She took a deep breath and downed the entire thing in one go. The fiery liquid stung her throat and pained her as it went down. She coughed and beat against her chest to ease the initial discomfort. That wasn’t too bad. At least it was better than this ridiculous predicament she was in now. Two more half glasses of scotch later and her anger was at a boiling point, steaming through her entire body. Cory needed to know how and why Adrian could do such a thing to her.
She dialed his cell phone for the third time for the day.
• • •
“Hi, baby. Can I call you back in a minute?” Adrian immediately answered.
“No, you may not.”
“Cory? What’s wrong?”
“Are you still at the base?” she asked quietly. Coldly.
“Yes. We’re getting ready to move out in a little bit. What’s wrong? Why’re you sounding like that? You sound so distant.”
“I need you to come home.”
“What? When?”
“Now!” Cory shouted at him.
“Cory, but I can’t. C’mon, you know I can’t do that now, baby,” Adrian pleaded with her. “Cory, are you going to tell me what’s wrong? Are you feeling okay?”
“No, I’m not okay,” Cory screamed.
“Well, then tell me what’s wrong, Cory,” Adrian found his own voice rising from the anticipation he was starting to feel.
“Everything.”
“God, Cory! Just talk to me.” There was another long silence. “Cory … just stay where you are. I’ll be there shortly.”
Adrian turned his attention back to the man with the expectant look on his face sitting across from him in his office. They were going over the last-minute details of the search together. Since his return to base that afternoon, they were either in meetings, preparing for the exercise, or loading their weapons, food, and camping gear into the vehicles.
“Major, I need to be excused, sir. There’s an emergency at my home that I need to investigate now.”
“Mendez, can’t anybody else look into that for you?” Major Benjamin asked him.
“No,” Adrian simply replied. “It’s my wife, sir.”
“Well, we’re moving out at 1800 hours. And you have to lead this exercise. Half an hour is all you have and that’s it, Mendez.”
“Roger that, major.”
“Allyuh young men need to learn how to handle your women when duty calls.”
Obviously, Major Benjamin didn’t know his woman. Cory was one firecracker he did not want to mess with. When he left his office, Adrian immediately summoned two of his armed soldiers to accompany him to his apartment. He didn’t know what to expect there.
All he knew was that he didn’t like the way Cory was sounding over the phone. She wasn’t exactly talking to him either. Or could she even talk? Adrian’s mind began to race. Was there somebody else with her? Was she under some sort of threat? Was she being coerced? If anyone dare hurt his wife and he found them, make no mistake, he knew what he’d do to them.
“Step on it, man,” Adrian ordered the soldier who was driving. “I only have half hour.”
“Jus’ say the word, LT.” The soldier really stepped on it because he pulled up at Adrian’s apartment building only a few minutes later. Adrian practically flew out and bounded toward the elevator. The front door was locked as usual. There wasn’t anybody suspiciously lurking around the corridor. Everything looked in order to him. Adrian drew the gun strapped on his leg just in case.
Chapter 27
Nothing prepared Adrian for what met his eyes when he unlocked the front door of his apartment. His heart immediately plunged in his chest. Cory was sitting in the darkened living room, looking all dazed. She didn’t get up to greet him. Adrian’s trained eyes quickly darted around the room searching for anyone else who might be there with her.
Then he noticed the opened bottle of scotch on the coffee table in front of her. Was she drunk? What the hell was she thinking? Making him think the worst that someone was probably here attacking her and here she was getting herself wasted. Having him rush over here, jeopardizing his duties like that.
Relief washed over him first. Cory was all right. He strapped his gun back in its place. “Cory, since when do you drink scotch by the way?” Adrian asked in a low voice. “You hate scotch,” he added. There was no answer.
He switched on the lights. Cory winced. Then Adrian noticed the state of her face. Swollen, red and puffy. He immediately rushed toward her, fearing the worst. “Cory what happened?” Adrian barked at her, demanding a real answer from her this time.
A smile played on her lips now. “Tell me again why you married me, Adrian,” she demanded quietly.
“What?” Adrian demanded. “Please tell me this is not the reason you had me rush over here.”
“No! You tell me!” she screamed at him. “I need to know why.”
“Cory, I don’t have to tell you because you already know why. I tell you every day, for Pete’s sake!”
“But I need to hear it now.”
Adrian took a deep breath and sat down next to her on the sofa. Softening his tone he said, “Because I love you, Cory. Is that what you wanted to hear?”
Cory burst into hysterical laughter. “You love me?” she asked him incredulously. “Then how is it possible for a man who claims he loves me to do such an evil thing like this to me?”
Adrian was feeling something rising in his chest. That sickening feeling was coming back. “Cory, what’re you talking about?” His voice was back to its normal low tone again.
“This is what I’m talking about, Adrian,” she yelled as she flung sheets of paper at him. Adrian caught a page, read the top, immediately added up the events, and went cold.
“God, Cory! I’m so sorry. You weren’t supposed to find out like this,” Adrian said.
