by BM Hardin
I wanted to say so much yet I knew that it was in my best interest if I said nothing at all.
All that he’d said had me shook but he still hadn’t told me the meat of it all.
Why me?
What did I ever do to him?
“With Nicole gone, I was free to get close to you. I was going to make you fall in love with me and then torture you or beat you, or something, but that required too much energy. Then I was just going to get in close enough, marry you, adopt Horizon, then kill you and have my daughter back in a sense, but something changed. As I got to know you, I fell for you. I didn’t want to love you, but I did. Every day that I saw you. Every time that I touched you. I loved you even more. You became my weakness,” Silas said.
It was weird that he’d used the same words as Carmen had to describe what I was to him.
But none of it made sense.
I still didn’t understand.
“Silas, what did I do to you?”
He looked at me.
“You took my Daddy from me.”
What?
What the hell was he talking about?
“The man that you called “Uncle Johnnie” was my real father. He was the love of my mother’s life. But you lied on him and sent him to prison. You killed him.”
What!
Okay, wait a minute.
Uncle Johnnie was the man that my grandparents had taken in when he was just a boy. He wasn’t my real uncle, but his parents passed away so they finished raising him. He was the drunk that had a thing for my little sister Tia.
The one that I’d cried wolf on and had him sent to prison, where he’d fallen ill almost immediately and died.
He was Silas’s dad?
He was the one that his mother had had an affair with?
We’d all known that Uncle Johnnie had a lot of kids, spread out everywhere, but Silas?
Silas was his son?
“As soon as I was here, I looked for him. I found out everything on him. Found all of his kids. Then I got one of my connections to get me all of the records from prison and from the trial and your testimonies. All I saw throughout all of the paperwork, over and over, was how many times he said that you lied. I could just tell as a man that he was telling the truth. He was innocent wasn’t he?”
Was it a good idea to tell him the truth?
“I’m over it now. But I just have to know.”
Oh well, this whole thing was about to be over anyway.
“Yes. He was actually trying to molest Tia. So, I cried wolf to keep him away from her. I didn’t know that he was going to die. But I was trying to save my sister.”
Silas didn’t say anything for a while.
“Had he been alive, maybe he could have saved me. Maybe I could have come here with him and never went back. My mother hated the way her husband treated me. Maybe he would have wanted me. I waited for the day that I could get here and reunite with him and tell him all of the things that I had been through so that he could tell me, as my father, that he had my back now and that everything was going to be fine. But when I got here, I found out that he was dead. Dead because of you. So, yes, I hated you. I planned to make you pay for years. But once I finally got a hold of you, I didn’t want to let you go. I started to forgive you. And I just wanted you. But people in my circle were constantly trying to mess it all up.”
The more and more Silas talked, the easier it became for me to do what I had to do.
I was caught up in a nightmare and I was going to take my way out.
I felt bad for what he’d gone through and even a little disturbed that I had taken his father away from him in a way, but from all of the things that Silas had said, if I didn’t do something about it now, no one ever would.
Silas stood up.
“But that’s it. That’s all of my secrets. There’s nothing else to hide. I want you. I want my family. I want my kids. I want us,” Silas said and started towards me.
Envy, if you are going to do this, you had better do this now. You can’t trust him. You aren’t safe with him. This is the only way.
My conscious was working overtime to convince me, and I had to go with my gut on this one.
Silas continued towards me, and before I could change my mind, I took the gun out of my purse and pointed it at him.
“Envy what are you doing?”
“I want out Silas. This is the only way,” I said pointing the gun at him.
Silas looked at me as though I’d broken his heart in a million little pieces.
He looked at me as though he couldn’t believe that I would even think about hurting him.
The question was, could I really do it?
Could I do it for me and my kids?
I’d thought that I could do it, but I couldn’t.
But I knew if I tried to divorce him, he would probably kill me. He wasn’t just going to let me walk away from him.
This was the only way.
“Envy. I love you,” Silas said raising his hands.
Damn it!
I started to lower the gun and…
Boom.
Boom.
I looked over and saw Carmen standing in the bedroom.
Where the hell did she come from?
“I knew that you weren’t going to be able to do it,” she said, and waved the key at me.
“This was actually the condo that we lived in when we were married. I still had the spare,” Carmen said.
I shook my head and looked back at Silas.
The blood was oozing from his head and painting the pearly white carpet a crimson, bloody red.
He was dead.
My husband was dead.
I’d called Carmen and found out that she was still alive.
I lied to her and told her that Silas was out to kill her and that he was doing everything in his power to find her.
I told her that I wanted out and since he was trying to kill her, and that being with him was killing me, I needed her help to do something about it.
Scared for her life, she agreed, and together, we came up with the plan to kill him and cover it up.
Who would have thought that Carmen and I would be partners in crime?
Surely not me I’ll tell you that much.
But we were both desperate.
She was still in a paranoid state and she felt as though it was either him or her, though I knew that Wiley was the one that had been bothering her the whole time.
But everyone else was lying to get what they wanted and this was the only way.
Horizon started to call my name from her bedroom and I looked at Silas one last time.
He was gone.
I hadn’t actually pulled the trigger as planned, but I felt as though I had.
I was supposed to shoot him and then call Carmen so she could do whatever it was that she done to cover things up.
But now she was going to be covering up her own murder, and in a way, my conscious was clear.
I glanced at Carmen who was obviously about to break down.
It was clear that in different ways, we both loved him.
