Chapter 21
CHAPTER
Lucinda
The Present
RHETT DIDN’T COME back until late in the evening. He snuck in the kitchen door and tried to be quiet as he made his way toward the stairs.
My parents had taken McKenzie out to dinner, but I had decided to wait for my husband. We had a lot to talk about.
“How was your catch-up with Marty?” I asked, coming into the hallway from the living room.
“Jesus!” Rhett jumped. “What the hell are you doing lurking around like that?” He peered past me into the shadowed corridor. “Where’s Kenz? And your parents?”
“Mom and Dad took McKenzie to dinner,” I told him, crossing my arms over my chest. “Are you going to answer my question?”
Rhett frowned. “I should have known you’d figure out where I was. Which one of your little spies reported to you this time?” he asked nastily, pushing past me toward the staircase.
Rhett started up the stairs, and I followed him like a dog on his heels. “What did Marty say?” I asked, following him into my room.
“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” he challenged.
His entire body was trembling. I needed to know what happened.
“Rhett, talk to me, what did he say?”
Rhett gripped his hair as if he wanted to pull it out. He looked crazed. “He’s not backing down. He’s going to testify and make sure I fry for it.”
“Well, you knew Marty was going to go on the stand. Why are you acting surprised?”
Rhett’s face flushed an angry red. “This is all your fault!” he screamed.
I couldn’t help but take a step back, unsettled by the savage glint in his eyes. I had worked hard to learn how to handle my husband with varying degrees of success, but this man in front of me was unpredictable.
This was the same man I had encountered that night fifteen years ago. The man that only slipped out when his control was lost.
Despite my burgeoning fear, I couldn’t let him place the blame for this at my feet. My indignation wouldn’t stand for it.
“How is any of this my fault? You were the one who decided to sleep around with a woman who ended up murdered,” I shouted back.
Rhett stared at me, his eyes alarmingly flat. Like a snake’s. They were the eyes of someone who was close to losing everything and had no more shits to give.
“I should never have married you.” He closed his eyes briefly as if in pain. “I should have run far away from you and your god-awful family.”
“But you did marry me, Rhett, and here we are in my parents’ home, and my family is the one that has always protected you—”
“I wouldn’t need protection if it weren’t for you!” he roared, raising his clenched fists as if he wanted to pummel my face.
I swallowed nervously and glanced at the open door, wondering if I could make a run for it.
I felt like a trapped animal in the room with a wolf.
“Rhett, please, just calm down,” I whispered, thankful McKenzie and my parents weren’t here, but also terrified that I was all alone with him.
“Your parents wanted a good little yes man, and for years I was that. I became what you wanted, but none of you thought of what I wanted.” He was seething.
He really thought he was the only one that had been cornered with no way out.
He was incapable of seeing what anyone else thought or felt about anything.
I always knew he was inherently selfish, but the depth of his self-centeredness was startling.
“You think it’s only you that had your voice taken away?” I rasped, trying to speak up over my growing fright. “I’ve been locked in this life with my humiliation hanging over me for over a decade. I’ve never been allowed to make any choices for myself—except you—and look where that got me.”
We stared at each other, Rhett practically vibrating with fury and me trying not to recoil.
“Poor, poor Lucinda, the little rich girl thinks she has real problems.” Rhett’s laugh was cruel. Until that moment, I had no idea how much he hated me.
“Oh, because you have it so bad? Poor, poor Rhett, the sad little boy whose daddy didn’t want him—” I started to say, knowing it would provoke a reaction.
I just wasn’t expecting the one I got—though I probably should have.
In a split second, Rhett grabbed me by the throat. My eyes bulged, and I felt myself quake at the sight of his sadistic smile.
“Rhett.” His name came out as a gasp. He pushed me backward until my legs hit the bed and I fell onto my back. Rhett climbed on top of me, his hand still pinning me down by my throat. He leaned over me, his face a terrifying blend of madness and ferocity.
“If I’m going to prison for murder, I should make it worth it, don’t you think?” His fingers tightened and I fought against him. I clawed at his arms, trying to get him to release his hold.
“Rhett, let go,” I wheezed as black spots swam in front of my eyes.
He squeezed even harder. “I should have left you fifteen years ago. I should never have let you talk me into marrying you. I’ve thought about you dead every single day since our wedding. It’s the only thing that made me feel good in our whole fucking marriage.”
