by L. G. Davis
Chapter 27
When Jared returns to the basement, it’s dark outside.
He doesn’t come to me immediately. Instead, he stands at the top of the stairs, saying nothing.
I move my hands behind my back, my fingers curling around the four wooden sticks. How does he plan to torture me next?
I don’t want him to come near me, but at the same time, the silence is killing me. It ends with the thud of his footfalls on the steps as he finally descends the stairs.
I make myself small, wedging my body between two boxes that I searched earlier.
When I look up, our eyes meet. A smile ruffles the corners of his lips and turns into a full-blown grin that makes his eyes crinkle at the sides.
He must have taken a shower not long ago because his hair is damp and he’s wearing a clean white shirt and tan pants.
He pushes his hands into his pockets and rolls his shoulders before meeting my eyes again.
“I’m disappointed,” he says. “I actually thought I could pull this off without a hitch.”
“Pull what off?” My voice is stronger than I feel.
“Maybe it’s time to tell you a story.” He picks up one of the boxes, placing it a distance away from me before sitting down on it. “I have a confession to make.” He clears his throat. “This is not a real marriage. It was never meant to be one.”
“What do you mean?” The last thing I want is to communicate with him, but my mouth refuses to shut up.
“It was all a game.” He pauses for effect. “It started with one drunken night in Missoula. Two friends went out to have a good time and ended up buying a winning lottery ticket at a random casino. One of the two men had provided the money to buy the ticket, and the other bought it. That night, the two friends won $1.5 million.” He stops talking again to give me a chance to take in the information, but my mind is clouded with confusion.
“To celebrate the win, those two friends headed to a bar not too far from the casino. The bar was attached to a strip club. More alcohol was consumed and when it came time to discuss how much each man would get, there was a dilemma. None of the two friends wanted to share the money equally. Remember when I said one of them paid for the ticket and the other bought it, right? Each felt he had the right to the entire fortune.”
“What…what are you talking about?” Something is starting to gnaw at my insides.
“Don’t worry, you will soon understand.” He smiles wider. “To solve the problem, one of the men proposed they bet on something and the winner would take it all.”
I blink several times, afraid to hear more, but wanting to know.
“The friends ended up in the strip club and one of them came up with a crazy idea. He pointed to a stripper and said that if he manages to make her his wife, and the marriage is still intact after two years, he should get all the money.”
“Oh, my God.” My hand trembles to my lips. “You...you—”
“That’s right, my wife.” He strokes his beard. “It was me. I promised my friend that I can turn you into the perfect wife and in two years’ time, I would be $1.5 million richer. We both thought it was a crazy, but fantastic idea. My friend didn’t think I could pull it off. There were rules, of course, and one of them was that you were not to sleep with any other man during the two years. If that happened, for whatever reason, the deal was off and the money would be paid out to my friend. The papers were drawn up by another good friend of ours who actually dines with us from time to time. He’s a good lawyer.”
“Don.” It has to be him. He’s the only lawyer we’ve ever invited to dinner.
“Bingo.” Jared puffs out his chest. “The lawyer who drew up the papers was Don.”
My stomach clenches and blood rushes to my head, making it spin. I’m too devastated to even speak.
“The reason I didn’t tell you about my little game while I pretended to fall in love with you was because I was not allowed to. It was one of the rules of the game.” He dips his head to one side. “I brought you to this town and made you mine. I was determined to fix you. At the end of the two years, I was going to discard you like an old dishcloth.”
There are so many questions scrambling for space inside my head. He answers one of them before I can ask it.
“Since a lot of money was on the line, I needed help. Lucky for me, I knew a woman who was determined to do good, rescuing women from poverty and helping them start new lives.”
“Not Rosemary.” I shake my head, tears flooding my eyes. He has to be lying.
“Yep, that’s her. It was pretty easy to get her help because she owes me. But that’s none of your business. I told her to bring you to this town, give you a place to stay, and help you get a job.”
My shoulders shake as sobs break me apart. I’m finding it hard to believe that the only person I trusted in this town betrayed me. She had stalked me and showed up in my life at the time I was desperate to get away from Garry.
She helped me escape in the middle of the night and urged me to make an anonymous call to the cops to report him. She told me about her shelter in a small town called Sanlow and promised to help me start over. She lied to me.
She couldn’t have known about Jared’s plans. Maybe he played her like he played me.
What does she owe him? Why would she go to such lengths to do his dirty work? Jared told me it’s none of my business. But it is, and one day I will get the answers from her.
Another question slams into my mind.
“Who was the other man? Who made the bet with you?” If he’s going to hurt me, he might as well dump everything on me so I can deal with it all at once.
“You already know.” He pushes himself to his feet. “Come on, Kelsey, use your brain.”
“Victor,” I say.
“Smart girl.” He claps his hands. “I made a deal with Victor and he tried to sabotage it.”
“By sleeping with me.”
“Yep,” Jared says. “Too bad for him, no one will ever know what happened between you two that night.”
