Part 32 (1/2)
She must not be able to sleep.
I head toward the kitchen, wondering if she got hungry, and I hear light chuckling coming from the closed doors of the den. I head in, expecting to find Ash, but run across Bity and Shannon instead.
”Hey. Couldn't sleep?” Bity asks as Shannon slips out of his lap and onto the couch beside him.
”No, um, have you seen Ash?”
”Not since you guys went to bed. Why?”
”She's not in our room. Why are you guys in here?”
”Trip woke up, very unhappy with a terrible diaper, and we couldn't go back to sleep. We decided to come down here and talk instead of waking up everyone else.”
”Where's Trip?” I ask, feeling a pang of worry.
Bity picks up the monitor and waves it lightly.
”He's still in bed. We've been checking in on him, and we brought this down here.”
I sigh, feeling relief, and then I walk over to the window.
”I'm going to go find Ash. You don't think she went outside, do you?”
”No. The alarm would have sounded, or at least beeped when she disarmed it,” Bity says with a shrug.
A car pulls in and shuts its lights off before the glow can hit the house. I realize it's Russell when he gets out, and I tilt my head curiously. Where has he been? He's not supposed to leave while on duty.
I'll definitely talk to Troy about that. I start to walk out the door, then remember the alarm. When I reach the pad, however, I realize it's not armed, and it hasn't been... all night.
”s.h.i.+t.”
”What?” Bity worries.
My eyes fall on Russell, ready to blast him as soon as he reaches the house. He left it unarmed so he could sneak back in and pretend like he was doing his job instead of running off in the night for whatever in the h.e.l.l he's up to.
I walk out, and my heart jumps in my throat when I see Troy's body collapsed in the bushes beside me. He's still, two bullets in his head, and I feel the chunks rising to my throat when I see two more men's feet sticking out from under the bushes.
I rush back in and slam the door shut while pressing the arm b.u.t.ton on the pad.
”Call the cops, now!” I demand while rus.h.i.+ng around the house.
”What's going on?” Bity panics.
”Call the f.u.c.king cops!”
I hear Shannon's distant voice doing as I've commanded as I scream out, ”As.h.!.+”
No one answers me back, and I get sick when I reach Bity and Shannon's room. My son. Oh please let him be here.
”The cops are on their way,” Shannon murmurs while my hand hesitates over the doork.n.o.b.
”What's wrong?” Bity urges.
I finally burst through, and I rush over to the crib. Tingles of anxiety spread and attack me fully.
Quickly I rush out, and I grab up my phone to call the detective.
”What's wrong?” he asks in a tired voice as I head back to the crib, my whole body shaking.
”That b.i.t.c.h isn't dead.”
As.h.i.+ara ”I was wondering if you were ever going to wake back up,” she grumbles as she steps toward me, still holding my baby in her arms.
She's holding him too tight. He should be crying right now from her grip. He hates to be held tight.
Oh, G.o.d, please let him be alive.
”You're such a little b.i.t.c.h,” she snorts, brus.h.i.+ng her pale blond hair from her brow.
”Why are you doing this?” I cry out.
”Really?” she scoffs. ”You know the answer to that question. Dyllan was my life, you conniving little wh.o.r.e.”
I swallow hard as I stare at the pale woman who barely resembles the shattered woman I saw at the bar that night-the night I realized the man who took my virginity was married.
She stalks around, her eerie footsteps tracing the sands under her feet, and she laughs a little.
”It's like you have some divine intervention everyday. Your life is so f.u.c.king perfect.”
Perfect? She's f.u.c.king crazy. Well, duh. That's pretty obvious.
”My life isn't perfect.”
She laughs louder, but there's no one to hear her maniacal cackles but me. Then they cease as she turns to me with pain and fury in her eyes.
”My life was perfect once. I was in love, pregnant, and happy.”
My breath catches in my throat.
”I never knew you existed until that night. I swear I didn't. I left him the second I knew he was married.”
She snorts derisively, and then turns back away.
”Oh, believe me, I know you left him. For months he obsessed over getting you back. We went out for our anniversary that night. Five years we had been married. I'd loved him my whole life though. I was about to tell him I was pregnant when I ordered water instead of a drink. Then, my world fell apart-because of you.”
She turns back to me, all of her pain replaced by hatred.
”He told me I was pathetic when I begged him to stay. He said I was weak, oh, but he thought you were so much stronger. That's why he loved you, he said. I had to hear about how f.u.c.king incredible you were. When I told him I was pregnant, he told me I'd be a terrible mother, and I needed to go to the doctor to take care of the child he didn't want.”