I reached up and scratched his face, digging my nails into his flesh. He yelled, releasing me, and I slithered out from underneath him. I scrambled to my feet, my skin throbbing.
“What are you doing?” I whispered, not able to speak any louder.
Rhett prowled toward me, and I found myself backing up until I collided with the wall. There was no escape.
“I don’t think I ever loved you.”
I thought I had hardened myself against him, but his attack stripped away my defenses. I was naked and vulnerable before him.
“I only wanted us to be a family.” I tried to reason with him.
Rhett’s face contorted into an ugliness that was devastating to see.
“We’ll never be a family, Lucinda. In fact, as soon as this whole thing blows over, I’m taking my daughter and getting as far from you, and your horrible family, as we can get.
Because I’d rather die than let my girl grow up to be a hateful bitch like you. ”
Just when I thought he would end me, he turned and left the room, slamming the door behind him. I sagged to the floor, my legs not able to hold me up any longer.
I waited until I heard him leave the house before I got back to my feet. I went to the window and watched him storm down the road.
I wondered where he was going and if I should go after him.
But then I stopped myself.
It didn’t matter.
The important thing was that he was gone.
I couldn’t believe he thought all this was my fault when he had shown his hand years earlier.
I let out a long, pent-up sigh. One that was heavy with fifteen years’ worth of fear and love all tangled up together.
I had made so many mistakes.
But perhaps the worst was ever loving Rhett Clark.
“I want you gone.”
Jenn was crying. I wanted to tell her to stop. That I should be the one wailing over everything she took from me. It started to rain. Large drops of water pelted my skin.
I advanced toward her, my hands curling into claws. Was I going to scratch her eyes out?
She cowered with fear, and I liked it.
“He says he’s leaving town with you. Is that true?” I demanded.
Jenn swallowed, her hand going to her throat, looking for the ring that was now in my pocket. “We’ve talked about it,” she admitted.
I saw red.
“You bitch!” I growled, imagining all the ways I could hurt her. We were alone up here. No one for miles. This place had seen its fair share of bloodshed, what was a little more? It would be easy to get away with it too. Covering my tracks wouldn’t be hard.
Then she wouldn’t be a problem anymore. She’d be just another story in Jagged Point’s horrible history.
“I’m sorry, Lucy.”
“Excuse me?”
“I had no idea Rhett was with someone. If I had known, I would never have—I would never have let him—” She covered her face, and her shoulders shook with the force of her sobs.
“You never would have what?” I snarled, unmoved by her grief.
And then it hit me what she was trying to say.
“You slept with him.” My voice cracked, the words slipping out before I could snatch them back.
“I … I thought we would be together forever. I didn’t know that he—I wouldn’t have … I’d never been with anyone.” She began to cry even harder.
Rhett had been her first.
I felt sick.
“You love him,” I said. It wasn’t a question. I could tell by the devastation on her face. I couldn’t help but feel for her. She had given that moment to him thinking what they shared was special.
That she was special.
I knew that feeling, because I had been there once myself.
“So do you,” she whispered, looking miserable.
“But I’m the only one who has a right to,” I told her.
I waited at least twenty minutes before I felt it was safe to move. I opened my bedroom door and went out into the hallway. My neck throbbed from Rhett’s assault.
We had entered no-man’s land. There was no coming back from this. How could I get on a witness stand and perjure myself to protect a man who had tried to strangle me then threatened to take my daughter from me?
It was bad enough I had lied for him once before after what he’d done. I didn’t have it in me to do it again.
I had known, on some level, this was going to happen. I had felt his disdain for me grow over the years, but I pretended it wasn’t there.
Was the white picket fence really worth it?
With shaky legs, I walked past Bailey’s childhood bedroom that was, like mine, untouched. Mom kept them as pristine shrines to the young women we used to be.
Remembering how Bailey had kept Rhett’s class ring, a terrifying thought suddenly occurred to me: What else had my magpie sister unknowingly gotten her hands on? What evidence lay tucked away in the nooks and crannies of her room that could come back and bite me in the ass?
I darted inside and headed straight to the closet where I knew she used to hide trinkets. Drying my tears, I focused on my search. Pushing aside clothes that hadn’t been fashionable in over a decade, I felt around for the shoebox I knew would be there.