“You did it,” I shout. “You killed him so you can get all the money.”
“No, you killed him.” He cracks a knuckle. “Unfortunately, his death does nothing for me. The money does not automatically come to me. I only get it if I’m still married to you after two years and there is no evidence that you slept with another man.”
Eight months to go. Our two-year anniversary is in eight months.
Now I understand why he hasn’t called the cops on me. Once I tell the cops that I hit Victor over the head because he raped me, Jared will lose the bet.
“Who will get the money now that Victor is dead?”
“Don,” he says. “But we both know that won’t happen. The money is mine.”
“You are a terrible man.” The words mix with the bitter bile on my tongue. “You’re evil.”
Jared shrugs. “That’s what my ex-wife used to say about me. I’m used to it.”
“You were married?” Surprise sweeps through me. How many more secrets is he hiding?
“I was, but it didn’t last long. I didn’t tell you because we don’t have a real marriage. I don’t owe you anything.”
If he was married before, I’m not surprised it ended. She must have discovered his other side and bolted. Lucky woman.
“If it weren’t for the money, I would never have married again. I’m not the marrying kind. I’m not the daddy kind either.”
“What happened to her?” Now that he has opened the can of worms, I need to know everything. I’m hurting myself by digging for more information, but understanding who he is might help free me from his clutches.
“It was a tragic accident,” he says, shaking his head. “We were on vacation in Hawaii and she drowned. It was even more sad because she was pregnant.” He sighs. “I returned from the vacation a grieving husband. We lived in New York at the time. After she died, I couldn’t stay. I needed to get away from the memories, to start a new life with a new name. My
mother was born here so it felt like coming home.”
“What did you do to her?” My words are so loud they scrape the inside of my throat. “What did you do to her, Jared?”
“You’re a smart woman. Why don’t you figure it out for yourself?”
He killed her. I’m sure of it. She got pregnant and he got rid of her. That’s why he changed his name.
Jared is a murderer. The thought makes me feel suddenly cold. “Why didn’t you just leave her?”
“That’s enough.” He slams a fist into his palm. “I don’t want to talk about the past. What’s done is done. Let’s talk about you. I need you to get rid of that baby after all.”
“Why do you want that?” My words are drenched in tears. “Why do you care whether my baby is alive or not? After the two years are over, you’ll be getting rid of me anyway.”
“Yes, but getting rid of your baby is part of your punishment.”
Chapter 28
After throwing up for the third time in a corner of the basement, I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand.
The cramps raging in my stomach remind me of the emptiness inside me. I tell myself that’s all it is...hunger and nothing else. The baby is fine.
Jared is serious about wanting my baby to die. That’s why he’s starving me.
I return to my usual spot between two boxes and sit staring at the small window. It’s too high up for me to reach it and too small for me to squeeze through.
It must be hours since he left me. The view of the sky outside the window gives me an idea of what time of day it is. The sky had been black not too long ago. When the sun rays broke through the darkness, I knew it was another day.
I spent the night thinking about everything Jared told me. The secrets, the betrayal, and the look in his eyes when he confessed to making me a pawn in his game are all too much to deal with.
If I want to survive what’s ahead, I have to take my mind off the torturous thoughts. Allowing them to eat me up from the inside will hurt more than just me.
I close my eyes, inhale the stale air, and force my mind to become as numb as my buttocks.
With no energy left in me to do anything else, most of my time is spent sitting. I only crawl from my spot to throw up or to urinate.
The basement is big, but it closes in on me with each breath.
As a kid, when I was alone in the basement, I used to pretend I had imaginary friends. They helped me push past the loneliness and fear. This time, I talk to my baby, a real person. I promise the baby that we will make it out of Jared’s web alive, that I will protect him or her.
After fighting off dark thoughts for a while, sleep finally catches up with me. I want to stay awake, but I can’t keep my eyelids from growing heavy. My eyes close on their own.
I dream that I’m walking in the middle of a highway, with cars whizzing by. There’s blood and it’s trickling down my inner thighs to my ankles. I’m not sure where it’s coming from and no one is stopping to ask if I’m all right. I don’t call for help. I keep walking until the strength melts from my body and I crumple to the ground, where I cry until I fall asleep.
When I wake up, I’m back in the basement. I’m not sure what the nightmare meant, but it doesn’t matter. My real life is a nightmare. The bad dream was probably brought on by my deep-rooted fear of losing the baby.
I press a hand to my stomach and something unfurls to life deep inside my belly, gentle like the subtle touch of butterfly wings.
Tears of relief spring to my eyes. My baby is alive. It’s hanging in there, refusing to let go.
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” I say, choking up. “I won’t let him hurt you.”
I’m making promises I’m not sure I can keep, but hope is all I have left. If the baby turns out to be a girl, I’ll call her Hope or Faith.
When the baby stops fluttering, thoughts of Jared’s words sneak back into my mind, how he hinted at murdering his first wife.
But what if it’s not true? What if he made it all up to scare me? It would be much easier for him to control me if I’m terrified of him.
