Chapter 21 #2
Leaves and twigs cover my arms and legs, and dirt lays on top of me. He buried me, thinking I was dead. He buried me so I’d never be found again.
He thought he killed me, but I survived.
“You’re quiet. That’s never a good thing, Kelsey. Talk to me.”
My husband always knows when I’m getting lost in my own head, a dangerous place to be for someone like me. In his sweet way, he somehow always manages to rescue me before I get in too deep. If he didn’t, I’d drown in those terrible thoughts I can’t seem to stop.
I look over at him and smile. He isn’t looking at me, so I feel okay doing that.
“Just thinking. I never thought this day would come. You did, though, didn’t you?”
He glances over at me and nods. “I was going to do anything I could to make sure it did. You know that, right?”
I don’t answer, but I give his hand a squeeze to let him know I never doubted him for a second.
The justice system? I doubted it would ever catch up to Connor.
But not my husband. Not the person who’s been with me every day since the horrible events of that night and all the terrible things that followed.
I wish Samantha could be here with us. She should be since she suffered as much as I did because of that night.
Never able to overcome the guilt she felt for letting me go with someone like Connor, she lived in torture before taking her own life right after Christmas three years later.
I never wanted that for her, but no matter what I said, she could never shake the feeling that she was to blame for what happened to me.
She was wrong, though. She didn’t ruin my life.
He did.
And now he’s going to pay.
After parking the car, we walk along the sidewalk surrounding the courthouse. My husband holds my hand and brings it up to his mouth to place a kiss on my knuckles. He’s sweet like that. Always has been. I saw that in him the first time I met him that terrible night.
“Are you ready for this?” he asks as he stops the two of us before we walk up the stairs into the building.
I nod, suddenly feeling like I’m going to burst into tears.
I hadn’t expected this to be so emotional.
For months, we made our plan to get revenge on Connor.
Then nothing went right. First, I was careless and let him see me at the grocery store.
I worried that may have ruined everything we had planned.
Then we followed him that day when he went hiking, but before my husband could carry out his plan to attack him, the man he was with started waving that gun around. Of course, once he shot himself, Connor ran away like the coward he is, leaving his friend to bleed to death.
Yes, his friend accidentally committed suicide. So why didn’t the coroner see that? Why did he rule it a homicide?
Fate helped with that in the name of my cousin, Joseph Murray. It was he who alerted me to the fact that Connor had moved to that community. One day, the phone rang, and there he was giving me the news that would change my life.
And Connor’s.
My cousin knew what I had endured. The multiple surgeries to repair my face that never quite did the job. The years of therapy to help me come to grips with the horrors I experienced that night. The loss of my friend and the guilt that came from her taking her life.
He knew and sympathized with me. Then one day, my revenge landed on his examination table. Bryan Corsei and the unfortunate circumstances of his death would finally give me the closure I’d always wanted.
A just ending for someone who deserved so much worse.
Even more than my cousin helping, all of the people in Connor’s life helped bring about his fate.
Just as I had endured people’s hurtful whispers and judgments since that terrible night, as soon as there was even a hint that he wasn’t the great guy he pretended to be, they went after him.
I have to admit they surprised me with how fast they turned on him.
Unfortunately, they turned on his wife and daughters, but all Jamie had to do was put a little distance between them and Connor and everyone saw they didn’t deserve any of the attacks.
I never wanted to hurt her or the girls.
In fact, I can’t tell you how many times I had to force myself not to tell Jamie what kind of man her husband really was for all those years.
That wouldn’t have worked, though. I’ve seen countless women defend rotten men from rumors of bad behavior in my lifetime.
No, it was necessary that she see who Connor really was all on her own.
Only then would she understand she needed to abandon him to save herself and her girls.
Today, my husband and I will watch as the jury comes back with their sentence.
Connor was found guilty of murder, mostly because he was too cheap and too cocky to hire a good lawyer.
If he had, he may have gotten off since a decent attorney would have been able to at least cast doubt on my cousin’s coroner report.
Now we find out how long Connor will spend in prison.
Not that it will ever be long enough to make up for the murder of that poor old man and what he did to me and what his actions made Samantha do to herself.
If he spends every day of his life behind bars from today on, that still won’t bring two people back to life and give me all I could have had.