And we both had to make a hard decision.
But we both also knew that it was the right one.
“Follow the plan Envy. Go to the other house. I’ll start the cover up. No one will even know that he’s dead for a while, if ever. I haven’t decided yet. You’ll still have all access to his money and a bulk of it was moved to a personal account already. The cards are with all of the other stuff. After tomorrow, leave, and don’t ever look back. Don’t come back here Envy. Silas doesn’t talk to his family. His half siblings only knew of him, except for Wiley, but according to what you said, he won’t be looking for him either. He’s probably gone too. No family. No friends. We just got away with the perfect crime. Now go. Goodbye Envy,” Carmen said and with that, I got my babies, and I drove to the other house just like she’d said.
Since I didn’t have to worry about Wiley coming after me, I wasn’t scare
d to be in the house alone, but still I was up all night.
I couldn’t believe what had taken place but I kept telling myself that this had been for the best.
Carmen had a buyer for the house, so the house would be sold, with Silas’s fake signatures of course and now all I had to do was figure out where we were going.
She’d bought the Porsche from me herself, and the boat.
I’d called off all store building plans and everything had pretty much been taken care of.
I was just going to take off with Horizon and I would figure out the whole school thing along the way.
My only worry now was figuring out what was next.
One of Carmen’s connections also gave me a brand new name, and a whole new life.
I had a fresh start.
To the world, Envy was now dead too.
I wanted to join Josephine and the other and pretend as though I didn’t know what she’d done.
But the safest thing to do would be to never contact her again, and I figured that it was probably what was for the best.
I wasn’t sure where I would end up.
All I knew was that I was free.
The morning came too fast and with the car already loaded up, the kids and I headed outside.
I stopped in my tracks as I stared at the baby in the car seat on the front porch, surrounded by black bags; my black bags full of cash.
The baby was asleep, so I sat down my carrier with my son in it and read the note attached to the other baby’s car seat.
“Cleaning up a murder had to be worth more than just keeping tabs for me. The way I see it, you still owe me. He needs a mother. And not one like me. Oh and here’s your money. Silas hid it at my house. Figured I would give it back.”
This bitch here!
I called Carmen’s phone…but it was disconnected.
I looked at the baby.
Oh what the hell.
He was probably safer with me anyway.
I got all three children situated in the car, put the money in the trunk and found an envelope on the passenger seat.
It was the baby’s fake information.
She’d changed his name and everything to fit my new identity and the new identity that she’d given the kids.
People with money I tell you.
Ready to ride, I drove to the nearest gas station.
I had no idea where the road was going to take me or where the wind was going to blow me but I was ready.
I was ready.
Just before throwing my old phone in the trash can by the gas pumps just as Carmen had told me to, I sent Wiley a text message and told him where Carmen told me she was headed and the name that she was using.
I also smiled because I knew that I’d dropped the recording of all of his confessions at the grocery store that day off at the police station. I’d taken it from my phone and saved it to a disk.
So, if he wasn’t out of town, yet, maybe they would get him. And if she wasn’t already out of town, maybe he would get her.
Payback.
I started to hum as I pumped the gas but I was interrupted.
“Envy?”
I turned around to see that it was Gerald.
Gerald was the oil tycoon that used to reserve my curves, but stopped seeing me because he ran off and got married.
He was the one that had wanted me to run off with him.
“Hi. How are you? What have you been up too?”
“Well let’s see. Married. Miserable. Divorced. Happy,” Gerald said.
I smiled.
“And you?”
“Married. Kids, times three. Widowed.” I answered.
Gerald looked into the back seat and smiled.
“They are beautiful. I know this might sound a little strange, but I never stopped thinking about you. I wished you would have just taken my offer and ran away with me,” Gerald said.
Hmm…
Maybe it wasn’t too late.
What was there to lose?
Hell, what’s the worst that could happen?
Unless he was another Silas.
But I knew him, kind of, or at least I used to know him. I screwed him for months and talked about everything under the sun with him.
He told me his secrets and everything else.
I knew him enough.
“Ask me again.”
Gerald looked at me.
He smiled.
“What?”
“Ask me again.”
“Runaway with me. You. Me. And the kids. Anywhere. Everywhere.”
I smiled.
“Yes.”
We chatted for a second more and I agreed to follow him to his private jet, which was in the next city over.
He’d actually said that he’d came down for business and had just rode by the hotel on his way out.
He knew that it had been shut down, and he was one of the lucky ones whose name must have not been on any of the paperwork that I’d managed to grab and turn in.
He’d said that no one had ever came for him so he pretended as though it had never happened.
This was crazy!
This was insane!
But my gut told me that this was going to be the best decision that I’d ever made.
Gerald got into his car and pulled up beside mine.
“You ready for forever?”
“Is forever ready for me?”
“I was ready years ago. And this time, I won’t ever let you go,” he said.
I smiled.
“Oh, by the way, Envy wasn’t my real name. My real name is…Tia.”
What…I just liked the name.
It was Carmen’s idea to use it.
And hell, by using it, in a way I felt that I was taking her with me wherever I go.
Gerald nodded and drove off as I followed.
As we entered the highway, I looked behind me in my rearview mirror.
I looked back at the tall, glass buildings.
I looked back at the city that had brought me more pain than it’d ever brought me joy.
I looked back at my past and knew that it would never be a part of my future.
I smiled as I left behind everything I’d ever known.
“See you later…or not,” I said out loud and I never looked back again.
The End
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