“Well, I suppose you should be more careful with the information you have stored on your laptop. Especially when you allow other people to use it.”
“Cory, I’m sorry. Baby, I swear. I was going to tell you everything. This was what I was going to tell you last night,” Adrian tried to explain.
“Sure you were. Boy Scouts honor, right?” Cory laughed. “You know, I thought you were an honorable man, Adrian. But you’re just like the rest of them. You’re such a liar!”
“Cory, I never once lied to you.”
“So what do you call this, then? Lying by omission is still lying, Adrian. You knew about this all the while and was stringing me all along like a fool.”
“Cory, that’s not what happened. Look, I need to explain everything to you and exactly the way it all happened that night.”
“No! You had six months to tell me everything, Adrian. Six months!” Cory shrieked. “I don’t want to hear anything now.”
“But I only found out about this the night I had dinner at your house, I swear to you. When you showed me that photo of you and Collin, that’s when everything clicked.”
“Liar!” Cory shouted to his face.
“That’s the truth, Cory.”
Cory went quiet for a while. “So that’s the reason why I didn’t see you for days after that? That’s why you couldn’t return any of my calls? Then you made up a lame work excuse thing and then you supposedly popped the question you thought I wanted to hear. You were planning your strategy all along?” Cory asked dumbfounded. When Adrian didn’t answer her question or say anything, she quietly began to sob.
“Oh my God. I was such a fool. To think you loved me and wanted to marry me, Adrian. When all you really wanted to do was to cover your ass. So that I’d never find out what you did. How could you do this to me?” Cory managed between the sobs. “After you made love to me this morning and this afternoon. After you look me in my face everyday, Adrian? How could you do this?”
> “Baby, no! That’s not true. I love you more than life itself, Cory and I wanted to marry you. I couldn’t live my life without you in it.” Adrian was becoming desperate for Cory to understand what he was trying to say to her. He took her hands into his. “You have to believe me, Cory.”
Cory screamed and pushed his hands away from hers. “How could I ever believe anything you have to say to me again, Adrian?”
“You have to believe me, Cory. Trust me, I’ll never do anything to intentionally hurt you, baby.”
“Only you did, Adrian,” she yelled. “You killed my brother. And you pretended to love me to cover it up. You lied to me. And now you want me to trust you?”
“Cory, your brother’s killing was an accident,” Adrian barked at her.
“So tell me. Since you were the closest to Collin, how many of your bullets you think went into him?”
“Surely, you don’t expect me to answer that, Cory.”
“Tell me!” she screamed at him again.
“I don’t know!” Adrian screamed back at her.
“You’re nothing but a murderer, Adrian,” Cory looked him in the eye when she quietly said this to his face. “You killed my brother and you killed my mother.”
Her words stung Adrian like a slap in the face. He never expected to hear these words coming from Cory, of all people. They could have come from anybody else. But not her.
His heart squeezed against his rib cage. Adrian suddenly felt ashamed. But nothing could come to his mind to say to her. Nothing. Because she was right. So much for the honor and courage he so prided in himself.
“I’ll take full responsibility for your brother’s death, Cory. But your mother died from breast cancer,” Adrian said quietly.
“No! She died because you killed her firstborn son and she didn’t want to live anymore, Adrian,” Cory shouted.
Adrian came closer to her, trying to comfort her in his arms but Cory wasn’t having any of it.
“Don’t touch me!”
A knock on the door shifted Adrian’s attention from Cory for the first time since he’d come home. He waited till he heard the knock again. “We aren’t finished yet, Cory,” he quietly said to her as he got up to get the door. When he opened it, one of the soldiers who accompanied him was standing outside.
“Is everything okay, LT?” he asked.
“Everything is fine, soldier,” he replied.
“Then, sir, with all due respect, we have to get back to base.”
“Just give me a minute,” Adrian said to him and closed the door.
When he turned around, Cory wasn’t sitting on the sofa anymore. He headed straight for the bedroom. He turned the door handle but it was locked. Adrian began banging on the door, begging Cory to let him in. “Baby, please open the door. We haven’t finished talking about this.”
“I don’t want to talk anymore, Adrian. I’m tired,” Cory shouted from behind the door.
“Cory, c’mon.” Adrian could have easily broken the door in but he knew that would only serve to scare Cory even further. She was already in such a delicate, fragile state right now. He was such a fool. He never prepared himself for this day. He never imagined all this drama. But what did he expect? He drove her to this state. Adrian was mad as hell with himself for not telling Cory as soon as he realized everything. Maybe all of this heartache could have been avoided.
“Cory, I have to go,” Adrian at last said through the closed door. “When I get back, we need to really talk about this, okay.” Adrian didn’t want to go. But he really had to go now.
“Yeah, I know you have to go, Adrian. So just go, then. National duty is calling,” Cory scathingly said.
