Chapter 20
CHAPTER
Rhett
The Present
IT WAS RIDICULOUSLY easy to find a YouTube video on how to remove an ankle monitor. I watched a few before putting it into practice. I couldn’t believe it was that simple, but ten minutes later, my ankle was a lot lighter.
I shoved the monitor in the nearest drawer and hoped I could figure out how to put it back on.
My phone buzzed with an incoming text, and I briefly closed my eyes, already knowing it would be Marty.
Marty: I’m here. Where are you? I hope you’re not thinking of standing me up. That wouldn’t turn out so great for you.
I had no idea why Marty was doing this, after all this time. What did he hope to gain from ruining my life? We hadn’t seen each other since that night. It would almost make sense if he had tried to bribe me at some point for cash, but no, he seemed satisfied with going nuclear on my very existence.
For a brief time, I thought we were friends.
Yet, looking back, I could see more clearly, with the benefit of hindsight, that we never had been.
But that still didn’t explain why now. He had been holding on to the video and my damn T-shirt for fifteen years, waiting for the day he could barge back into my life.
Who does stuff like that?
Perhaps I should have headed to this meeting with a bit more hesitance. Who knew what Marty would do, or what other bullshit he’d pull out of his hat like some kind of psychotic magician?
But I wasn’t known for my great decision-making.
I grabbed my keys and slipped out the back door then headed through the side gate. I climbed into my car and drove straight to Jagged Point.
The journey felt agonizing.
All these years, I had stayed away from the spot I once escaped to. Since Jenn, I couldn’t go there. The memory of her was all tangled up with her death, making the place that was once a respite now a nightmare.
I parked far away from the road so no one would see my car, and began the arduous trek.
I walked slowly … deliberately. Each step took me farther up the winding hill that cut through the dense forest. Sunlight filtered through the thick canopy above me, casting dappled shadows on the path.
It was daytime, yet the atmosphere felt pervaded by an eerie stillness that sent shivers down my spine.
The gnarled trees with their twisted branches seemed to reach out like skeletal fingers toward me. The horrific ghosts of long ago were making themselves known, as dread reverberated through me.
The underbrush was thick, and the air heavy with the scent of decaying leaves and wet earth. The path that used to be well-trodden now felt abandoned. I knew that even the locals had started giving the once popular spot a wide berth. The dirt and trees had seen too much bloodshed.
Some of it was because of me.
It had once been my favorite place to be, but now it was only filled with haunting memories.
As I climbed higher, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched. Every rustle of leaves, every snap of a twig, seemed louder in the silence.
I glanced over my shoulder, half-expecting to see Marty behind me, but there was nothing. It was only the shadows—and my own anxiety—playing tricks on my mind.
And then I saw him—a figure, shrouded in shadow standing at the edge of the overlook. Marty raised a hand and grinned his familiar sadistic smile. I took a deep breath as I headed toward him.
“Hey there, buddy,” Marty greeted me with a note of sarcasm. “Long time, no see.”
“Cut the crap, Marty. How much do you want?”
Marty held his hands up in defense. “Woah there, Rhett. Thought we’d make some small talk before we got down to business.” He laughed, his dark eyes offering me nothing but unfiltered hate.
“Glad to know I was right, at least. I knew it had to be about money. You really have no shame, do you? You’re messing with my life, Marty. My daughter’s life.” I tried to contain my anger. My hatred for him grew as I thought about all the things he was trying to take from me.
Marty and Lucinda made a great pair. Both seemed hellbent on obliterating all semblance of happiness in my life. They wanted me broken and destroyed, though at least Marty didn’t hide his loathing.
“No shame? Really? Are you really going to stand there and pretend you don’t remember exactly what happened, buddy?”
“No, you’re the one misremembering, old friend,” I spat out as something flashed in Marty’s eyes. Blink and I would have missed it.
“I wasn’t the one who hurt Jenn that night.”
His words triggered something in me. A flash of red hot anger clouded my vision, and I lunged for him, furious.
Marty dodged me at the last second, and I stumbled toward the cliff’s edge.
Surprisingly, he grabbed me before I could fall over, pulling me back to safe ground.
