Total pages in book: 225
Estimated words: 218500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1093(@200wpm)___ 874(@250wpm)___ 728(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 218500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1093(@200wpm)___ 874(@250wpm)___ 728(@300wpm)
“You are my wife.”
“Until yesterday afternoon, that was in name only. It was blackmail, plain and simple. I was married to you only because I was terrified of what you’d do, what you threatened to do.”
“Baby…”
“You fucked up, Derek. You can’t sweet-talk me into being okay with this. You can’t fuck me into submission here. You switched my birth control pills!” I can’t even fathom this. “You manipulative asshole.” I shove him. He doesn’t budge. “How can you think I’d be okay with this? How can you think I would ever get past this sort of deceit?”
“You’re angry with me, but baby, I’ll take care of you. I’ll be a good father. We might have made a person sometime within the last day and that beautiful little person is me and you and-”
“And maybe genetically predisposed to being a fucking psychopath!”
He jerks back like I’ve struck him across the face.
“How dare you? I can’t believe I let myself believe for even five minutes that giving in to you wasn’t insane.” I back away. “I can’t believe you. There’s zero hope for us.” I dash tears off my face with my sleeves. “Zero. I’m done, Derek. I’m so, so fucking done.” I pull the rings off my fingers and throw them at him. They bounce off him and fall to the floor.
He squats to pick them up and I grab my purse, find my phone on the other counter, and storm away. I look over my shoulder and he’s leaned against the wall, slowly sliding down, face full of remorse.
I walk out, not even shutting the door behind myself.
My phone is ringing, Derek is calling and I’m ignoring it. I’m pulling out of the Walgreens. I know Ken is following. I also know Ken saw what I bought because he followed me into the drug store.
I told him to go away, and he said, “You know there are security concerns. Can you please drive home? I’ll follow you back. Not comfortable out here with everything that happened at the funeral, Mrs. Steele.”
Where am I going? Where the fuck do I go?
I can’t believe I thought this might actually work. That I had any power here. A marriage with a crazy, unhinged psychopath.
As soon as my phone stops ringing, it starts up again.
“Sorry to tell you this, boss, but she bought a box of Plan B and a sports drink.”
My chest hurts.
“Did you stop her?”
“How?” Ken asks.
“You didn’t fucking stop her? Did she take it?”
“You said follow her, keep her safe. I’ve followed her. You didn’t say stop her.”
“Did she take it?”
“I don’t know, Derek.”
I’m pacing. Bile keeps hitting my back teeth. I’m out of my fucking mind with a storm of emotions that feel like they’re burning a hole in my gut. I’ve called her phone over and over. She won’t answer.
Plan B and a sports drink. She’s going to take it and erase the possibility of the link that’s probably forming right now between us. And she’s not going to forgive me. I saw it in her eyes. I saw something I’ll never forget. I had it for a day. I fucked it up. If I’d waited, it would’ve happened naturally. She was falling for me. She started to believe. And I fucked it up.
“Derek?” Ken checks.
“I don’t give a fuck how. Just get her here. Now!”
I get a text ten long minutes later.
Kenny: ETA, 5
I breathe out relief. He has her. He has her. Maybe she didn’t take it. Maybe she didn’t. Maybe I can fix this. Maybe I can…I can’t fix this. I saw it in her eyes. The utter pain and betrayal. I had it for a day and it’s gone. It’s gone. I burnt it to ash.
My hands are shaking. Bile rises again, this time with an even more rancid taste. My stomach contracts hard and I hurl into the sink, losing the dinner she cooked for me. I hold onto the counter, white knuckled, staring at her rings that I put there, feeling in my gut like I’ve lost everything that matters.
The doorbell rings.
I open the door to Ken holding Chloe’s arm. Her face is red and she’s looking at me with hatred.
“Get your fucking hands off her!” I snap.
He jerks back in surprise. “You said get her here. It required some force.”
He’s got scratches on his face.
“Did you fuckin’ hurt her?” I shout. “I’ll fucking kill you.” I grab his throat and back him up.
“No man, she just struggled. I just subdued her and got her here.”
“You put her in danger?”
“Derek. Fuckin’ relax.”
I growl in his face and release him.
“Where’s her car?” I demand.
“It’s on the highway. I remote disabled it. Chuck is bringing it.”
I growl.
“I did it safely, Derek. Chill out! It’ll be here in a while.”
“How’d you get her here?”
“I had to pull my weapon to get her out of the car. She didn’t believe, so I fired a shot into the ground. Then she tried to run for it so caught her in the ditch and carried her to my car. Threatened with the gun again… just to get her to cooperate.”