Chapter 10
After that excruciating breakfast, I’m back in my room trying to figure out how to get out of here.
The whole time I sat there, all I could think about was what do I do so that my son doesn’t realize how much we look alike.
He was my spitting image and that was my punishment.
Of course, I didn’t want him to look like Edwin or anything but for him to look so much like me made me wish that I prepared myself for seeing him.
He was a happy kid and I knew it because throughout the entire breakfast, he was smiling and asking Alaric, his father, all sorts of questions.
He wasn’t the least bit concerned with getting yelled at or anything like that.
He talked about what he was doing today in school, the project they were continuing and my heart further broke.
Alaric didn’t see it but it didn’t mean that he wasn’t looking for it.
I was told to come and change because we were going somewhere.
I had no complaints. Why would I when I was figuring out my plan on how to get the very same devil on my side?
I needed to play that wife. The one that would crawl if he asked her to because I had a vendetta.
There was an unspoken promise in the air for me and it was geared toward Edwin.
Even if he didn’t know it, I knew that he owed me his life.
He owed Alaric his family too. I may have been driving the car but Edwin was right behind me not giving me the space to leave him.
He would have killed me too if he had the chance but I’m not giving him that, three peoples’ blood will forever be a stain in my hands.
They didn’t deserve that, especially the little boy and the unborn baby.
Another reason I couldn’t keep my baby was because I felt I didn’t deserve him. How could I be happy when I took someone’s children away from them?
Celebrating life while you’ve taken three away makes zero sense to me, I didn’t deserve happiness, I knew that and that’s why I wasn’t searching for it. Instead, I was looking for redemption and revenge. The only words that I could have.
I know it was wrong of me to want Alaric to care about me enough to help me destroy Edwin but I had to try. Something had to give and if I was going to die doing that then finally, I would get the chance to give his wife and child a good enough apology.
Edwin was and is the main reason my family and I aren’t close. I’m sure they saw what happened with the accident and I thought I saw my father at the hearing but I wasn’t too sure because I was still pretty banged up.
My family warned me about Edwin saying that anyone who wanted to rush to marry me and isolate me from my family wasn’t good for me but I thought I knew better than them. Who were they to tell me what I could and couldn’t do…
Now, all I had were regrets and nothing else left.
I shake my head as I come back to the task at hand. Wear what he said. I was Alaric Crowne’s wife. The wife who murdered the wife.
There was no way that Alaric wasn’t insane because only a person like that would do that and not care about the press nor the media.
I slip out of my shirt but then the door opens and I scramble to cover it all up; the cigarette burns and scars I received in jail.
It is silent so I don’t say anything, I slip my shirt back on and turn to face Alaric. There’s no way to read his facial expression or rather the look in his eyes.
“Turn back around and remove your shirt.” He says.
“What?” I ask because he said he didn’t want that from me so why would he suddenly think that’s what should happen.
“You heard me, Juliana, you’re not deaf. Don’t start to act like you are now. Turn around and take your shirt off.” His command is felt at the tip of my spinal cord.
“Please, don’t make me.” my voice is small and I just can’t.
“Do it.”
Tears fall down my face. “Please… it doesn't concern you. Please.”
“You’re my wife. Everything including the fact that you have double ear piercings is my concern. Now turn around and remove your shirt.”
I sniffle as more tears fall down but I do what he says. The memory of what happened is something I block out because there’s no use of telling anyone. I know he had something to do with it and that’s why he wants to see. To marvel in disfiguring me more than Edwin did.
At least what Edwin did healed and there was no scarring of that but with Alaric, he made it permanent. No one else is that depraved.
I lift my shirt and there is no sound coming from Alaric or any acknowledgement. After a moment, I hear the door shut and that's when I realize that I’m breathing again.
He is more of a monster than I thought… I should leave. I have to leave but then I stop myself because how can I when I need him now.
Sighing, I release another breath and get dressed. After all of that, I put my hair back in a plaited style french braid tucking in my side bangs since I haven’t really been able to properly get them cut.
The pantsuit that Alaric has me in screams money. I’m not shocked that it's my size nor am I shocked at the shoes being my size. I wear the red Jimmy Choos that compliment the black suit.
I make my way to the only place I know Alaric is waiting for me, the foyer.
He doesn’t acknowledge me or say anything else.
He looks different than when I saw him this morning, his buzz cut makes his dangerous eyes pop out more and in the suit, he looks less like Alaric Crowne the businessman and more like a hired killer.
He walks with his hands in the pockets of his gray suit. Him and Cassius are the same in not wearing ties. While Cassius looks like he has a gentle side when he smiles, Alaric doesn’t even give that vibe.
Once we make it to the car, Cassius looks back at me as he sits in the passenger seat then looks at Alaric.
“Where to?” he asks.
“The prison. Gotta check something out.”
I didn’t ask why we were going to the prison, instead I sat back quietly. I didn’t want to know anything that would further push me into running again.
Once we got there, Alaric got out first and came around to open my door but the driver beat him to it.
