Page 160 of Savior
“What do you think is going to happen when she begins to feel trapped again? She’s been free of Jack Nero barely six months, and managed to get knocked up with your kid… Or so I know you want tobelieve it is.”
“Fuck you.”
“She barely got a taste of freedom. You probably think this one is a miracle, too… Wait until this baby, this impending wedding, blows up in your face. When she’s desperate to escape from you, next.”
“Because you left me, Vanna will, too? If I’m so unbearable, why were you so desperate to get me back?”
She shakes her head. “Even if she decides to stay, you’ll ruin whatever it is you think you have. That taste for wilting flowers you’ve developed… That hero complex. It happened to us.”
“What did?”
“You lost interest in me.”
I’d be dumbfounded if her words didn’t piss me off so much. “You left me.”
“You left first. Always leaving home. Those road trips. The missions…”
“I was trying to earn a living! To keep you, my wife, fuckin’ happy! Which by the way, was mission fuckin’ impossible!”
She shakes her head as if she doesn’t want to hear it, demanding instead, “Give me the letter.”
“The fuck should I?”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
I sneer at her. “You can’t hurt me. Not anymore.”
“I’ve got a knife.”
“After the shit you put me through, you think a fuckin’ knife scares me? Besides, I can take it from you any time I choose.” I step to her, the point of her blade nearly touching my throat once more. She shuffles backwards, her heals scraping the pavement. There’s a nervous worry in her eyes as I stare her down. She has no desire to cut me. This is all a desperate bluff.
“I can’t live like this!” she finally cries.
“Like what?”
“This! Wondering when you’re going to bring that letter to the police. Or when she will!”
“Poetic Justice, don’t you think? You destroyed my life with a piece of fucking paper. Funny, it’s written in your own hand on the same stationary, this time, too.”
She lets out a strangled sob of frustration.
“You’re the reason you’re unhappy, Lucinda. You’re the reason you get to live in fear now. The reason you get to wonder if you’ll ever know happiness again… If you ever even really have before. Misery loves company, doesn’t it? Well, I’m keeping much better company these days.”
“You want to punish me now.”
“This isn’t about punishment. Though, you’d have earned it.”
Her bottom lip quivers, her eyes look more pleading. “I swear to you, I had no idea it was going to play out the way it did… I can’t live like this, Dean. I’m a nervous wreck. Maddie is always asking me what’s wrong... I promise to let you see her whenever you want. Daniel won’t have much of a say once we’re divorced and I have primary custody. Family court favors mothers.”
I almost feel bad for him... Almost.
“You’ve broken every promise you’ve ever made me. What makes you think I’d take you at your word on this, after everything you put me through?”
She drops her arm, the knife held limply in her hand now. Her shoulders slump forward and her head hangs. I watch her body jerk as she cries, bringing her other hand up to wipe at her cheeks.
“Where’s Legion?” I press her once more.
“I told you, I don’t know…”
