Page 8 of Obsession (Dark Revenge)
Although I couldn’t fathom that Alison might ever have been obsessed with me, I did hear Vince. Deep down, his words resonated with me. I was becoming deeply entangled in this game of ours. Even now, I was ready to chase her immediately, rather than seeing the opportunity in front of me. I couldn’t say for sure why Alison had run tonight, but she wasn’t foolish. I knew Alison was intelligent, and she would realize there was no place she could flee to where I couldn’t track her down and bring her back.
The fear of me suddenly pursuing her or revealing one of her secrets would likely compel her to return to me. However, if she were foolish enough to go home or, worse, seek the authorities’ help, I would be aware of it. With the tracker, I could keep tabs on her as I contemplated the best course of action. Perhaps it was time to call it quits. Maybe I should remove her collar and truly say “stop” before the game became too addictive. A month might not be enough, as I already knew, but I thought it might balance the scales somewhat. Nonetheless, I could sense that the more I played with Alison, the darker I wanted our games to become, until I never wanted us to stop playing.
“I’m saying this for your own good, Jared. I don’t want you to become her slave again. She doesn’t deserve to hold this power over you anymore,” he advised.
“Believe me, I don’t want her to either.”
“Then let her go.”
“Maybe.”
I turned around and headed back to my room. Upon entering, I felt a sense of calm wash over me, yet I knew I had an important decision to make. I located my laptop, whichcontained all of Alison’s dark secrets, and settled into one of the chairs in my room. A message popped up on my screen, indicating that Vince had sent me Alison’s location.
I clicked on it, revealing a small dot on the map that showed she wasn’t anywhere special. I delved further into the address, discovering that she had stopped at a roadside diner that operated 24 hours a day. Knowing her location now brought a sense of calm, and I let out a small sigh of relief, though I immediately chastised myself for the weakness.
“Stop letting her affect you,” I whispered to myself before I began flipping through the folders of Alison’s dirty secrets, going through them one by one. While I had already exposed her husband’s affairs, I knew that with Alison’s cunning, she might attempt to spin the narrative when she returned home. It was a relatively weak secret to release, and as I examined the rest, I made a list of what I found to be the most damaging ones. Of course, once the authorities learned of her embezzlement, she wouldn’t be able to talk her way out of it, but the more I scrutinized it, the more I wondered if she somehow could.
Money held significant power in this world, and even though we might pretend otherwise, crime was the driving force. Evil individuals ruled our lives, and all they needed to do was pay off the right people. I began to ponder if Alison could buy her way out of trouble. Or could her parents? I had always believed they would go to great lengths for her, but I had initially assumed it was out of love. However, Alison had shown me it wasn’t. So how far would her parents go? How far would her husband go? His family appeared disloyal once someone made a mistake, but would they protect Alison simply because she was married to Warren?
I contemplated all these questions internally before I reached the section regarding the money transfer to the woman Warren had allegedly assaulted. However, I lacked an actual confessionfrom the woman, and there were no medical reports indicating internal damage. All I possessed was a financial transfer record and a brief encounter with the woman, who was utterly terrified of my probing questions. I recalled her stating that she was more afraid of Alison than Warren, which, though not entirely surprising, was still disturbing. Alison had a way of instilling fear in people that lasted a lifetime.
It was a potent piece of information. I could simply let the secret speak for itself, allowing people to draw their own conclusions. Sometimes, gossip held more power than the unvarnished truth. But could Alison wriggle her way out of this one? It remained a mystery why she had paid the woman. Alison vehemently denied that Warren had assaulted her, but I knew she often defended the worst scum, so why should I believe her?
Nevertheless, Alison was a master manipulator, and as I reviewed all the incriminating secrets, I began to wonder how much control I truly held over her. She feared these secrets being exposed, but Alison was not one to back down from a fight. If she had to claw her way out of a dark abyss using nothing but her pretty, fake nails, she would do it. It was one aspect of her character I almost admired. She always found a way out of her predicaments.
“What should I do with you?” I pondered aloud as I began compiling everything, preparing to release it all with a single click of a button. This would liberate me from Alison once and for all. It would be the final nail in her coffin. It would prove to Vince that I was fully committed to my marriage and that Alison held no sway over me. I wasn’t ensnared by her if I could let her go definitively. This was the right decision, wasn’t it? Well, it wasn’t a month—it was barely two weeks of truly relishing in tormenting Alison. But if not even a month could satisfy my cravings, then perhaps two weeks had to be enough.
