Fatal Marriage

by Charlotte Byrd

  “She cried for a while after that and I told her that everything will be okay and that I will do everything in my power to help her friend,” Jackie says.

  “Holy shit,” I say.

  “Yep.”

  “He’s a rapist and a pedophile,” I add.

  “Yeah, I know,” Jackie says, staring into space.

  “What’re we gonna do about him?” I ask.

  “We have to stop him.”

  9

  Aurora

  I meet up with Henry three days later and those are the longest three days of my life. Every hour away from him is excruciating.

  I crave him and I need him.

  I want to touch him more than anything I've ever wanted in the world. I'm waiting for him on my father's boat. He knows the address because this is where we had first met.

  I leave it open and sit downstairs in a form fitting black dress. It's cold outside so I wore my trench coat here so that I could show off my legs. The heels are uncomfortable. I don’t bother with the Spanx because I want to be comfortable and I know that he loves my curves.

  The boat is slowly heating up, but it’s still cold enough to see your breath inside. I’m grateful for the long sleeves and the scarf. While I wait, I play a game on my phone and check social media but mostly I think about Henry.

  The last time that we were together, we came very close to actually making love. He had an appointment set up with his mom's doctor and he had to rush off but I hope that tonight we can make up for what we didn't have the opportunity to finish.

  Whatever guilt I used to feel about Franklin and my so-called marriage, has disappeared. I made him a promise but it's not a promise if someone is practically holding a gun to your father’s head. But it’s even worse than that. Franklin doesn't care about me as his wife. If he did, then he wouldn’t have strange women in and out of his bed almost every day.

  I crack my knuckles to try to make the anger that's bubbling up within me go away. This is supposed to be a good night. I won't let my so-called husband ruin it.

  There's a knock on the door and I tell him to come in. Henry comes downstairs dressed in a slim pair of jeans and a formfitting jacket that hugs every muscle in his chest. I get up and practically run into his arms.

  When I imagined this moment in my head, I saw myself sitting seductively on the couch and crossing one leg over the other. I saw myself kissing him softly and passionately and holding his hand tightly as I led him to the bedroom.

  Now, seeing him in the doorway, I can barely stop myself from charging at him. It's silly and immature yet it's exactly how I feel and I'm so happy that he opens his arms and welcomes me inside.

  We have both waited so long for this moment.

  We can't wait any longer.

  When I rush him, I jump into his arms. Henry carries me to the bedroom. I laugh and kiss him over and over again. Our kisses are sloppy and out-of-control. My hair falls on top of his face and everything between us intermingles.

  Henry plops me onto the bed and I bounce. He stands before me and I reach up to unbuckle his jeans. I push them down to his ankles along with his boxer briefs. His ass is round and his thighs are the most massive and muscular ones I’ve seen. He flexes them as I look for a moment admiring the strength that I see before me.

  I laugh and then I shift my eyes to his hard dick. It’s large and hard and I can’t help but reach over and wrap my fingers tightly around the base. I bring my lips to him and open my mouth. As he slides inside of me, Henry leans his head back and moans.

  He is so big that he fills up my whole mouth and my jaw feels like it’s going to lock with each move. After a few moments, I pull away and run my tongue up to his belly button and then stand up to kiss him. Our mouths touch and our tongues intertwine. This time, there’s nothing tender about our kiss. We have been there and we have done that. Tonight, we want it dirty, quick, and delicious.

  He flips me over onto my stomach and pushes me down onto the bed. I love the way that he handles my body, directing me in every move. It allows me to let go and to enjoy the moment, the way that I normally can’t.

  I hear the crackling of a condom wrapper somewhere behind me but before I can even turn around, Henry drapes himself over me, pressing himself into my back.

  I can’t help but arch and pull myself off the bed just a little bit. His hands find their way into my dress and over my breasts. Then he turns my head to the side and moves my hair off my neck. As he slides inside of me, he starts to run his tongue over my neck and up to my ear.

  “I love you,” he whispers with each thrust.

  I whisper something back but it all comes out muffled.

  “I love you,” he says. “Don’t you ever forget that.”

  “Do you hear me?” Henry asks, pushing into me again and again.

  “I hear you,” I mumble. “I love you, too.”

  Henry’s movements become faster and faster and I can’t handle it any longer. I try to hold it off as much as possible but suddenly, the pressure that has built up in me explodes, and I let go. Waves of pleasure rush through me as his thrusts move faster and faster.

  My whole body shakes as he pushes me more and more into the bed.

  “Aurora,” he says with a huff, repeating my name over and over again. Lying in each other’s arms afterward, we exhale simultaneously and nuzzle together. Nothing has ever felt so right.

  “I love you,” Henry whispers.

  “I love you, too,” I say, kissing him softly on the forehead.

  “I love you more,” he says louder and with more confidence.

  I laugh.

  We gaze into each other’s eyes and I find his lips with mine.

  10

  Henry

  “That was amazing,” she says. “I forgot how sexy you are.”

