by L. G. Davis
It’s a good hour until I get back to my feet and pull out my laptop, reminding myself to delete my history when I’m done.
At first, I misspell his name because my hands are shaking so much. Once I get it right, I hit search. Various articles pop up on the screen.
When I read the headline of the first one, dread rushes through me.
Convicted murderer and sex trafficker escapes from prison...
I scan through the first articles, which confirm my suspicions. Garry has been on the run for five months now. He could be anywhere, even in Sanlow, searching for the woman who blew his cover.
A few days before I escaped from his clutches, I threatened to call the cops on him. That was after I accidentally discovered a hidden room in his strip club, where he packed terrified foreign women like sardines and sold them as sex slaves.
Sickened by the sight, I confronted him. Big mistake. He threatened to kill me if I ever left him or breathed a word to anyone. That was the first time he laid a hand on me. It happened a few more times after that.
The last time he was abusive to me, we were outside on the pavement and someone saw us. That person was Rosemary.
My head is buzzing with pain as I delete the search history and shut down the computer.
I can’t stay here and wait for Garry to kill me. I have to leave Sanlow and the only person who might be able to help me is the same person who brought me to Sanlow in the first place—Rosemary.
As much as I hate involving her in my life again, she’s the only person I can trust right now, and she knows about Garry.
I decide to call her from a prepaid phone I had before I married Jared. I find it inside an old handbag in the wardrobe.
As soon as it has charged to two bars, I call Rosemary. She’s surprised to hear I’m still in Sanlow.
“Why did you return?” she asks in her usual gentle voice.
“I didn’t have a choice.” I push a hand through my hair. “But I need to leave again, this time for good.”
“Did something happen? Does it have to do with Victor Hanes? But I heard about his murder on the news. You should be safe now.”
“I’m not.” I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Victor was not my stalker. It’s Garry. I found a note from him today.”
“How is that possible? I thought he was locked away.”
“Yeah, me too. But he escaped from prison. He’s here in Sanlow.” I press my palm against my damp forehead. “He’s dangerous, Rosemary. I need to get away. I’m scared. I don’t know who to turn to.”
“You still haven’t told your husband about your past life? Isn’t that why you returned to him?”
“He knows some of it, but not about Garry.” If Jared found out about Garry and my life with him, he’d have even more power over me. “He’s not the man I married. Things have deteriorated between us.”
Silence fills the line, then Rosemary clears her throat. “Okay, darling. I understand. When do you want to leave?”
“Tonight,” I say without hesitation.
Chapter 20
As soon as I end the call with Rosemary, I stuff a few things into a backpack, including the money I still have from the first time I tried to run from Sanlow. It’s weird that Jared never asked for it.
Rosemary said she’d send someone to pick me up at 11:00 p.m. Five minutes before the time, I grab my bag and head downstairs without switching on the lights. I’m familiar with the house enough to navigate it in the darkness. If Garry is watching the house from outside, I don’t want him to see the lights on so late at night and suspect I’m up to something.
He can try to come after me, but I won’t make it easy for him.
At the front door, I fumble for the key to let myself out. It’s missing from the lock.
My breath solidifies inside my throat as I grab the handle and push down. It won’t budge. The door is locked.
Left with no choice, I flick on the light and yank open the chest of drawers where we keep the spare keys. When I find nothing, fear hits me like icy water.
“This can’t be happening,” I murmur, frantically pushing my fingers deeper into the drawers in case I missed something.
Then someone coughs behind me and I whirl around so fast blood rushes to my head.
“Jared,” I say, breathless. Beads of sweat push through the skin of my upper lip. “What are you…I thought you were at the fire station.”
“As you can see, I’m not.” His eyes are narrowed to glowing flints.
Confused, I glance at the door. “I didn’t hear the car.”
“That’s because there was nothing to hear.” His expression is a mask of stone. “I was in the house the entire time, in my office.” He says the words slowly as though he’s tasting them first before releasing them.
Earlier, when I checked to see if all the doors and windows were locked, the door to his office was locked. I didn’t think much of it. He keeps it locked sometimes. But now the thought of him hiding inside there while I thought he was out of the house angers me.
“Why? Why would you pretend to be gone when you’re not?” I hate that he’s wasting my time.
“This is my house. I’m free to come and go as I please.” His eyes flash for a second and he lowers his gaze to my hands. “Now tell me what you think you’re doing.”
My heart is a heavy rock inside my chest as I tighten my hand around the handle of my backpack. “I’m leaving, Jared. I’m leaving you and I’m leaving Sanlow. I don’t belong here.”
He nods, his gaze holding mine. “And you think it’s as simple as packing a bag and walking out the door?”
I push back my shoulders and lift my chin in defiance. “Yes, Jared. It is as simple as that.”
He throws back his head and starts laughing, his shoulders shaking as though an earthquake is exploding inside him.
As quickly as the laughter starts, it dies. Silence descends between us, long and suffocating.
