“I grabbed the phone from her, erased the text and …”
Sarah stared at me, her emotions steely and unmoving as she waited.
“Well, let’s just say I had one final goodbye encounter. Once I’d finished, I choked her. It was not as quick as I’d hoped it would be. It takes a surprisingly long time to choke someone to death. Anderson helped me dispose of her body.”
“Where? Where is she? Her parents have a right to bury their daughter.”
“That won’t happen. We took her to Anderson’s family farm in western Virginia. No one ever goes there. We built a bon fire. A big one. There was barely anything left to bury once we were done.”
“You raped her, killed her, burned her and somehow managed to come back and get married, looking as though you’d done nothing more than had a restless night’s sleep?”
I think back, and the memories make me smile.
“That’s right. Actually, I was so tired I slept like a baby that night.”
“You’re insane.”
“That’s not very nice.”
“You’re a sociopath.”
I stare at her. “Now you know exactly how dangerous I can be,” I say, looking directly at Kara who’s fallen asleep on the couch. “I suggest you make me happy during our time together. After all, I have nothing to lose.”
I see with satisfaction her sharp intake of breath when I turn back to look at her after looking at her daughter.
“Tell me more about this Matt,” I say. “I want to know everything about the man who’s been fucking my wife for the last twenty years.”
Matt
“It’s starting to let up,” I say, keeping a careful watch over the snowfall. “Doesn’t it look lighter to you?”
“I don’t know, Matt,” Caleb says, joining me at the window. “Maybe?”
I can tell by the look on his face he thinks I’ve got a bad case of wishful thinking. Maybe I do. In my head, I keep telling myself that Faith and the kids are fine. That they’re probably hanging out in the airport or stayed in town somewhere.
But my gut.
My gut tells me something is terribly, terribly wrong and there is no amount of prayer or faith that is making that feeling subside.
I’ve been out on drives like this before. We may not have a blizzard of this capacity, but we’ve had bad snowstorms where I’ve had to leave the family to make sure the cattle are herded into the right area. I’ve been gone as long as a week and unable to keep in touch with them.
I’ve never had qualms about leaving them, mostly because I know my wife can handle anything that comes her way. Of that I am certain.
She’s the strongest woman I know.
In the twenty years we’ve been married, I’ve never had a feeling like this. I feel like I’m on the verge of losing everything.
No matter how much I pray, how much I try and remind myself of how strong my family is, that feeling just won’t go away.
“Is there anything I can do, Matt?”
“Can you make this snow stop and send a helicopter to take me to my family?”
“I can’t do that,” he admits. “But I can continue to pray.”
“I think that’s all any of us can do right now. It’s the best weapon we have.”
Ava
“Graham isn’t breathing!” Alexis announces, panic riddling her voice.
“What should we do? What do we do?”
“Anna, grab that defibrillator out of the hallway closet!” Alexis orders.
“Isn’t that the machine you asked Mama and Daddy to get you as a Christmas present?” she asks.
“Yes, it should help us restart his heart.”
Anna is back with the machine and before I can ask anymore questions. My beautiful, petite and feminine daughter is pressing down on that young man’s chest like one of the ER doctors I see on Grey’s Anatomy.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
She ignores my question and continues working on him for several minutes until I hear coughing coming from Graham. Alexis stops what she’s doing and sits back on her heels to watch him.
“Is he awake?”
Alexis shakes her head no.
“The coughing is just a response to his heart starting again and his breathing coming back.”
“Is he okay?”
Alexis looks panicked. Her face is red from all the excitement and exertion.
“I don’t know,” she admits. “All I can do is try to keep him warm and his heart beating.”
“Graham,” Jake moans, and I rush over to him.
“Jake!” I call to him, but it seems as though he’s passed out again.
“Something has happened at that ranch,” I look at Alexis. “Something bad enough to make those boys head out in this blizzard to come here for help.”
“Without coats,” Anna says sending an uncontrollable shiver through my body. I cannot image why the two of them would walk all that way through a blizzard to get here unless it was something very, very bad. “And someone shot at Jake.”
“I know what you’re thinking,” Alexis says, looking pointedly at me. “You’re not going to go out in this, Mama. You’ll end up like them, or worse.”
“I wasn’t thinking about-“
“Yes, you were. We’ve all been thinking about what’s going on over at that ranch ever since you found them. Two things are for sure, either Faith and Kara are already dead, or something is so wrong that both those boys had no other choice but to go out in this blizzard. I just don’t know what that could be.”
“Mom … Kara,” Jake moaned again.
“Do you think he can hear us?” I ask, feeling my nephew’s forehead. “He’s burning up with fever, Alexis. What do we do?”
“Get me some peppermint essential oil and either coconut or some other kind of oil. I’ll mix the peppermint in and put it on his pulse points. Hopefully that will help bring his fever down a bit.”
Jake continued to mumble incoherently for several more moments.
“Can you hear me, Jake?” I call. “What’s wrong at the ranch?”
His eyes suddenly open and through dazed eyes he stares at me.
“Husband,” he croaks. “Mom’s husband is there.”
Faith
Hours pass. I’m not even sure how long Kara and I have been here alone with Daniel. I’ve done everything in my power to distract him from her.
I look at Daniel and wonder how I was ever naïve enough to think he was my soulmate. Especially now that I know what true love is and what a real soulmate is like.
Matt may not be perfect, but he’s perfect for me. He’s kind and loving to me and he is a wonderful father to our kids. He always puts us first.
Daniel, by contrast, was always about Daniel. He was always the only one that mattered. No one or nothing was more important to him than his wants and needs.
I had dreaded hearing what he did to Julianna. I knew it must be something very bad, but I had no idea she’d been gang raped by Daniel and his frat brother friends.
Hearing that makes me feel nauseous. Thinking about the joy on his face as he described it makes me want to retch, but I tamp down the response by taking a few deep breaths. I knew he killed her, I just didn’t know why or how.