A prickle of fear ran through me at how close I came to going over.
In a moment of maudlin self-pity, I wondered if it would have been better for me to fall to my death. Then McKenzie wouldn’t have to grow up with her dad in prison, living with the shame and resentment that would undoubtedly cause. A tragic accident was preferable to a convicted murderer for a dad.
I thought of her sweet face and how she always looked at me like I was the most important person in her life. I was her favorite. I knew it. Lucinda knew it.
Then I remembered how she held onto Mabel this morning. Her small arms wrapped around her neck as she turned away from me.
I had been abandoned by all the women in my life in one way or another.
Jenn and my mom were both gone. Lucinda had emotionally left me a long time ago. And now my own daughter wanted nothing to do with me.
It didn’t matter what happened next. In the end, I would always end up alone.
“Get off me!” I yelled, snatching my arm from Marty’s grip. He let go with a grim chuckle.
“Easy there.” He laughed. “No need to get so feisty.”
“Just tell me how much you want to make this all go away. I can get it—whatever it is.”
Marty’s wiry frame was taut like a coiled spring. His full height towered over me. It made him incredibly intimidating. He jabbed a finger painfully into my chest.
“You can’t buy me, asshole! Don’t you get that yet?”
“Then why, if it’s not for money?” I asked, desperate for answers. “Why now?”
“Because of what you did. Why should you get off scot-free because you married the right piece of ass?”
I stared at him, frantic but also annoyed. My future—my life—was on the line.
“You have no idea who you’re messing with. You do realize who my father-in-law is and what he can do to you, right?” I drew myself upright, trying to make myself as physically intimidating as possible. “I know a guy like you has spent some time in jail. Do you want to go back?”
My palms were sweating as I waited for him to react. Marty’s cheeks flushed, his eyes hardening. Then he started laughing. He laughed so hard, he had difficulty catching his breath. He slapped his knee as if I were a stand-up comedian.
“Are you trying to threaten me? Seriously?” He wiped tears from his eyes.
“You really are a piece of work, Rhett. As if you could do anything to me. I’m not a weak woman you can throw around because you’re pissed off.
I’ll punch back. You should know that by now.
” His humor was gone and was now replaced by cold, calculated anger.
“And we both know you would never have met up with me if you had any other options. You’re fucked, buddy. We both know it.”
“Marty,” my voice broke on his name, “please don’t do this.”
I was not opposed to begging at this point.
I didn’t care. I would do whatever it took to make this go away.
If not for me, for McKenzie. I couldn’t bear to think of her living without me.
Marty grinned, enjoying the power he had over me.
He was as arrogant as ever. I found it hard to reconcile the man in front of me with the man I thought had been my friend all those years ago.
I had looked at him as a brother figure. He had seemed worldly. Like he knew how things worked. He opened up my eyes.
I had always thought myself a good man. Until Marty. Until that night. Until everything afterward.
How wrong I had been.
“I didn’t do what you think I did, Marty. We both know I couldn’t have. I loved her. I still do.”
“Don’t give me that pussy bullshit. What you did to her didn’t look like love.” His lip curled in derision in the way I remembered so clearly. He looked at me like I was pathetic. Maybe I was.
“I loved Jenn. I wanted to be with her. I was leaving Lucinda and we were going to be together.”
Marty shrugged, seeming unconcerned. His almost apathetic demeanor was a mocking contrast to my tension.
He had nothing to lose, only things to gain.
His dark eyes were filled with an emotion I couldn’t place.
He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one, exhaling a long plume of smoke while I waited, tortured as the seconds ticked by.
Finally, I spoke again, needing to plead my case as if this were a different kind of courtroom. “We both know who killed her, and it wasn’t me.”
Marty eyed me, smoking casually, as if he had all the time in the world.
“Marty … It was Lucinda, not me.”
I said the words I had never dared say out loud.
Words that had been locked up inside me all this time.
Lucinda and I had never spoken about that night.
It had been a silent agreement to leave the past behind us and move forward.
I thought I was doing it for the woman I decided, in the end, to build my future with, mostly because I was too broken to make any other choice.
I was being a good husband. It felt nice to be able to protect my wife in a way I had never been able to before.
