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Marissa shook her head and ran her finger under her leaking nose before dropping down on the bed beside her mom, who jumped up and headed for the door. “Mom, what’re you going to do?”
“I’m going to call the police, and then I’m calling your dad to come home.”
Marissa knew that that was the most likely outcome but hearing the words spoken aloud seemed to make everything seem final. She knew that once her mother made that call, there would be no turning back. She was almost tempted to beg her mom not to go through with it, but her moral compass wouldn’t allow her to be that selfish. The predator had to be stopped. As she thought that, she wondered if there was already other prey. She couldn’t imagine that she was the first.
By knock-off time, Misty was still no closer to an answer as to what to do about her husband. This was one of his late nights, so it’s not like she could rush home and get to the bottom of things. She felt jumpy and unsettled as she took the long drive home, but once she pulled into the driveway of the little clapboard house that she was so proud of, some of her worries started to fade.
There was nothing to worry about, of course. Everything was going to turn out fine; why wouldn’t it? There was no reason why she couldn’t get things back on track. She opened her purse to make sure that she’d put the vial there before leaving the office and felt reassured once she saw it there. Things had only gone off course because of the missed days, that’s all. In a few more days, everything would go back to normal again, and her little family will be happy.
Just as she made to step out of her car, she saw her ex passing by on the other side of the street with his kids in tow. He didn’t even look in her direction, which she expected, but she still slammed the car door to try to draw his attention. The bastard didn’t even give her that, though his ugly ass kids looked over at her.
She sometimes wondered what stories hid behind their young eyes. What had they been told about her and her daughter? She was sure his wife knew; of course, she did. He was still paying child support for Connie, and there’s no way he could hide that from his precious wife. Not to mention the woman would’ve heard the story as soon as she moved to town.
Misty shook her head to clear it and turned to walk inside. Now was not the time to dwell on her high school sweetheart and his boring hag of a wife; she had bigger fish to fry, like how she was going to drag her husband back in line. From their conversation this morning and with the way things have been going since his return, she can’t help but feel time is running out.
Ryan checked his watch for the third time in as many minutes. It wasn’t like the kid to be this late, and it was already getting dark out, which meant they wouldn’t have as much time to practice. He didn’t sweat it, though, as he leaned back against the rail that ran along the track. Marissa is a good kid with a sensible head on her shoulders, and he was sure that their practice sessions meant as much to her as they did him.
With nothing better to do at the moment other than wait, his mind went once again to the way things had been going here of late. Sometimes, like today, he felt as if he were coming out of a fog where big chunks of the past year or so were missing. Some things weren’t adding up and made no sense to him. Some of his actions were downright foreign to his own nature and left him stumped.
Maybe I need to go get checked out. Maybe there’s something going on with my brain that I should have the doctors take a look at. It seemed extreme to think like this, but Ryan couldn’t come up with any other explanation for the way things had changed. Like when his mom called him from the town they’d moved to and was so surprised that he’d actually answered, and when pushed, he had claimed that for the last few months, he hadn’t been very interested in conversation.
Ryan found it strange since his mom was one of his favorite people in the world, but instead of putting her off and disregarding her words, he’d asked her to expound. When she mentioned the fact that he seemed different since he got married, he took note. He started noticing the differences himself when he was stuck out of town for those two weeks, but when he mentioned it to Misty, along with the fact that he was actually starting to feel sick, she’d brushed it off.