My finger hovered over the button, and I could feel a tingling sensation as I grappled with my decision. “You deserve everything that’s coming your way,” I angrily snarled, realizing there was truly no other choice. Alison had to be utterly dismantled and purged from my life for good, and I was determined not to think about her for a single second longer.
Chapter 5
-Alison-
I berated myself for my impulsiveness. Running had been a foolish move, and as I drove back toward the house, now familiar with the route, I couldn’t stop repeating how stupid I had been. Adrenaline had a way of affecting both your body and mind, just like that first time Jared had hunted me. I should have recognized him immediately, but shock and fear had driven me to flee. It seemed I was the type to run rather than fight. I had thought I had more courage, but true character revealed itself when faced with real danger.
My return wasn’t a joyful one. Fear had driven me away, and it was fear that brought me back to the house. I sighed as I gazed at the dark building with a few dimly lit windows. What time was it? I wondered, but I didn’t bother checking before turning off the car.
I quietly slipped out of the car, leaving the keys inside, unsure of when I might need another escape. Then I approached thehouse. For a moment, I hesitated at the door, considering whether I should knock. But I dismissed the thought. It wouldn’t have surprised me if Vince, the other man in the house, always knew what was happening, like a watchful presence in the shadows. So why bother knocking?
I opened the door and entered, finding the house silent. I knew there were guards around, but they always seemed to remain unseen unless instructed to accompany us. I climbed the staircase slowly, taking each step cautiously. I didn’t want to return to Jared too quickly and give up this small taste of freedom I had briefly enjoyed. I’d rather be back home, or so I thought, but as I thought of my own house, I froze.
“Home,” I whispered to myself, only to realize that the concept of it didn’t bring me much joy. It dawned on me that I couldn’t remember the last time it had.
I had tried to make it a home, filling it with children and striving to be a happy wife, but as I reflected on the past few years, my office had felt more like home than my own bed. I blamed Jared for much of this turmoil. He constantly taunted me with revelations about my husband’s affairs, labeling my marriage as fake and my life as even faker. He was not my therapist, and I had never asked him to be. However, he seemed to have made me realize a lot.
In frustration, I stomped the last few steps before walking down a hallway adorned with photos. I hadn’t had much time to truly examine these pictures, but as I came across the image of Jared hanging on the wall, I froze. Two pictures of Jared showed a significant transformation from the boy I once knew. I recognized the scrawny, frightened child, but in the next photo, he had evolved into a man. However, there was something he couldn’t hide—the look in his eyes.
I had never understood it when I was younger, too naive to comprehend, but now I could see it clearly. It was the gaze ofa broken person, a look he had worn for as long as I could remember. However, hadn’t it been Jared’s deep empathy that had impressed me, the fact that he couldn’t even harm ants? That was what had compelled me to truly see him. It meant there was a time when those eyes hadn’t always appeared aged, and it also indicated that the cold, distant eyes weren’t entirely my doing. I turned my head toward his bedroom door and then back to the picture where he leaned against a motorcycle. There was something freeing about that image. In this moment, he didn’t seem haunted. Another picture showed him standing beside Vince, appearing almost content.
I was discovering so many things in these pictures that I had never noticed before. Jared had always seemed straightforward to me, just Jared, but they say a picture is worth a thousand words. It was true, but I wasn’t sure what these photos were really telling me.
Nevertheless, I couldn’t linger there, so I turned on my heel and headed to Jared’s room. I grabbed the handle without hesitation, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to open the door if I hesitated. I pulled down the handle, and the door swung open, revealing an almost completely dark room. Only the light from a computer screen provided enough illumination.
I turned my head at the same moment Jared looked up from the computer on his lap. His furious gaze intensified in the light of his screen, and he abruptly closed the computer, placing it on the coffee table with a sharp gesture.
Had he already exposed one of my secrets? I wanted to ask, but at the same time, I didn’t want to know. I had a lot of damage control to handle already. So cautiously, I stepped into the room and closed the door behind me. Jared continued to stare at me, raising his hands to fold them in front of him, pressing two fingers to his lips. He appeared to be a man pondering a life-or-death decision, and perhaps he was, but I knew it wasmylife that was hanging in the balance.
I waited for him to speak because I feared that attempting to do so might trigger his anger. However, he remained silent, gazing at me with those cold eyes that seemed to possess a hint of warmth only because a furious flame flickered within them.