In my mind, I return to when we fell in love and got married. I remember the promises we made to each other when we exchanged vows. I desperately miss the man I married. I wish I could reach out to him. I ache to pull him into my arms and kiss him for the last time.
But too much has happened. The rift between us is too huge to cross. Whatever had linked us before is damaged beyond repair by hurtful words, lies, and betrayal. I don’t even recognize him. He’s as much a stranger to me as I am to him.
He breaks the silence by tilting his head to the side and clearing his throat. “I thought I had made myself clear that you’re not going anywhere. I own you, Kelsey.”
“No, you don’t,” I say between clenched teeth. “I’m my own person. I don’t belong to you or anyone else.” I squeeze my eyes shut. When I open them again, I have made a decision. It’s time to tell him the rest of my story. Maybe that would repel him once and for all. “Trust me, Jared, you don’t want me here. I’m not the person you think I am. There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
“You mean to say you are more than a murderer?”
“I’m not—” My backpack drops to my feet and the force of his words sends me stumbling toward the nearest wall, my back pressed against it as my knees give way. I can’t stop myself from sliding to the floor. I drop my head into my hands and tears collect into my palm.
He shifts, but he doesn’t make a move to comfort me. I don’t expect him to, but it still hurts so damn much.
When I look up again, his eyes are still cold. “What else are you still hiding from me?”
I wipe my eyes with the back of my hand. It’s time. “In the past I did things I’m not proud of.” I sniff. “When I met you, I thought I could start over. I thought I could leave the past behind and become a new person.”
“Who are you?” he asks, his nostrils flared.
“A stripper. I was a stripper, all right?” The heat of shame rises up my neck. “When I escaped from prison, I had nothing and nowhere to go. Then I met someone…he gave me a job.”
“No,” I say in a rush of words. “I never…I never slept with men. I danced for them.” I pull myself to my feet, but my back remains pressed to the wall. Even though I was his girlfriend, Garry had constantly tried to get me to cross the line to the other side.
“In my eyes, there’s no difference between a hooker and a stripper.” Jared’s jaw is tight, his fists clenching and unclenching as if he’s desperate to punch something. “You should have told me everything from the start. You lied to me all through our marriage. I deserved to know that I was sleeping next to a convict and a hooker.”
“I’m not a hooker,” I shout. “And do you want to know why I never wanted you to know about my past? It’s because you wanted me to be perfect. I gave you perfect. If I had told you that I was a stripper, you would have left me. I know how you feel about—”
“To hell with what I feel about hookers,” he says between clenched teeth. “What matters right now is that you’re both a liar and a hooker. You should have told me. You should have told me who you are a long time ago.”
“That’s not who I am anymore.” I look up with tears trickling down my cheeks. “It’s something I did because I had no other choice. You changed me. This life changed me. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. But we both know that’s not going to happen. I need to get out of here. Now.” I push myself back to my feet and attempt to pick up my backpack. He kicks it out of my reach before my fingers can connect with it.
“You’re not going anywhere. You’re not walking out on me after everything you did.”
I toss my hands into the air and allow them to drop again. “I should have told you everything from the start. But I was afraid. I wanted to be the woman you thought I was. I did everything to prove I was that woman. I hosted the dinners. I baked the cookies. I did everything to try and fit in, to justify my being here because I never wanted to return to the person I used to be.”
“You failed. You slept with another man and you’re pregnant with his bastard.” He glances at my belly. My hands instinctively cover it.
I part my lips to speak only for the beep of a car horn outside to break the fragile silence between us. We both stare at the door, then back at each other.
“Don’t worry,” he says, a satisfied expression on his face. “Whoever is waiting to take you away will soon get bored and leave. You’re my wife. You’re not leaving this house.”
“You’re sick.” I jab a finger into his chest and he grabs me by the wrist. I yank my hand away, scorched by his touch. “Why are you even pretending to want me here?”
I thought he would leave me after I told him about being a stripper. I thought he would be disgusted and throw me out. I don’t understand his obsession with wanting me to stay.
“Don’t think you can just go out there and create a fake new life as if nothing happened. You are a murderer and if you ever walk out of that door, the cops will be all over you.” He digs into his pocket for his phone. “I can call them right now if you like.”
“I did...I didn’t kill my grandmother.” Tears threaten to spill again as my body sags from the weight pushing down on my shoulders. “She committed suicide.”
“You’re on the run from the law.”
“Yes, I am, Jared, because I wasn’t supposed to be in prison. I’m innocent.”
“You went to prison because there must have been overwhelming evidence to prove you killed your own grandmother.” He looks down at his phone. “In the eyes of the law, you’re a murderer.”
Hearing those damaging words from the man I thought I would spend the rest of my life with makes me sick to the point that bile rolls up my throat so suddenly I can’t hold it back. I push past him with my hand covering my mouth and run to the guest bathroom.
After I’m done, I rinse the bitter and sour taste of vomit from my mouth.
I turn to find him standing in the doorway, hands in his pockets.
