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“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I blurt out. “Cynthia, I don’t want your money. Just go away.”
“No, you need my money. Let me put you out of your misery. How much will it take? Fifty grand? A hundred? How much, Selina? I’ve got it. You can cash it in as soon as the banks reopen. All you need to do is fall off the face of the earth.”
“I said no!” I snap, the anger now bubbling through me, the fury searing my veins as I struggle to remain levelheaded in front of a woman who is not only unhinged but determined to humiliate me and remove every sense of value that I’ve got left. “Take your money, take your crazy ideas, take yourself out of this room and out of my life. I don’t want any of it. As for Matthew, you can keep him if he’ll have you, though honestly, I think I now understand why they gave you the boot in the first place. And I can’t believe you planted that diary… who does that?”
She grins coldly. “You read it. Who’s worse?”
“I’m not proud of myself, but seriously what you’re doing is embarrassing, it’s unbecoming and desperate. I actually feel sorry for you.”
“That’s rich,” Cynthia snorts a chuckle and shows me the checkbook again. “How much?”
“I don’t want your money, I just want you out of here!”
She puts it away and curses under her breath. “I was hoping we’d be able to reach a reasonable conclusion, but you had to go and play the proud bitch, instead.” She suddenly takes a knife out—a long blade, something akin to a rather sharp letter opener—and points it at me. Fear sets in, freezing my body on the spot. “I suppose I’ll have to do things the hard way, then.”
“What… what are you doing?” I take a step back.
I’ve got a baby growing inside me. My survival instinct kicks in, and my gaze darts across the hotel room as I try to figure out a way to resolve this without violence. My blood rushes down my legs and arms, my heart racing wildly as I take a deep breath.
“You need to get out of Matthew’s life,” Cynthia says, her eyes glassy with furious determination.
“And you need to take another look around you,” I tell her. “You’re the one who came to Providence. Matthew isn’t here, is he? Whatever it is you two have going on, it doesn’t concern me anymore.” And while the words hurt my very soul, I hold on to them for dear life, hoping it’ll make enough sense for her to finally back off and leave me alone. “Just go get your man, Cynthia. I won’t get in the way.”
She shakes her head. “No, no… I’ve seen the way he looks at you. The way Sully and Jason look at you. You mean something to them, Selina. And if you won’t take my money, I’ll have to take you out of the picture completely, by any means necessary.”
“How is that going to get Matthew back, huh? Do you think he’ll want you after you murder me?”
“Who said he needs to know?” she grins again, and I’m about ready to start screaming for my life, hoping someone will hear and come over. The door is still open behind Cynthia. I could try to get through it without meeting the knife.
There are a couple of blunt objects along the way for me to work with. An old vase in faded shades of green, and an alarm clock that looks sturdy enough to cause damage. I never thought I’d have to think about such things, but it’s not as though Cynthia has left me another choice. I’m not a fan of conflict and I have always steered clear of physical violence, yet the sight of the knife has my senses flaring, the dread washing over me in ice cold waves as I understand my situation with crystal clarity.
Cynthia doesn’t know that I’m pregnant. She can’t know, either. If she’s unhinged now, I can’t even imagine what it’ll be like if she learns that I may be carrying Matthew’s child.
28
Selina
“Cynthia, you really need to think things through here,” I say, the tension thickening the air between us. Winter blows through the open door, the temperature dropping across the room, yet it is nothing compared to the icy fear that’s gripping me firmly by the throat. “You don’t want to do this. You said it yourself, I’m a nobody, and right now I’m scared... I wouldn’t even think about doing anything to get in your way. I promise.”
“Oh, if only it were that easy.”
I need to buy myself a couple more minutes while I analyze my options carefully. With that knife, I’m limited and in mortal danger. There’s no room for error. “Hold on, I’m a little confused,” I say, playing dumb. “So, you planted that diary, right?”
“Yes. I knew all too well that they would get themselves another woman to share,” she replies. “It was too easy to plant that diary, knowing that she’d find it and get curious, unable to resist reading what I had to say about Matthew, Sully, and Jason.”
“How much of what was in the diary was true, then?”
“Oh, the sex was fantastic,” Cynthia laughs. “They really gave themselves to me wholly. I welcomed every experience, too, I’m not gonna lie. But I always had my heart set on Matthew. I had to tolerate Sully and Jason in order to get closer to him, though it was never something I wanted long-term.”
“And Jason’s drinking?”
Her eyes widen with amusement. “He almost fell off the wagon, but he soldiered on. Most of my work was psychological, to be honest. Planting a suggestion here, fanning the flames there… by the time Christmas came around, they were already at each other’s throat. It almost worked.”
“Sully’s violent outbursts?”
She shakes her head. “The man has more self-control than I expected. But the diary wasn’t meant to tell the truth. It was meant to get you out of there.”
“It worked. See? I’m here, nowhere close to Aspen or Matthew.”