I kill the thought before it drives me insane with fear.
To distract myself, I crawl to the stairs, my long dress making it hard. With the help of the wooden railing, I pull myself up and tip my head back. Gazing up at the closed door, I climb the stairs one at a time.
After only a few steps, my body forces me to rest, every muscle inside my body quivering with exhaustion. I refuse to give up. I keep going until I reach the top.
I lean against the door to catch my breath. My lungs are hurting as if I have run a marathon.
I have no idea what I’m doing at the top of the stairs, how I think I’ll be able to escape without a key. But I needed to do something.
“Hi, Kelsey,” he says.
I jump back from the door, almost tripping down the stairs. I catch myself in time.
“I know you are there. I heard you come up.” He chuckles. “Are you hungry? Would you like something to eat and drink?”
“Yes.” I lick my parched lips and press my forehead against the door. “Please, Jared. Let me out. I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll be the perfect wife.”
“I wish I could trust you.” Chair legs scrape the floor on the other side. How long has he been sitting there?
I push my palms against the door. “You can. I promise. Please, open the door.” Fresh tears spring to my eyes.
“You know I can’t do that, Kelsey. You betrayed me once. If I let you out, you’ll do it again. How can I be certain you won’t share our little secret with someone else? I can’t let you mess with my plans.” He pauses. “You’ll remain inside this house until our two years are up.” The sound of papers ruffling pushes its way through the cracks. “But there’s another way out of this.”
“What? Tell me what I need to do.”
“There’s a clause in this contract that I totally forgot about. It says here that if you die while still married to me, I automatically get the money. I don’t know how I could have missed it.”
Blood drains from my face. “Don’t do it. Don’t kill me.”
“No worries, I won’t because this is fun. I’m enjoying this game. I love messing with people’s minds. I did it all the time as a kid.” A knuckle cracks. “There was a side of me that secretly enjoyed watching people suffer. I called him Jack. There’s nothing Jack loves more than the smell of fear.”
I don’t know whether to be relieved or terrified at what he said. Wanting me to suffer could mean never letting me out of here alive, waiting for me to die a slow and painful death.
The day Jared brought me home from the motel, I wondered whether he had a split personality because one minute he was angry and the next he pretended nothing happened. He always deals with his anger behind the closed door of his office and emerges a different person from the one who went in. Now I’m starting to wonder whether he really does have multiple personalities.
“Kelsey, I’m sorry, but I have to go. I’ve been out here all night. I’ll go and take a nap. I’ll leave the tough decisions for later.” The chair scrapes the floor again. The sound is followed by that of his footsteps as he walks away, leaving me with nothing but fear to feed on.
When will he return? How long will it be until he gives me something to eat and drink?
I’m much too weak to even return to the bottom of the stairs, so I lower myself to the floor and rest my head on my knees, trying not to be drowned by the darkness.
I remind myself of the first weeks in prison when I didn’t think I would be able to survive. I was a seventeen-year-old charged as an adult for a murder I did not commit. I was locked up inside a cell infested with rats and cockroaches. I survived ten years in prison. I desperately want to believe that the strength I had back then is still somewhere inside of me.
I try to think of good times, positive memories. Everything that comes up is connected to Jared. My mind takes me back to the day we met and reminds me o
f the butterflies in my stomach. The day he kissed me for the first time, I thought I was the luckiest girl in the world. The day we exchanged vows was the happiest day of my life.
I made a big mistake.
I can’t draw comfort from the memories we made because every single one of them is now damaged.
I drag myself back downstairs, afraid if Jared comes into the basement, he might decide to push me down the stairs just to see me suffer.
Even in my broken state, I won’t make it easy for him to get what he wants.
Chapter 29
When the light floods the basement and the key turns in the lock, I don’t move from where I’m lying on the floor. The little strength I had before is long gone.
I’m barely awake now, hanging on to consciousness.
The door swings open and I blink the drowsiness from my eyes so I can see better.
He fills the doorway and remains there, watching me with a smile. He doesn’t get a reaction from me.
It’s dark outside again. Another day has ended with me trapped in the house from hell with no one knowing what I’m going through.
He must have had plenty of time to think about whether or not to go ahead and kill me. I’m not even sure I care anymore. I’m desperate for anything that would make the pain go away, especially the emotional kind.
As usual, he doesn’t come down right away. Torturing me must be so much fun for him.
“Jared,” I croak. “Please.”
“Jared is not here. Jack has come out to play.”
“Jack,” I whisper. “Please...water.” I’m so worried about the baby. I haven’t felt it move in a while. I don’t care what he calls himself as long as he helps me.
“Maybe I’ll give you something to drink. I’m in a good mood.” He steps back outside and comes back with a small plastic bottle of water and a loaf of bread. “I’ll leave it here for you.” He puts the food and drink on the floor of the landing. I’ll be eating dirt again. I don’t care. I only wish he would bring it down to me. But I know better than to make the request.