But I’ve learned that you have to deal with what you’re handed in this world. Sometimes it’s the worst thing you can imagine, but through it all, there can be some happiness. You just have to let it in.
Rich cradles my scarred face in his hands and smiles down at me. “I’m right here with you just like I have been since that night. We’ve waited for him to get what he deserves, and today the wait is finally over. No matter what that jury comes back with, he’ll finally pay for what he did.”
I nod, loving the feel of his palms resting against my cheeks. “I know. I’ve been thinking we’re lucky. I never wanted you to be tainted by all of this, and when yet another person died around Connor, it all came together. I’m just thankful Joseph did what he did so you didn’t have to do anything.”
He smiles and leans down to softly kiss my lips. “I didn’t care what I had to do to make him pay, Kelsey. I’m glad your cousin could help, but I was ready to do what had to be done so Connor Jennings pays. He had to suffer for all he did. He had to.”
I nod and walk up the courthouse stairs as I remember Connor has had nearly twenty years of the life he wanted. He got the nice house, the beautiful wife, and the lovely children. He got the admiration of his community and his coworkers.
He got all the things I had dreamed of and that he stole from me that terrible night for nearly twenty undeserved years.
Sometimes I wonder what all our lives would have been like if Samantha and I hadn’t stopped at that convenience store on her way to her grandmother’s house.
Would she still be alive because she didn’t blame herself for what happened to me?
Would I be the television news reporter I dreamed of becoming in high school?
For all the horrible things that sprang from that night, one wonderful surprise did come out of it.
Rich has been the rock in my life I needed.
He didn’t have to step up and give me support when I was in the hospital and unsure I’d ever see the day Connor would pay for all he did.
Or maybe he did because of the man he is.
I didn’t tell him the truth of what happened to me for nearly five years, but I think he suspected his friend was guilty all along because he never told him what happened to me that night.
He let him believe I’d left him alone in those woods.
My husband wanted to tell the police that day I finally felt comfortable enough to share my story, but I didn’t.
Telling the police would mean I would have to go through a trial, and I knew I’d be dragged through the mud by Connor’s defense in their attempt to save him.
I couldn’t risk that. Connor Jennings looked like a golden boy with the job and the house and the family to show he couldn’t possibly be the person to leave me for dead after beating me senseless.
No, I wasn’t going to let any slick attorneys put me on trial. There had to be a better way of getting him to pay for what he did to me and that poor old man that night.
And then one night as I lay in bed wondering what my life would have been like if only I hadn’t met him that night, it came to me. He had to lose everything, and I had to make sure of that. In the middle of one of the worst times of my life, I finally figured it out.
I had to be the one who exacted revenge.
Rich and I take our seats in the back of the courtroom where Connor’s fate will be decided.
I see him at the defense table and notice he isn’t smiling like he was during the trial.
Well, all the time except at that perfect moment when the jury found him guilty of killing Bryan Corsei.
Then he looked like the pathetic man I always knew he was.
The female judge enters the room and sits down before the jury of five men and seven women files in and takes their seats in the jury box.
As my heart pounds in my chest, I listen as the foreperson announces Connor’s fate.
I tighten my hold on Rich’s hand and hold my breath as she goes through the necessary information about the case and then says the most satisfying words I’ve ever heard.
Not the most beautiful or any I love the most. Those belong to my wonderful husband.
No, hearing that woman with the short gray hair and soft voice say Connor Jennings will spend the rest of his life in prison fills me with utter satisfaction.
He finally will get to experience what I’ve lived through for all these years.
If there’s any justice in the world, he’ll get to spend twice as long as that behind bars.
Rich looks over at me and smiles. “Ready to go?”
I nod and stand to leave just as I watch Connor turn around. When he sees me, his eyes open wide in utter shock. You thought you killed me that night, you son of a bitch, but I hung on until someone found me. Now you get to know what it feels like to be trapped in a life you never wanted.
The last thing I see is the sheriff slap the handcuffs on him and lead him away to prison. He looks back one final time, and I give him a smile just like I did that night when he came running toward me after beating that old man to death.
That’s for him, for me, for Samantha, and for everyone you hurt in this life, Connor.
I notice his wife and daughters aren’t in the courtroom as we turn to walk out. In fact, there’s no one seated on his side of the courtroom.
A fitting end for a killer.