Chapter 60
Chapter Sixty
J
The plan is going off the rails. Fast.
Kelly is pacing up and down in front of me, growing more and more agitated.
Elise is standing like a hulking presence, ready to stomp me into the ground.
“I can’t believe this,” Kelly mumbles. “I can’t believe I trusted you.”
She’s the one who feels betrayed?
I swallow hard.
I need to steer Kelly back on task. “I do feel sorry, Kelly. I saw what your husband did to you, and I wanted to help you. That’s why I stepped in. I didn’t know I was getting in your way.”
“You’re so stupid for someone who’s supposed to be so smart.” Kelly rolls her eyes. “Shawn never laid his hands on me.”
The entire world blinks out for a second.
I stare up at Kelly. Shadows play across her face, and moonlight glints against her manic smile. She looks so perfectly put together except for the dark black mascara dripped down her face like dried, caked-on blood.
I realize the truth in an instant. “You threw yourself down the stairs.”
Kelly looks amused by my horror.
“Why?” I croak. “Unless…” It hits me like a boulder. “This isn’t the first time Shawn’s tried to divorce you.”
“That selfish prick. He tries every few months, but he was being especially persistent. I had to show him that he’d lose more if he let me go.”
“Do you have any idea how sick that is?” I rasp. “To lie about—you’re spitting in the face of every woman who’s ever been abused.”
“It’s not my fault. It’s Shawn’s.” Kelly rakes her hands through her hair. “That stupid pre-nup was ironclad, and he didn’t even make me the benefactor of his insurance policy. He left that for one of his bastard children.”
I swallow hard. “Y-you knew he was cheating?”
“Of course, but I didn’t care. It’s not like we were sleeping together anyway.
He’s as selfish in the bedroom as he is with his pocketbook, so it was no skin off my back.
” She kneels so we’re at eye level. “My plan was brilliant. Shawn finally understood what was at stake. He’d either lose his pristine reputation or he’d stay married.
He came to the hospital ready to make the right choice until you. ”
Kelly grabs my hair and yanks my face close to her.
Spit flies on my cheek as she hisses, “You sent him a Jinx text, and suddenly, he had two crazy women on his back—one telling him to get divorced and the other telling him to stay married.” She smiles.
“I have to give you credit, J. Shawn was more afraid of you than he was of me.”
My heart patters, and my watch is starting to scream.
Kelly giggles. “That sound means it’s working, right?” She turns to her sister. “That watch records her heart rate.”
Elise nods. “Kardimonex was originally developed as an emergency anti-arrhythmic drug, but it was recalled after unexplained cardiac arrests.”
“You’re going to die of a heart attack,” Kelly whispers to me, her eyes glittering. “And no one will suspect a thing.”
I grit my teeth and use my non-trembling hand to push myself to a sitting position. “Your crimes will come out… eventually.”
Kelly’s grin widens with amusement. Her voice is sickly-sweet. “That’s not true, J. I’m going to bury you right where I bury all my secrets. They’ll never see the light of day.”
“Secrets never stay buried.” I rub my chest. “You should know that… Budget Kelly.”
Flames erupt in her eyes, and she flings her hand, slapping me across the cheek. My entire body twists from the force of it, and I slam to the ground.
The throbbing in my face pales in comparison to the tightening of my chest. I try to push off the ground, but my strength fails me, and I slip, crashing to the floor. Everywhere aches, but I know I can’t stay down.
Painfully, I turn and face Gina again.
Her face is red, and her chest heaves violently.
I smile, emboldened by her rage. If I’m going to die, I might as well take one more secret down with me.
“You had similar faces, but Kelly was more popular than you. More accomplished than you. More wealthy than you.” I take a breath, ignoring the roaring of my heartbeat in my ears.
“You stood in her shadows, longing to be like her while wishing she would blip out of existence. You loved her and you hated her at the same time. Is that why you killed her?”
Gina grabs me, and I scramble to my feet as she shakes me like a rag doll. “Who the hell are you to say that? Kelly was the pathetic one. She had parents who were willing to give her everything. Everything. Fancy clothes, parties, a new car.”
“And Jonathan.” One corner of my lips arches up in a trembling smile. “Kelly had Jonathan.”
