AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes, I do! Because you’re not getting away with this. You’re not going to steal him away from me again.”
“I don’t want—ow!” I howl as she grabs a chunk of my hair and thrusts me backward.
“I gave him everything. Everything I had. My love. My trust. We were going to get married. Have children sinceyouweren’t fulfilling that job. But you had to make him weak. Give him thepoor meact so his guilt outweighed his obligations. He had to fix his marriage. He couldn’t do that to you. He was leaving me for you!” I try to block her, but the tip of her shoe lodges into my rib, and I choke on my breath. “You know, I tried to getyouto leave him. Thought if you wanted him gone, it would be easier for him to come back to me. It started with the phone calls. Purposely leaving lipstick on his shirts. I even drove by your house at night and left incriminating evidence on your lawn.” Her laugh becomes manic as she walks to the dresser and picks up a photo of Christopher and me. She brushes the tip of her finger down the frame. “I watched you two fight one night. Sat right at your window and listened to how pathetic you were. I watched you cry.How dare you do this to me?Wah-wah-wah. It was ridiculous.”
I remember that fight. It was the night I finally confronted him about the affair. I’d had enough. All the signs. . . Ihadbeen naive, keeping what I knew to myself. I hoped I was wrong. That it was just my silly, overworked brain playing tricks on me. But he stood there, looked me in the eye, and admitted it.
“Then something changed. I saw it. You, with your tears. A pathetic excuse for a wife who convinced him into staying. And then he came to me and broke it off.” She stares at the frame a second longer until she throws it across the room, shattering the glass against the wall. “He told me we were done! That he needed to make it work with you. That he stilllovedyou. Do you know what that did to me? Because of you, my future was gone. He didn’t see me the way he used to. He saw me as the one who got in the way of hismarriage. He was giving it all up. . . for you.”
Christopher begged me to take him back. He swore it was over. “He lied to me too. He didn’t come back to me. He stayed with you.”
She scoffs and walks over to the dresser, lifting more photographs. “No,Imade it look like he did. He cut ties with me. Just like that. After everything, he let me go.” She slides her finger over the glass. “But I wasn’t having that. I made it look like we were still having an affair, figured it woulddefinitelybreak you two up, and he’d eventually come crawling back to me. I’d be upset, but I’d forgive him, and we would continue planning our future.”
She twirls around to face me. “And it worked like magic.”
“Youwere the one following me?”
“Yeah, and let me tell you, you live one really dull life. Howdidhe stay with you so long? You’re a fucking snore.” She swipes her hand across the dresser, knocking every frame to the ground. “I have to say, I got a good laugh at the restraining order threat. I really thought I had you there. Then again, you’re afraid of your own shadow, so you didn’t follow through.”
She walks over to the bathroom and disappears. The sound of the toilet flushes, then she returns.
“Remember that time you got yourself drugged at the bar?”
“No. . .”
“I followed you. Sat right next to you, and you had no clue who I was. It was shortly after you found out about us the first time. You looked so sad; I almost felt sorry for you. But I wanted what you had more. I tried to roofie you in hopes some less-than-chivalrous guy would take advantage of you. What would Christopher think then? Lowering yourself to a bar slob? But no, some Good Samaritan had to go and ruin it.”
“That was you?”
“It wasallme! God, you are so stupid. The stalking. The clues. The vandalism. How the hell did you think I knew how to find you when you went back home? You made it too easy with all that paperwork you just left sitting in your car for anyone to see.
“Why? I don’t understand what I ever did to you.”
“You took him from me.”
“I didn’t want him.”
“Well, that wasn’t good enough for him. He wrote me off because he felt there was still a chance. So, I had to make that chance go away. I followed you, played the sweet, house-sitting neighbor, and befriended you like I thought you were the coolest girl alive.Thatwas really fucking hard, let me tell you.
“You—the Fergusons. They didn’t—”
“Ask me to house-sit? Ew, no. They did graciously open their door, though, when I claimed I had a flat tire and asked to use their phone.”
“Jenny, what did you do?”
She waves me off. “It’s not important. What is important is getting rid of you so Christopher can see what he really wants is right in front of him.”
I wrestle with my binds, but they’re too tight. “Jenny, please—”
“Jesus, shut up! My name isn’t Jenny, but you’re so stupid, you never asked me anything about myself. Well, except about my boyfriend who broke up with me.Thatstory was real. But you allowed me in your life, into your friend circle, even into your new boy toy’s life—and knew nothing about me.”
“Because I wanted you to be my friend. Because I trusted you.”
“That was your first mistake. Iliterallytried to take you out every chance I got. But, man, it’s like you’ve had this goddamn magic bubble around you. The coffee I brought over, I thought it would have been one and done. Just a squirt of strychnine and bye-bye. Butnooo, you had to spill it. Definitely thought I had you with the fire. Once again, you got yourself out of it. By that point, I was just going to get you back to my place and strangle you, but lover boy got in my way. I mean, seriously, he just swooped in and saved you at the barbecue too. A few more sips of that water, and he would have been holdingmewhile we mourned your death. Shame.” She disappears into the bathroom, and I try to scoot toward the bedroom door, but she returns, slamming it shut. “Nice try. You know. . . for someone who just wanted to be my friend, you sure made a shitty one. The whole ‘Ben’s just a friend’ nonsense. Really, Makayla?”
“I promise you, I wasn’t trying to—”
“Trying to what? Take another man away from me? Wrong. You were. And you did. I could have enjoyed him for the short time I’d planned on being here. Hot. Sexy body. God, I bet he’s amazing in bed. Is he?” She kneels next to me. “I bet he’s packing, if you know what I mean.” Her laughter turns my stomach. “It’s okay. You don’t have to spill your secrets. It’s not like we’re girlfriends or anything. Soon, you won’t be anything at all.” She stares down at me, evil seeping from her eyes.