Alaric didn’t look at the driver, instead he looked at me as I got out.
“What were my rules? Did you already forget them?” He asks.
“No.” I look down.
“Nobody opens the door for you but me, got that?”
“Yes, Alaric.”
“And if they open it, you don’t get out.” He lifts my head with his knuckles under my chin. “Look at me when I address you.”
“I’m looking.”
Alaric doesn’t say anything. Instead, he just stands there, staring at me as if there is something else he wants to say to me. More things to spew my way.
“The things I do for my wife.” He says with disdain in his tone. “Let’s go.”
We walk into the same prison that held me for five years, my home, since I had no home to go back to.
Once we get to the warden’s office, Cassius is the only one to address him as Alaric sits down and with his eyes tells me to sit down as well.
My old CO walks in not even five minutes later and I sit up straight. He looks my way and his eyes widen with fear. Something I had never seen in his eyes. He was cruel to me courtesy of Alaric Crowne he’d say.
“Sit down.”
Alaric tells him as Cassius pulls up a chair for him in front of where Alaric is sitting.
There’s usually a table here but the warden must’ve taken it away some time. I only came in here a couple of times.
The CO sits down with a smug look on his face. Alaric moves slowly and quietly like a cobra ready to devour its prey. He’s closer to the CO as his elbows rest on his thighs.
“What was it that she didn’t give you that you scarred her?”
My eyes widen and I open my mouth to deny it all. Alaric lifts one finger up and I shut up.
“Nothing. This bitch is lying. I did nothing to her.”
Alaric scratches the tip of his nose as if his nose is irritated and sniffs. “Lying about what exactly?”
“Everything she told you. I did nothing to her.” He looks at the warden. “I told you she came to me wanting me to talk to you so she could get you to talk to Mr. Crowne about lessening her sentence. She wanted contact with him, remember?”
The warden opens his mouth to speak but Cassius moves over to where he is and sits back on his desk. The warden blanches and does not utter a word.
“I didn’t do that, Ala–.” He puts up that damned finger again, shutting me up.
“I must be a fool then, huh?” Alaric asks.
“A fool?” The CO repeats. “No, you’re not. Not at all, Mr. Crowne.”
“No, no, you can be honest. I’m a fool for marrying someone who was looking to hook up with a guard to get some word to the warden. A guard that didn’t want her so he taught her a lesson. Right? You did that? For me, I’m assuming.”
“I did.” He nods.
“You did it because you understand my pain of losing a wife and children. For not being able to take care of them enough before they were taken from me. Despite all the money in the world and the facilities to go to, they didn’t survive and died the same night.
That’s why you did it for me.” Alaric nods.
There was a certain anger radiating from Alaric. I could just tell. The tension in the room was thicker than any that I’ve ever felt. I didn’t understand what was about to go down, which was my problem. Alaric reaches out for the CO’s neck at lighting speed and brings their foreheads together.
“Thank you for fucking up my wife’s body because she killed my other wife.
Thank you for scarring my son’s mother because you felt you were doing me a service.
That you were loyal to me although you’ve never met me.
Thank you for bringing my godly status so much higher than it needs to be.
I’m so overwhelmingly thankful and I’d like to show you my appreciation. ”
There was no time to process as Alaric leaned his head back and brought it back head-butting the CO. He didn’t get a chance to recover as Alaric stands with his hand still at the nape of his neck. He brings him to his knees in front of me.
“Apologize.”
“Alaric…” I say not out of enjoyment but fear. I’m afraid of this man and what he can do.
My eyes profusely blink as the CO apologizes.
“Kick him in the face, Juliana.”
“What?” My eyes widen.
“No?” He asks. “Guess he’s going to learn my way then.”
Before I could even begin to understand that, Alaric pulls him back and drops him to the ground.
He climbs over him and he rains his right fist in his face over and over again.
There are no words exchanged. No way to stop him.
The CO is coughing up blood at this point and I feel bad. I shouldn’t but I do.
“Okay! Okay! I’ll do it!” I yell out.
Alaric doesn’t acknowledge me until Cassius taps him on the shoulder twice. Alaric stands and lifts him up by his neck again placing him on his knees in front of me.
“You think they’re red for no reason? We came for blood, now collect.” Alaric says with a cock of his brow.
There’s no mistaking the misting look in his eyes and I lift my leg up and kick the CO in the face, more blood gets on my heel and suit.
He drops him and I stand because Alaric begins walking away but then he walks back over to the body.
He pulls out a cigarette pack from his pockets and lights up taking a puff.
I didn’t know he smoked. I watch as Alaric crouches down and puts the cigarette out on the CO’s cheek, right under his right eye.
The CO cries out and the plush carpet is ruined with urine.
“Don’t ever put your hands on my wife again or call her out of her name. Let this be a lesson for this city, matter fact, the entire world. I terrorize her myself and I don’t need anyone’s help. Fix yourself up, you look beat. My advice, stop smoking. It’s a bad habit.”
Alaric gives him a couple light slap and walks out leaving Cassius to walk me out.