Her eyes take on a dazed look, and I know, in an instant, that Gina still carries her first love in her heart. “I loved him so much, but Kelly was all he could see.”
“You were hurt, so you wanted to hurt him back,” I croak, finding it hard to breathe. “People kept telling you that you were worthless, so you wanted to make everybody feel worthless. You started with Kelly. That’s why you lured her out.”
Gina shakes her head, and her hair flies wildly around her. “Kelly was the one who wanted to meet that night. She was upset about Jonathan. She pushed me first.”
Elise steps forward, hissing. “Stop.”
“She’s going to die anyway,” Gina snaps at her sister.
She looks down with confidence, as if she’s spent years telling herself a lie that she now believes.
“Kelly was mad at her parents, mad at Jonathan, mad at the world. It was an accident, but honestly, I don’t regret it.
I put her out of her misery. Just like I’m going to put you out of your misery. ”
With the last bit of my strength left, I step forward. “You’re the miserable one, Gina. You killed Kelly, and then you convinced her grieving parents to take you in as their adopted daughter. But they didn’t love you. They dumped you in the psych ward.”
Gina’s eyes widen and she grabs my neck. “Shut up.”
“Now, you’ve taken on Kelly’s identity, and you married Shawn. But he doesn’t love you either. Deep down, you know why everyone keeps rejecting you. Jonathan. Kelly’s parents. Shawn. You left your small town, but you never stopped being… Budget Kelly.”
Eyes enraged, Gina pushes me backward. My entire body jolts as we hit the edge of the roof. I grab her hand as the rails dig into my back. Cars zoom below, horns beeping as bumper-to-bumper traffic creeps across the tarmac. The city is alive and roaring, ready to feed.
I whimper and look over my shoulder. The ground is so far below and covered in shadows that I can’t even see what’s beneath us. The parking lot? A garbage can? Hell’s gates?
“What are you doing?” Elise grabs her sister’s arm.
“She’s not dead yet,” Gina snaps. “Why not?”
“The drugs will stop her pacemaker soon enough. Stick to the plan.”
Gina brushes Elise off, her eyes gleaming as if she has a fever.
Or she’s possessed.
“Change of plans.” Gina’s knuckles dig into my upper jaw, and I struggle to breathe. She’s crushing my windpipe. “What if you took a nice, long dive off this roof?”
“Y-you’ll never get away with it.” I cough between each word. “Someone will find out.”
“Who? Dr. Kenji? He’s the only one who cares about you.”
Her cruel words hit their target, and I flinch.
“Sad little Jinx. You were so depressed about your heart condition that you wanted to end it all. So, you came up to the roof. I tried to stop you, but I just couldn’t get through to you…”
I make a gargling sound as Gina shoves me farther over the railing.
My feet float off the ground.
I feel the wind tugging at my shirt and hair, fighting to drag me down.
An excruciating pain splits my body apart, and I groan, clutching my chest.
“Oh? It hurts, doesn’t it? Don’t worry.” She pushes me even farther so I’m almost lying flat on the railing. “It’ll all be over soon.”
“No…” I choke.
“I’ll be at your funeral telling everyone what a good friend you are. Goodbye, J.”
I scramble to catch a hold of Kelly, but my nails dig into her skin and then slide off. The scream gets trapped in my throat as I fall off the roof.
Gravity sucks me down like a tornado.
My heart lodges in my throat.
It takes everything inside me to tap my watch, initializing the sequence I worked on with Henry while I drove to the hospital. My heart pounds at an insane clip as if I might die before I even hit the ground.
But I’m not supposed to hit the ground.
At any moment, a fleet of window-cleaning drones are supposed to whirr in my direction.
None show.
I tap my watch again.
What?
I’ve been hacking the smart systems of the hospital for years. There’s no automatic feature out of my grasp. Why is it failing me now?
“Sparky?” I panic.
Nothing whirs into sight.
The cleaning drones aren’t coming.
Pride cometh before a fall.
Gran used to say that all the time.
I squeeze my eyes shut, bracing myself for the smack of my skull on concrete.
I’ll see you soon, Gran.
In seconds, it’ll all be over.
I brace myself for the end as I slam into the ground.
But then, without explanation, I bounce right back up.