Adrian shook his head in despair as he continued to press his body against the door. “I know I should’ve told you this before … but Cory I didn’t want to lose you. I know I was selfish and I’m so sorry, baby. I know I’m not perfect. Please promise me when I get back we’ll talk some more about this.” But there was only silence on the other side of the door now.
Chapter 28
Cory immediately started packing when she heard the front door lock behind Adrian. He was gone now and she absolutely knew she couldn’t stay here any minute longer. No way was she going to sit around and wait two whole days for Adrian to return home. To tell her what? She already heard more than enough from him. She had to get out of here. Out of his apartment. Out of town. Out of this island. Anywhere but here. It was just too painful to stay.
Cory couldn’t understand how one minute you could be so in love with someone and then in the next want to get as far away from them as you could. But where could she go? Who could she turn to now? She certainly couldn’t go home to her father after this. Not with everything that just happened. In fact, how could she ever look him in his face again after what Adrian did to her family?
She didn’t want to bother her girlfriends with this, either. There was one person left she knew she could always count on. She dialed Jay’s number and asked him a favor. To take her to the airport. She needed to get off this island immediately. In half an hour’s time, Jay pulled up outside the gate. She hastily threw on a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and a yellow tank top. No wonder they were called skinny jeans. Cory had to really wiggle her way into them to get them up and over her wide hips and big butt. But she was too depressed right now to even think about her weight gain.
Depressed was an understatement. She was heartbroken. She was angry, too, but more so with herself for being so idiotic as to put herself once again in this position because of a damn man. Not just any man but the love of her life, she reminded herself. She slipped some sandals on her feet and a dab of lip gloss in the mirror and she was all ready. Not forgetting her sunglasses, Cory slipped on her darkest pair.
She hastily threw her luggage in the back seat. It was now a little after six in the evening and the sun was setting. Depending on the traffic situation, they should be in the airport about one hour from now, Cory hopefully estimated.
“What’s up with the sunglasses?” Jay immediately asked her as she got into the front passenger’s seat beside him.
“Don’t ask, okay,” Cory shot back. “People do wear them at night time by the way.”
“Only if you’re Usher Raymond,” Jay said as he started the car.
When they were finally on their way, he asked her, “So what’s really going on, Cory?”
“Nothing!”
“Is your grandmother sick or something? Why’re you rushing over to Tobago so suddenly?” Jay pressed her. “You don’t look too good yourself, Ri-Ri.”
“Did anybody ever tell you how annoying you are sometimes? I’m fine, okay. I just need to see my grandmother, that’s all.”
“Look, how long have we known each other, eh? Five long years,” he continued. “Talk to me, Cory. I’ve been around you for too long to know when something’s wrong.”
“Look, it doesn’t matter how long you know someone for, okay. You still may not know that person,” Cory snapped at him. “You’ll still get screwed in the end.”
“Well, I’m sorry for asking.”
Cory softened somewhat. “Look, Jay, I’m sorry for snapping at you but I really don’t feel like talking right now.”
“Fine, Cory.”
For the remainder of the drive there was no conversation in the car, only Jay’s annoying and out-of-key singing along to every damn song playing on the radio. Trying his best to annoy her further, no doubt, but Cory was too deep in her own thoughts to even care. She stared through the window, pondering her future and what she was going to do. She didn’t have a clue or clear solution to this mess. It’s not everyday you find out your husband killed your brother in the line of duty.
When Jay finally pulled up at the airport, he started to get out the car to help her with her luggage. Cory imm
ediately stopped him.
“Jay, thank you so much for this,” she said to him. She really meant it. “I’ll be fine, don’t worry. You can go ahead. I’ll just go in and buy a ticket and wait, okay.”
“Are you sure, Cory?” he asked. “Because I don’t want to have to answer that husband of yours if you go missing or something.”
She smiled. Cory knew Jay was a bit wary of Adrian, due to the mere fact that he was always armed. “I wouldn’t worry about him if I were you.” Cory waved to him and closed the door of his car.
“What do you mean by that, Cory?” Jay shouted after her.
She didn’t even bother to give him an answer or explanation for that matter, as she pulled out the handle of her traveling bag and wheeled it hurriedly through the automatic doors of the airport.
It was the middle of July and the peak of the summer vacation. School was out so everyone was busy traveling between the two islands or the Caribbean and North America. Cory had forgotten all about the mayhem at the airport during this time of year. The place was bursting at its seams with people. Luggage was strewn everywhere and children were running and screaming all over the place. A group of them almost ran her over as she wheeled her lone bag in.
Cory joined a line and waited for her turn to go up to the counter. “Hi. I need a ticket to go to Tobago, please,” she said to the girl behind the counter. She had been screaming at the top of her voice with Adrian and crying her eyeballs out all evening so she was now going hoarse.
Thankfully, she was able to get a ticket but on the last flight out for the night. This wasn’t until 10:00 so she had another two hours or so before boarding the plane. Cory decided to call her grandmother and tell her she was coming over tonight. Then she’d go buy some dinner and something to read perhaps. She didn’t want to even think about Adrian anymore.
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