  “You did?” I ask, propping myself up on my elbow and scrutinizing her face.

  “No, that's not what I meant.”

  “I hope not.”

  “I just meant that I forgot how good we are together and how good you are at this.”

  “You're not so bad yourself,” I say, smiling at the corner of my lips.

  We lie here for a long time, just enjoying each other's company. I listen to the steadiness of her heartbeat and the quietness of her breaths. She plays with my hair, twirling a strand around her index finger over and over again.

  I want to stay in this moment forever but I can't. It's fleeting and in a few more minutes, she’ll have to get up and go back to her normal life.

  “I want to think of this as our wedding night,” she says quietly.

  I squeeze her gently and kiss her neck.

  “It can be,” I say.

  “No, it can't. I'm already married.”

  “It's not like your marriage is consummated,” I point out.

  “Lucky for me, I guess,” she says.

  I see the pain in her eyes and I will do anything to make it go away.

  “Don't go back to him,” I say. “Let's just run away together.”

  “Where would we go?”

  “California? Hawaii? Alaska? Paris? Buenos Aires? Anywhere you want.”

  “Tell me about it,” she says. “I want to see what our life would be like.”

  “We will get a small apartment, right in the middle of the city. I will get up early and buy you some freshly baked scones and piping hot coffee. We will eat breakfast in bed and stay in our pajamas all day. In the afternoon, we will take a stroll around the city, I'll buy you fresh flowers and we’ll go to the farmers market. On weekends, we will do picnics in the country or by the beach.”

  “That sounds marvelous.”

  I look at her as she loses herself for a long time in this other life that we could have. I've never been to Rome but I have seen plenty of postcards and movies and I imagine myself walking down those cobblestone streets holding the hand of the woman I love.

  “Where do you want to go?” I ask. “I'll take you anywhere.”


  “I wanna go everywhere,” she says. “Just not now. I can't leave him alone to do what it is that he's doing. I can't let him ruin Tate Media. I can't let him kill my father. I have to stay here and fight for what's mine and you do, too.”

  I give her a slight nod, disappointed.

  “Your mother needs you. We can't leave right now. She has to get better and you have to be there for her.”

  She lets out a deep sigh and shakes her head.

  “In that case, let me tell you about what Jackie found out,” I say.

  I haven't brought this up earlier out of fear of ruining the mood. She was waiting for me and she wanted me and I wanted her and I didn't want anything to stand in our way. But now, I have to tell her the truth.

  “Franklin is a lot more dangerous than we thought,” I say slowly.

  She gives me a nod and signals for me to keep going.

  Jackie had sent me the video that he recorded and instead of telling her what is on it, I just hit play. Aurora shakes her head as she watches, burying her head in her hands. She glances up at me a few times, her lips quivering.

  “I can't believe this,” she says over and over again.

  “What do we do now?” she asks after I turn it off.

  “We need more proof,” I say with a heavy heart.

  I don't want to put her in anymore danger than she already is but we need to gather more evidence. It's not that no one will believe the girl, it's that Franklin is a very powerful man and it will take a lot more than us to bring him down.

  “I don't want to tell you to do this,” I say quietly. “This is the last thing I want.”

  “What?” she asks.

  “I worry about you and I don't even want you staying in the same house as him but if you want this to come out and if you want him out of Tate Media, you'll have to set up some recording equipment and try to catch him in the act.”

  11

  Aurora

  I don't know how to process what I've seen on that video. The girl was so small and the story that she was telling was so big and frightening that it just consumed my whole life.

  Franklin is not a good person but I didn't realize that he was evil. I didn't realize that he was capable of such devastation. The girl cried for her friend and I cried along with her. On top of that, I felt incredibly guilty for practically attacking her in the elevator and forcing her to talk to me. Naturally, she was horrified when I tried to make her talk to me. She was traumatized and I just made it worse.

  The guilt and regret consumes me as I meet up with Henry at another nondescript hotel room. When I knock on the door, Henry opens it and gives me a warm hug along with a kiss on the lips. Out of the corner of my eye, I see someone sitting on the couch and quickly push Henry away.

  “What's wrong?”

  With my heart pounding out of my chest, I nod in the guy’s direction.

  “It's okay, that’s Jackie. He’s a PI. You can trust him.”

  I hesitate but step from one foot to another. The fewer people that know about this the better off I'll be.

  Jackie comes over and shakes my hand.

  “You really have nothing to worry about,” he says.

  Still, it would be better if you didn't see us kissing, I say to myself.

  “Henry and I have been friends for a long time and his secrets are safe with me.”

  I give them a slight nod, feeling a little bit of relief.

  “So, what am I doing here?” I ask.

  Henry leads me to the table at the far end of the hotel room and points to all of the equipment that they have laid out.

  “Jackie brought all of this today and he's going to show you how to use it.”

  I glance at the camera, the wires, and the lenses, shaking my head.

