by Mona Love
“Stay out of this, bitch! You ended my marriage! You stole my husband! Soon you’re going to be ex-wife status too, bitch!” Secret screamed, snot and tears covering her face now.
With that, Secret placed her pointer finger in the trigger guard and pulled back the trigger. The gun erupted in her hand. Secret jumped. She watched as Lucky’s body flew back and slumped to the floor. Blood was running out of a hole in Lucky’s head. It almost made Secret vomit, but she was too numb to react. She turned her attention to David. Lucky had just been a casualty of their war, but he was Secret’s real intended target. He had been the one to leave her with nothing to live for.
“Secret! Don’t do this!” David pleaded, his hands out in front of him. She looked at him wickedly and aimed her gun at him. Facing the barrel of the gun, David pissed his pants.
“I will always love—” David started, his mouth curled like he was about to say the word “you.” Bang! He didn’t have a chance to let what Secret considered a big lie leave his lips. His words were cut short after the shot rang out. David’s body fell to the side and sprawled on the floor. Secret felt the powerful reverberation from the gunshots. She just stood there, staring. She wasn’t going to let him tell her another lie. Secret blinked rapidly. She was paralyzed. It was over. It was all said and done.
Secret placed the gun to her and tried to pull the trigger, but she couldn’t. Secret knew she should’ve run, but she couldn’t move. She didn’t know what had paralyzed her, but she was completely stuck.
It seemed like forever, but Secret finally heard the sirens in the distance. She was about to face the consequences of her decision. That meant someone had heard it all go down. Why else would the police be coming to the house? There were four gunshots in the end. Secret could still hear them. Two each. That’s the punishment she had meted out. It was what they deserved.
Secret shook her head. She never expected it to come to this. All kinds of complications were what she’d gotten in the end. All she wanted was to be loved for who she was, now. She hadn’t asked for much: loyalty, love, acceptance. It was too late. The sirens continued to close in on her.
Secret flinched thinking back on how the gun had exploded at the command of her fingertip. She’d dropped the gun at her feet and stood there shivering. No screaming, no hysterics, no immediate feeling of regret, nothing. Even when Secret saw all of the blood and watched the terror move across their faces, she didn’t cringe and barely moved, much less screamed. She was numb. Numb from all of the physical and mental anguish she’d endured trying to please him. Numb from the way he’d treated her, his lies and secrets.
Secret’s self-esteem and mental stability had taken several blows over the past year. Everything had gotten complicated. She wished she could turn back the hands of time. Do things differently. It was too late. Now here she stood, blood speckled on the front of her clothes, a burner lying at her feet, and two dead bodies in front of her.
“Police! Let me see your hands! Let me see your fucking hands!” the first arriving police officers screamed.
Secret lifted her hands slowly, but it was as if someone else had control over her body. She couldn’t move her feet. Something had her rooted to the floor. Her mind was fuzzy, but she smiled at the sound of the police officer’s voice. It was definitely not a smile of happiness. Instead, it was like she had begun to lose her mind. That’s what he had wanted all along anyway. All of the cruelty and harsh treatment over her weight gain. Secret closed her eyes, and her nostrils flared again. Every time she thought about it all over again, that happened.
With about ten police weapons trained on her, Secret stood stock-still. One officer rushed over and kicked the weapon away from her. It skittered across the marble floors with a screechy noise that made Secret’s ears move. Finally, she could feel something. The numbness had worn off. It was her blood rushing as her heart thumped wildly. Secret quickly realized life as she knew it was over.
She wanted to speak, but no words came out. She wanted the opportunity to explain herself. She wanted to tell the officers what had driven her to this. But she couldn’t speak. It was only a matter of seconds before she was being manhandled and thrown roughly to the floor. Secret landed on her stomach with a thud, and the wind was knocked out of her. Several officers laid hands on her, and not with soft touches either. They were treating her like she’d just assassinated the president.
“Search her good for weapons!” one of the officers barked.
Secret struggled to breathe. She hoped they didn’t beat her to death right there. She had thought about her kids, but those thoughts were too painful. She couldn’t do that to herself now. She’d done enough damage.
“She’s clean,” a female officer called out.
Secret didn’t have anything else. She had only purchased one gun: a .40-caliber Glock. It was in her despair that she’d made the purchase. She hadn’t been in her right mind. Maybe she could blame it on the painkillers she’d gotten addicted to after the surgery. Just thinking about the surgery now infuriated Secret. All of that pain! All of those complications! All for nothing!
As she was being lifted up off the ground to be placed into the squad car, Secret looked over and stared into his eyes, the familiar eyes that she had fallen in love with years ago. His seemed to glare back at her, cold, glassy, and dead.
“You did this to us. You made me turn into a monster,” Secret mumbled, staring into the dead, dilated pupils of the man who was once the love of her life, the father of her children, and most of all, her husband.
“This shit is like an episode of Snapped,” one officer spoke loudly, forcefully pulling Secret away.
“Looks like she really fucking snapped. This is one of the worst crimes of passion I’ve seen in a while,” another officer commented.
They had no idea just how bad it was. Secret had been through the wringer.
“I wonder what led to all of this. What would drive someone to just murder in cold blood like this, with no remorse?” the other officer commented.
Secret was forced into the back seat of a squad car. She closed her eyes and let the tears drain from the sides as she thought about the officer’s questions. What would drive someone to just murder in cold blood? What led to all of this? The words played over and over in Secret’s mind, and just like that, she started replaying the events that had driven her to the edge . . . to murder.
Chapter 14
“Mommy!” Bella screamed out as she rushed toward Secret.
Secret bent down and grabbed both of her kids in bear hugs. “Oh, my God, I missed you both so much,” Secret cried as she layered kisses on them. “Thank you for keeping your promise,” Secret said, barely able to speak from being choked up by her own tears.
“I would never let you down, Secret,” Andrea said. “I will be here for your forever. This time will fly by and you’ll be home. I’m just glad they understood that he drove you to this,” she said.
All Secret could do was sob and hold on to her kids. All she ever wanted was a life free of complications.