back to my place, I drive down the street and do exactly what I told her I wouldn’t do.
I wait.
I wait to see what else I don’t know. I’m finally back in town for good since all roads led me back to the Dean’s List—stupid name for my dad to come up with, but brilliant way to get people off his back and too afraid to do anything.
They think it’s about students and teachers, so while the world is focused on drama like reality TV—he continues to spin it around with business deals, crime, bribery, and drugs.
Sounds about right.
I check my phone and start looking through all the cameras at his place near campus and then the cameras at the closest company here.
She works there.
That’s all I know.
Out of all the legit businesses he owns—it’s my favorite, it’s the one my mom begged him to acquire. He rarely pays attention to it; my adopted Uncle is the one who runs it which means I need to put in a call to my cousin.
“Yo,” My dipshit cousin answers. “Bro, it’s been weeks, thought you went underground or something, what’s going on?”
“I decided to take the job so it looks like I’m in the area for good. Thought I’d check in and see you. Can I crash at your place if we get drunk? I’ve been living in a hotel for a few days while I get my apartment all set up, and you know I’m sure as hell not going to my dad’s place.”
“Yeah, I was hoping you’d take it! Come by, I’ll give you the code, I’m at work now, we’re completely slammed and two of my regulars can’t come in, one sick and shit I gotta go?—“
The line goes dead. I shouldn’t question myself but I do.
I stare down at the piece of paper in my hands, the one that brought me here, and shudder. How did this person even know I was asked to apply here? Furthermore, how did they know I had unfinished business?
Harvard had offered me the position two weeks ago.
A stupid amount of money, which I didn’t need.
It offered prestige, recognition, everything any sane person would have wanted.
The envelope arrived the same exact day.
No return address, no stamp. It just had my name on it.
I almost threw it away, almost. Instead, curiosity got the best of me, or maybe it was the handwriting. Inside was a single piece of paper.
Three lines.
“If you want answers about your mother, stop looking forward. Go back. Finish what she started.”
It was the first clue and it was what brought me here. I’d been following Lilah for a while plotting revenge, planning carefully for the time I’d come back and throw everything in her face, I just didn’t realize it would be this soon or that it would all be connected to the cryptic letter I got.
It seems, I can’t escape her no matter what I do, at least now I can kill two birds with one stone.
I plan on waiting for his text, but after ten minutes I see the front door to the apartment complex open again and Lilah steps out. She’s dressed warmly. She looks like she’s in a hurry.
And like the stalker I am, I take it as an invite, and follow her as she drives off. Maybe it’s because I don’t trust her, or maybe it’s because I want to insert myself into every crevice of her life until she finally admits that she was wrong, that she lied, and that she’s the reason I suffered.
When it comes to her there is no line I won’t cross. She’s mine to punish. Mine to break.