“I’m prepared to give you another chance. We can wipe the slate clean and keep you safe from whoever is after you, including the cops. But there’s a condition.” He lets out a harsh breath. “We can only start over if you get rid of that thing.” He points straight at my stomach.
Chapter 21
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I glare at him in disbelief, the back of my throat bitter with the aftertaste of bile and fury.
How could I have been such a terrible judge of character? How could I have been so blind to marry a man who is capable of such cruelty? He played me like a fiddle, charming me in every way until I walked straight into his web.
He dips his head to the side. A smile ruffles his lips. “I’m serious. That baby you’re carrying is the source of our problems. If we’re going to start again, it has to go.”
“I won’t do it,” I say, adrenaline shooting through my veins, giving me the energy to fight back. “It’s my baby and I’m keeping it. I thought I made that clear.” I have nothing left but my baby. I refuse to give up the only thing that gives me purpose.
“I’m not asking, Kelsey. You will do as I say.” He sucks in air through his teeth and rubs the back of his neck in frustration. “Don’t you understand? You were damaged and dirty when I married you. I made you. I gave you a life. Now look at you, you’re dirty all over again. All my hard work has gone to hell.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Everything was going well for us. I made you into a perfect wife. Every time I looked at you, I couldn’t believe that you had once been polluted.” His expression contorts with disgust. “Turning a hooker into the perfect wife was meant to be my biggest achievement and I failed.”
Blood drains from my face and I stumble back, my lower back meeting the edge of the sink. “You knew?” I whisper, but he hears every word. All this time I felt guilty for not telling him about myself and he knew?
“Of course, I did. Fooled you, didn’t I?” He pauses to give the words a chance to sink into my tortured mind. “I’ve always known that you were once a hooker. What I didn’t know was that you are also a criminal. It makes it so much more interesting, don’t you think? You were my project from the start and I’m not someone who quits when things get hard. I intend to finish this project.”
“Go to hell.” I puff out my chest. “I’m not your project.”
“Of course, you are, sweetheart.” He takes a step closer into the room.
“Don’t you dare come near me.” I’m shaking with both fear and the worst anger I have ever felt.
He stops in the middle of the room and shoves his hands into his pockets. “There’s something fascinating about taking something that’s damaged beyond repair and putting it back together to create something new.” His eyes take on a faraway look as though he’s looking far into the distance. “Nothing is quite as satisfying.”
His eyes meet mine again. Undiluted evil swims in the beautiful sea of green. Not too long ago, I looked into the same eyes and felt loved and alive. Not anymore. His eyes now remind me of the dangers that lurk beneath dark waters. The man I used to love has an evil streak I failed to see when we met. Having his eyes on me now makes my skin crawl as if insects are all over me.
“I’m not your stupid project.” I clench my fists. “And I want nothing to do with you ever again.” I try to push past him, but he blocks my way with his arm.
“Not so fast. There’s something else you don’t know. There’s a lot you don’t know, actually. But let me tell you a secret.”
I shrivel up inside. I can already sense that whatever he wants to tell me will hurt badly. The smirk on his face says everything I need to know.
“What I have to say has to do with another one of your many secrets.” He shoves me with his arm so I move back into the room. “Since we’re being honest with each other, I guess it’s fair to tell you that I know what you did.”
“What—”
“It was you who killed Victor. The wrong man is behind bars for a crime
you committed.”
At first, I don’t know what to say. The words form an invisible rope that wraps itself around my chest and squeezes, forcing air from my lungs. My body folds forward, my hands cupping my knees. I force myself to stand upright again, to meet his gaze.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Of course, you do, baby.” He tries to touch me, but I smack his hand away. “If I were you, I would be more respectful. After all, I know all your secrets now.”
“It was him.” The words cause my bottom lip to tremble. “Victor raped me. I hit him. But I did not kill him.”
“Are you sure about that?” Jared waits for a response that doesn’t come.
What if it’s true? What if that night I struck Victor so hard it killed him? But if I killed him, when we searched for him that night, why wasn’t he at the place I left him? Could he have dragged himself away and died from his injuries later? Maybe he bled to death someplace else.
My hand goes to my mouth and squeezes it, stretching the skin, my nails digging into my flesh. I don’t know how it happens, but suddenly I’m on the floor again, my heart threatening to beat right out of my chest.
Jared kneels down in front of me. I flinch when he takes my chin in his hand and tips it upward until his gaze holds mine. “Do you understand now why I want you to get rid of that thing inside you? It hurts, Kelsey.” He tightens his fingers around my chin. “You say you’re no longer a prostitute and yet you flirted with my friend constantly. When he took what you were offering, you killed him.”
“I didn’t.” It’s hard to speak when my chin is aching. “I never flirted with him. He hit on me constantly.”
“Don’t insult me.” He pushes my head back and his grip tightens even more. “I saw how you acted around him. How you laughed at his jokes, like that day in the kitchen when they came to dinner. I’m not blind, you know.”