  I thought that I'd be able to do this but now I'm not so sure. It's not the technology that’s scaring me, it's something else entirely. Whatever Franklin is doing is very wrong and he knows it.

  What would happen if he were to catch me?

  “I know this is really scary,” Jackie says, “but this is going to be the only way that you can find out the truth about your husband.”

  I already know the truth in my gut, I want to say.

  “It’s possible that nothing has happened,” Jackie says. “There's a chance of that.”

  “No, there isn’t,” I say.

  Jackie shrugs.

  “You weren't there to see that girl’s face. I rode down in the elevator with her. She was traumatized. He did something terrible in there and we all know it.”

  I say these words as much for his benefit as my own.

  There are all these thoughts in the back of my mind that have the possibility to stop me from believing the truth but the more that I can say stuff like this out loud, the stronger I become.

  I'm afraid you can't be courageous if you're not afraid.

  I take a deep breath and let him show me all of the technology and how it works.

  After Jackie goes over it a few times, I connect all of the parts together myself a few times just to make sure that I know exactly what to do. He watches and nods approvingly. When we're done, I see Henry sitting on the edge of the bed with his head bent down.

  “What's wrong?” I ask.

  “I just really wish that you didn't have to do that,” he says.

  “Me, too,” I agree.

  “Maybe we can just go to the police? Maybe they can interview Taylor and Tamara and even Franklin and who knows what will happen.”

  “You know perfectly well what they’ll say,” I say.

  He shakes his head. I sit down next to him and put my arm around his shoulder.

  “I don't want you to do this.”

  “Of course not,” I say. “If we go to the police now, that girl is not going to tell them the truth. Even if she does, he’s going to lie. He's going to lie through his teeth and he's going to get every lawyer out there to lie for him. He's going to stonewall this thing just like all of those other assholes and he's gonna put so much garbage out there into the media that no one will believe her. Then he'll come after me.”

  Henry glances up at me.

  I give him a nod.

  “You know that I’m right. He'll blame me. He'll know that this somehow came out because of me and he'll be right. No, before we go to the police, we need proof. We need a lot of evidence so that this whole thing can be completely irrefutable.”

  “I'm just really worried about you,” he says quietly.

  I squeeze his hand.

  “I know you are but I'm going to be all right,” I say.

  “I want to believe that, but how can I?”

  “I can only do my best. I'm going to set everything up and you're going to have all of the recordings so that if anything were to happen…”

  “Don’t you dare think like that,” Henry says, pointing his finger in my face. “I will not let anything happen to you. He will not find these cameras.”

  “I know, I'm just saying in case…”

  “There is no in case,” he says with rage in his eyes. “He will not hurt you. I will not let him.”

  12

  Aurora

  I told Franklin that I was just going out on a short run, so unfortunately, I can't stay here long. As soon as I pack up the cameras and all of the equipment into my bag, it's time for me to leave.

  “Are you sure that you can't stay longer?” Henry asks, holding onto my hand. “We can order some Indian food and have dinner.”

  “I'd love to but I have to get back. Franklin’s working late today and I want to be able to set all this up before he comes home.”

  “I understand,” he says with sadness in his eyes. He walks me to the door but I stop him from escorting me all the way downstairs.

  “The fewer people that know about our relationship the better and that includes the hotel staff,” I say.

  When I touch the door handle to open it, he kisses me. He buries his hands in my hair and presses his lips hard
against mine. My mouth opens and I let him inside. The fire that exists between us does not fade. In fact, with his lips on mine, it starts to rage somewhere deep inside my core. If only Jackie wasn't here, the…

  “Listen, I can give you some privacy. I have some work to do anyway,” Jackie says.

  There's a hopeful expression on Henry's face but I shake my head no.

  “I'm sorry but I really have to get back.”

  Franklin isn't home when I get there and I let out a sigh of relief. I look at the clock. He said he would be late but this is quite late. I debate as to whether I should try to put something together now or just wait until tomorrow. I decide to do one room.

  I set up the tiny camera just as Jackie had shown me and hide it behind the oversized plant in his office. I keep checking the time on my phone while I listen for anything in the hallway and make a quick decision to do the same thing in the master bedroom. The girl on the recording mentioned that Taylor was in his office. I had caught him with another girl in the bedroom. These are probably the main rooms where he would do something like this.

  Before I get a chance to put up anything to block the camera, I hear the front door.

  My heart sinks.

  Shit, what the hell do I do now?

  I hear his footsteps coming down the hallway and it's too late to take down the camera. I quickly move the picture frames from one side of the dresser to another and pray that he doesn’t notice.

  “Hey,” I say, hopping onto the bed and pretending like I had been there the whole time.

  “What are you doing here?” Franklin asks, looking tired and disheveled.

  “Just lying down,” I say, shrugging my shoulders. “I’m not feeling very well.”

  He walks over to me and sits down on the edge. He slumps his shoulders and when he looks at me, his eyes look weary.

  My whole body tenses up. I force myself to relax. My phone is lying next to me and when I reach for it, he grabs it out of my hand.