Time passed. She wasn’t sure how long, but she had started to feel like herself again. The kaleidoscope of swirled colors separated, becoming solid, forming shapes, bringing her back to the present. She was sitting on a chair in the bedroom. A rope was tied around her waist, securing her to the chair. Elaina sat to her left, Rebecca to the right. And there was someone else there, a man, sitting several feet in front of her. He had a pillowcase over his head and had been tied to the chair he sat on, just like she was tied to hers.
Fingers snapped in front of Maddie’s face. She jerked her head back, focusing on the woman standing in front of her: Sharon.
“Took you long enough to come around,” Sharon said. “Wake up. Join the party.”
“The ... party?”
Sharon walked over to the man, yanking the pillowcase off his head in a quick, grand gesture. As recognition set in, all three women gasped.
“Ladies, I’d like to introduce you to my husband,” Sharon said. “But there’s no need. You’re acquainted.”
Matt glanced at each woman, then at his wife. “Sharon, what have you done?”
Sharon reached down, gripping Matt’s chin in her hand. “What have I done? What have you done, Matthew?”
Rebecca squirmed in her chair, anxious, like she knew what was coming next. “I didn’t know about you, Sharon. Matt didn’t tell me he was married. Please, I don’t know what he told you, but it’s not what you—”
“Stop making a fool of yourself,” Sharon said. “He didn’t tell me anything.”
Matt stared at the floor. “How did you find out? How long have you known? Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I suppose it’s time for us all to come clean. A group cleanse. I mean, why not? I have nothing to lose anymore. Would you like to hear a story?”
“Sharon,” Matt begged, “Don’t do this. Please.”
“Shut it, Matthew.” Sharon faced the women. “In recent weeks my husband has become distant, you see. He wasn’t talking to me like he usually did, and when I could get him to talk he struggled to maintain eye contact. We have been married for fifteen years and not once has our relationship been strained. He was keeping something from me. I was sure of it. One morning I followed him. He did nothing out of the ordinary, so I followed him the next day. This time he met with a real estate agent. They drove to a few condos for sale and two weeks later he bought one. He arrived home afterward without uttering a single word to me about his purchase. You’re all familiar with the condo, right?”
Tears pooled in her eyes, and she went silent. Weeks of hurt, anger, and frustration poured out, an ugly visible display of the pain she’d bottled up until now.
“A week after he purchased the condo, he took you there Rebecca,” she said. “Not once. Twice. It was Madison the following week, and Elaina a week later. And do you ladies want to know the most ironic part of it all? After each encounter, he left your blond, skinny asses and came home to me, his short, overweight wife. And the saddest part? I’ve received more attention from him in the past month than I have in the past year, and it’s all because of you three. You breathed life back into him. Not me.”
“It’s not our fault though,” Rebecca said. “Why are you blaming us for what he did?”
“Quiet! It’s my turn to talk. This isn’t about fault. I can’t compete with you. I can’t compete with any of you. He’ll keep seeing other women like you, and one day it won’t just be fun and games anymore. He’ll leave me, and my life means nothing without him in it.”
“I’m not seeing any of them anymore, Sharon,” Matt said. “It was a mistake. It won’t happen again. I love you.”
Sharon whipped around. “No, Matt. You loved me. Now you love selfishness more. You were my life, the only thing keeping me going.”
“Tell me what I can do to fix this.”
“It’s too late. We’ll never be the same again. You’re not the man you once were, and I’m not the same woman.”
“Sharon, I—”
“We both made a choice, and there’s no going back. Not now. I’ve accepted it, and so should you.”
Desperate, it seemed Matt was willing to try anything to appease her, anything to change her mind. “Whatever you’re planning, there’s still a way out. We’ll find one, together. Start all over again, move to Texas, just like you’ve always wanted. Come on, honey.”
It was the word honey that would come to break the camel’s back in the end, changing Sharon’s melancholy demeanor to an uncontrollable rage, a once normal woman gone mad.
This was it.
The end.
Sharon’s grand finale.
Maddie had to find a way to stop it.
But how?
Sharon removed a second gun she’d tucked into the waistline of her pants and held it out to Rebecca. “Take it.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“I said take it!”
Sharon shoved the gun at her, and Rebecca took it with shaking hands.
“I ... I don’t understand. You want me to shoot myself?”
“Of course not, you idiot.” Sharon tipped her head toward Matt. “I want you to shoot him.”
“Please don’t make me do this! I can’t.”
“Of course you can,” Sharon said. “You shoot him, or I shoot you. I’m not asking you to kill him. Not yet. Aim for the leg, the shoulder, a kneecap. He caused me pain, and now I’m doing the same for him.”
“I’ve never shot a gun before. I don’t know how.”
“It’s not hard. I’ve made it easy for you. Just aim and shoot.”
Her whole body trembling, Rebecca stared at Matt. “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”
“Don’t do it,” Matt begged. “Please.”
He squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for what was about to come next.
“I ... I ... I can’t.”
In a final act of defiance, Rebecca grew a spine. Spinning around she took aim at Sharon, but hesitated before pulling the trigger, a move that proved to be fatal when Sharon raised her own gun and popped off a single shot. The bullet pierced Rebecca’s forehead, and she slumped forward, the gun slipping out of her hands and onto the floor.
Rebecca was dead.
Sharon picked the gun up off the floor and handed it to Elaina. “Your turn.”
Elaina took it without hesitation.
“Don’t be stupid like your dead friend here,” Sharon said. “Just point and—”
“I don’t need your advice. I know how it works.” Elaina held the gun out in front of her, looked Matt in the eye, and said, “I’m sorry, dude. Wish it didn’t have to be this way.”
Elaina fired. The bullet missed Matt by a few inches, lodging into the wall behind him.
A frustrated Sharon ripped the gun out of Elaina’s hands. “Useless! You’re all useless! I’ve planned for this day for weeks, and it’s been nothing but a big letdown. Let me show you both how to get things done.”
Sharon faced Matt, popping off two shots—one into each of his legs. Matt shrieked in pain. With Sharon’s back turned and her focus on her husband, Maddie swept her foot across Sharon’s leg hard enough to knock the woman off balance. One of the guns flew into the air, and as Sharon plummeted toward the floor, Maddie and Elaina tipped themselves over in their chairs, lunging for it.
Maddie reached the gun first and swung around, taking aim at Sharon. She had intended to shoot when a familiar voice boomed through the house, a voice Maddie never thought she’d be so elated to hear.
“Madison?”
Coop.
“We’re here!” Maddie shouted. “In the basement.”
Sharon drove her fists into the ground like a child whose toy had just been taken away. “It’s not fair! Matthew doesn’t get to live! This isn’t how it’s supposed to end. We were supposed to die together.”
Together. It had been her plan all along, to take his life and then her own. With no way out, a desperate Sharon turned the gun on herself, firing into the side
of her head. Coop and Nick entered the room first, followed by Sloane, who scooped Maddie into her arms, holding her like she’d never let go.
THE END
Deadly Sins: Wrath Page 5