And it gave me a power that had been lacking in our dynamic.
That one, huge secret leveled things between us.
I didn’t need her to say it. The truth was always there between us, a darkness that permeated everything. I didn’t need her to tell me. Blood spoke louder than words ever could.
It’s why we were each other’s alibis.
And we never breathed a word of it to anyone. We wouldn’t dare.
In truth, the idea that she would kill to keep me was strangely erotic. I had never realized my cool, composed fiancée was capable of such a savage act. I was flattered by the lengths she went to keep me.
After all, I’m a man who liked to be wanted.
The words fell between Marty and me. But instead of the nuclear explosion I had expected, there was barely a ripple in the air. My impatience for a reaction grew until it erupted as anger.
“Did you hear me? Lucinda killed Jenn!”
“I heard you just fine, Rhett. But that’s bullshit. Lucy may be a little unbalanced at times, but she couldn’t have killed Jenn—not like that. That type of violence was unhinged. No way a woman could do that. That kind of crazy was all man.” Why did he sound proud of that?
I was taken aback at his use of Lucinda’s old nickname, but before I could dig into that, Marty kept speaking.
“So, tell me this, if you loved Jenn so much, and your wife killed the supposed love of your life, why continue to protect Lucy? It doesn’t make sense.”
“We have a family. And we have a daughter, which is exactly why you have to stop this. It’s not just my life you’re ruining. It’s hers. And she’s innocent in all this.”
“I didn’t do this, buddy, you did. If your little girl gets caught up in this mess, that’s on you, no one else.
” Marty threw his cigarette to the ground and stomped on it.
He glowered, all pretense gone. “I saw Jenn that night. After she was already dead.” His breathing became shallow, and he had to swallow before continuing.
His eyes blazed with hatred that should have incinerated me. “I saw what you did to her—”
“What? How?” I stammered, feeling like I was going to throw up.
“Because I went back.”
A cold sweat broke out across my forehead.
I had pictured Jenn lying dead on the side of the road a thousand times.
I imagined her body crumpled in a heap, her blood staining the ground around her.
My brain loved to torture me with the worst possible version of what had happened.
The photos had been enough to haunt me, but Marty had actually seen Jenn, dead and abandoned.
“I saw what you did to her, and you’re finally gonna pay for it.”
It was over.
I was done for.
He was never going to go away. This wasn’t about money. This was about revenge.
This was about Jenn.
The girl we both loved.
“I wanted to look you in the eye and tell you that I know. I have waited fifteen long years for this moment. But now you’ll get what’s coming to you, and I will be there to dance on your fucking grave.”
Decades of suspicion and hatred arched between us. The air was thick with foreboding, as if Jenn’s ghost lingered among the trees, waiting for justice.
“Marty, I didn’t—” I started to say, but then stopped myself. I narrowed my eyes as I stared at the man determined to destroy me.
I had been trying to figure out why, when maybe the reason was a lot more clear-cut than I thought.
“How do I know you weren’t the one who killed Jenn?
You said yourself, a woman could never do that.
Maybe you’re trying to make me take the fall for your crime.
You seem to be working really hard to convince everyone I’m guilty. Maybe this anger is all for show.”
Marty bared his teeth like a predator about to devour his prey. “We all have blood on our hands, Rhett.”
Did he just admit to killing Jenn? “There was another man Jenn was scared of that night. A man who had followed her around for months. She was terrified when she saw you in the back of my car.” I felt like I was getting to the truth.
Marty leaned so close I could smell the stink of cigarettes on his breath.
“Save it, Rhett, and don’t go thinkin’ you can turn this around on me.
It’ll never work. Even if I have to make up some shit to seal the deal, I’ll do it.
There’s only one man going down for this, and it isn’t me.
I had to keep her away from men like you because I knew you’d only ruin her,” he snarled, his hands curling into fists, and I wondered if he was going to hit me.
It wouldn’t be the first time Jagged Point had tasted my blood.
Marty gave me a smile as twisted as the scar on his face.
“Your life is over, Rhett.” His words were bullets fired from a loaded gun.
“Everyone is gonna know that you killed my sister, you son-of-a-bitch.”