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Hallie is mine, and it doesn’t matter that she wasn’t back then, she gets retroactive protection. Anyone who ever fucked her over from the time she sucked on pacifiers had better hope like hell that I don’t find out about it.
I said more than I should have that day. She was upset and I wanted to comfort her. Hallie is too gentle to be able to appreciate something like, “Don’t worry, darling, I will deliver that man’s roasted dick on a plate for you to laugh at for ever thinking it could hurt you,” so instead, I simply told her I would make that reminder go away.
And I did. I’m most proud of this accomplishment, to be honest. A trail of misfortune mysteriously follows anyone who has wronged my Hallie, but Mark’s demise was the most layered, which made it fun to plan.
The first stage was digging up infidelity. Mercifully, none of these fuckers are capable of keeping their dicks in their pants, and that makes it much easier to ruin their lives.
When Mark’s live-in girlfriend discovered he had cheated on her, she took the kids and left. Heartbroken by the loss of his family, it appears that poor, sad Mark yanked the stove out of the wall, causing a gas leak in the kitchen. The whole thing was declared a suicide because the fire had been set very deliberately—enthusiastically, even. In addition to the gas leak, he had doused the entire kitchen in gasoline before starting the fire, then the poor fucker sat right there at the kitchen table and watched while his whole house burned down around him.
That’s not how it really went down, of course. Arson earned that nickname for a reason—had it changed legally, because he’s a crazy fucker, but it did begin with him being a very enthusiastic fire-starter.
I wanted him for the job, didn’t care what it cost. Because he genuinely likes to set fires, I knew he’d make sure it hurt.
I felt good about that one, but I can see Hallie doesn’t.
She’s pale and motionless, staring off at nothing, horror etched across her delicate features.
Oh, Charity. Why do you have to ruin everything?
The real problem is, now that she’s realizing I am definitely responsible for Mark’s death, it’s much easier to believe I’m responsible for the other things.
Charity also presents an argument that I’m behind Lance being shot, but that was boring because Hallie already knew. Even knowing that didn’t spread her doubt to cover the things I actually did do, but Mark… Mark was too far.
Hallie doesn’t say anything to Charity, though, and Charity doesn’t know why.
I do. Hallie has figured out that I have cameras.
She doesn’t know where they are, and I know that because after she makes a very confused Charity leave, she walks back to the living room and calls out like a beggar praying to a God they’re not sure is listening, “If you hurt her, I willneverforgive you.”
I suppose I am her god. Whatever happens in her life only happens because I command it.
Still, I love her and don’t want her to be upset.
I decide to end the work day early so I can go home and assure her that I won’t hurt her obnoxious, intrusive friend.
I don’t like when there are factors that I can’t control in play, but I’m also keenly aware that if Nick kills her for his own reasons now, I amfucked.There will be no convincing Hallie I wasn’t behind it, so now…
Now I have to lie to her.
I don’t enjoy lying. The truth makes everything far less complicated, but given the complexities of her relationship with Charity, I have to move carefully or risk damaging Hallie’s heart. I have two different hands I can play, and I have to play a different one for each of them, but Charity’s a wild card. I don’t know her well enough to know how she will react when I play my hand at her table.
Hallie is sad when I get home. I hate it. She looks up at me with big blue eyes brimming with accusations.
“Is it true?” she asks simply.
I sigh and take a seat at the table where she sits listlessly, her drawing abandoned. “In some ways. I wasn’t entirely honest about a couple of things, but I didn’t lie to you, I just… didn’t think the whole truth was necessary or helpful, so I didn’t share it.”
Then I explain what I can.
I expect she might be hurt when she hears that I had more ammunition to blackmail her with that I hadn’t used, but she actually doesn’t seem that surprised. She nods and says that makes sense—she wasn’t sure how I got the deed so fast.
She asks if I had anything to do with Ross being arrested, and I tell her yes.
Jackson’s death? Yes again. I didn’t like the way he treated her, and I was greedy for the memories he had of her that I didn’t.
To be honest, I think I would have had him killed just so I could have his phone. I don’t tell her that part.
I could tell her about the clones at that point, but I don’t. She already knows I watch her in the house. I don’t want her to know that I can even see what she gets up to on her phone. Then she’ll feel she has nowhere that’s even remotely safe from me, and while that’s true, there’s no benefit to her knowing it.
