Page 73 of The Awful Truth

And she knew in that moment he wasn’t going to wake up.

She let out a sob and managed to get back up to her feet. Shaking, she noticed her handbag on the floor near the exit. She ran over and dug through it for her cell phone. She was about to call 911, but a little voice told her not to. So, she called the first person she could think of. Travis.

And now, sitting here reliving the entire thing once more, her heart pounded and she felt sick to her stomach. But after a moment, the nausea eased, and she felt an oddly light feeling that she hadn’t known since that awful night, as if her guilt and fear had floated up into the stars above them. Winslow sat next to her, his arm wrapped around her shoulder. “I’m so sorry that happened to you. Men can be monsters.”

She nodded. “He wouldn’t have spent a day in prison. No one would have believed me. He was Talbot Sterling, the golden god of Hollywood. And I would have been painted as a difficult, neurotic woman.”

“That’s true, as terrible as it is. You’re absolutely right.”

“And I’ve spent years feeling so guilty. I took a man’s life.”

“A very bad man. You got justice for all the women he did that to before you, and you saved who knows how many others,” Winslow said. “He probably could have gotten away with that shit for the rest of his charmed life.”

“Maybe. Or maybe he would’ve got caught.”

He shook his head. “He wouldn’t have. No one wants to believe their heroes are absolutely trash human beings. So they don’t let them go down.”

She knew he was right. “It’s all so sickening.”

“None of that was your fault, Mercy. None of it. And you have nothing to feel bad about. You were protecting yourself.”

“But clearly my husband is willing to use it to keep me under his thumb.” Her voice wavered. “I can’t even get help for my child who’s suffering. What kind of mother does that make me? To let her struggle like this because I’m too scared to stand up to him?”

“A normal human caught in an awful situation,” he answered, leaning his head against hers. “You can figure it out. You will.”

“But how do you leave a man like him?”

“Carefully.”

They were both quiet, watching the sun make itself known on the horizon. The slightest breeze kicked up, and Mercy took a deep breath, trying to catch it with her lungs. “Will you be okay?”

He nodded, then said, “Well, no. But I’m not going to take the coward’s way out. Not today, anyway.”

She put her hand on Winslow’s arm. “You promise?”

“Yes.” He glanced down at the weight sitting next to him on the platform. “Oh God, I can’t believe I was going to do that.” He let out a loud sob, and Mercy wrapped her arms around him and let him cry some more.

“I almost…”

“But you didn’t,” she said.

He looked at her, his eyes wild. “Thank you, Mercy. Thank you. You’re right. It would have killed him too. And my mother. I don’t know what I was thinking. I was just…so desperate.”

“I know you were. And maybe you’re not thinking straight because you’ve got something going on with your brain right now. And maybe that thing can be fixed. Or held off, at least.”

Sniffling, he said, “Yes, let’s hope so.”

They were both quiet for another minute, each lost in their own thoughts about their futures. Finally, Mercy said, “Will you tell Miguel what’s going on?”

His eyes filled with tears again. “Do I have to?”

“He deserves to know everything. He’ll want to be there for you.”

“That’s the problem.”

“Let him do it, Winslow. Let him love you right to the end. It’ll be a beautiful, awful journey for you both, but it’ll be the journey of a lifetime.”

He let out a soft chuckle. “Miguel prefers journeys that end at six-star resorts, not visits to his partner through plexiglass.”