Wicked Deceptions: A novella
Page 10
Suddenly, everything came back to the nurse. “That crazy lady everyone is looking for. She hit me with something and took Mr. Edwards.”
“How y’all let that crazy bitch up in here? Where was security?” Angela screamed. She didn’t wait for an answer before she rushed into the hallway and started screaming for help.
“What’s the problem?” One of the nurses asked as she rushed to the commotion outside Adonis’s room.
“He’s gone! My husband is gone!” Angela was frantic. “How did y’all let that crazy broad get in here when her picture is plastered all over the damn hospital?”
“Oh, my God!” the nurse exclaimed.
“God ain’t got nothing to do with this. This was pure fucking negligence! Don’t you have cameras in here?” Angela asked. Maybe the hospital cameras had picked up what happened and could tell them where Courtnie had taken Adonis.
“Yes, follow me,” the nurse took off running down the hall with Angela on her heels.
They arrived at the security station and told them what happened. The guard radioed the alert into the rest of the security staff and began hitting a series of buttons to pull up the security feed. There weren’t any cameras in the rooms, but there were some in the hallways and in the elevators. When they played the tape back, they saw Courtnie pushing Adonis’s bed down the hall and into one of the service elevators.
“Where does that elevator go?” Angela asked, praying that Courtnie hadn’t made it off hospital grounds yet.
The security guard scratched his head in confusion. “That’s the elevator that goes to the helipad on the roof.”
“Lord, please don’t tell me that this crazy bitch knows how to fly a helicopter,” Angela prayed.
“Ma’am, stay here. I’m going to the roof. I’ve already alerted my staff, and the police should be here in a minute,” the security guard told her.
“You done lost your whole damn mind if you think I’m staying down here,” she challenged.
“I can’t put you in any danger,” he told her.
“And you can’t stop me either. Now, to hell with all this talking. We need to stop this bitch from doing whatever she is planning to do to my husband!”
****
Courtnie had pushed Adonis’s bed to the edge of the hospital roof and locked the wheels. She, then, climbed into bed with him, in a sitting position, and placed him between her legs so that they were looking out over downtown St. Louis. It was so beautiful at night. She rubbed his face lovingly, admiring the curve of his jaw. It was at that moment that she realized she loved Adonis more than she had ever loved anyone or anything, including herself.
Feeling the cold whip of wind across his face woke Adonis up. When he saw Courtnie holding him at the edge of the building, he almost shit in his hospital gown.
“Courtnie, what are you doing?” he asked in a terrified tone.
“I told you we were going to be together forever, didn’t I? God sent you to me, and I’m not letting you go,” she said, staring out at the city. “You see that star over there?” she pointed to a star that seemed to be shining brighter than the rest.
“Yeah,” was all he could say.
He wasn’t sure where she was going with it, but he didn’t want to startle her into doing something foolish.
“That’s our star. I named it Mon Amour Eternal. That’s French for, my eternal love.”
“Okay, I get it. You love me, but you don’t have to dangle me off the side of a building to prove it.” Adonis’s heart was racing. He could move, but he was still weak, and, if he tried to fight Courtnie, they could both fall to their deaths.
“You know, this isn’t the life I wanted. My dreams were stolen from me years ago. I wanted what every little girl wants—a husband and a house and children. I wanted pure love, but Kirk and his friends thought I wasn’t worthy of that, so they shattered my dreams and my innocence. It’s okay because I showed them all. I showed them that you can’t ruin a person’s life and not expect to pay the consequences.”
Adonis had no idea who Kirk was, but, so long as Courtnie was talking, she wasn’t pushing him off the building.
“What did they do?” he asked, trying to buy some time until help arrived.
“There is no need to get in to that and spoil our precious moments. Adonis, I have loved you from the first day I saw you come into my coffee shop.”
“But you knew I was married,” he pointed out.
“Yes, I knew that. I had just hoped that maybe you would look at me the way you look at your wife. I want the kind of love that she has, but I was never good enough for it. Nobody loves me.”
Adonis tried not to feel sorry for her. He wanted to hate Courtnie’s guts for everything she had put he and his family through, but she seemed so vulnerable. He thought of his own daughters and wondered if men would prey on them like they had on Courtnie when they were older.
“I’m sure there is a man out there that would love to have you as his wife and the mother of his kids,” Adonis told her.
“That’s sweet of you to say, but we both know that’s a lie. Look at me. I’m sitting on the edge of a hospital roof with another woman’s husband. I’m damaged goods.” Courtnie sobbed. “I’m sorry, Adonis. I never meant to hurt you or your family.”
“It’s okay, Courtnie. Nobody else has to get hurt. We can work through this,” Adonis told her. He felt that he was making progress and thanked God that he wouldn’t be losing his life that night. He just wanted to see his wife and children again. “Now, how about we get off this roof?”
Courtnie was about to pull him back to safety when the door to the roof came flying open, and the hospital security rushed the rooftop with Angela on their heels.
“Don’t move,” one of the security guards yelled, pointing his gun at them.
“No! Don’t shoot. You might hit my husband!” Angela shouted.
Courtnie frowned at Adonis. “Is that what you were doing, stalling until your bitch of a wife could find us?” the psycho edge was back to her voice.
“No, it wasn’t like that, Courtnie. I swear!” Adonis said.
“No, don’t hurt him! For the love of God, Courtnie! Haven’t you done enough? Please, just let him go,” Angela pleaded.
“I’m sorry Angela, but I can’t live without him,” Courtnie confessed.
“We have children. Don’t take their father.” Angela tried to appeal to the feminine side of Courtnie.
Courtnie wavered, and, for a minute, she almost looked sane again.
“I’m so sorry for everything I’ve done to you and your family, Adonis. Please tell me you forgive me?” Courtnie begged, but he remained silent.
He didn’t know if he could speak those words. He would never forgive her for what she had done.
“We forgive you.” Angela cried on her knees. “Please let him go, Courtnie. I’m begging you on my knees to let my husband come home to his family.”
“Do you forgive me, Adonis, like your wife?”
Adonis looked back at his wife, on her knees and pleading with his whore for his life. He had brought this madness into their house by stepping outside their marriage, not her. His dick had put his entire family at risk by breaking a vow he had made before God and was being punished for it.
“Yes, I forgive you,” Adonis said softly.
“Thank you.” Courtnie nestled her face to his. Adonis could feel her damp tears wetting his face. “But I still can’t let you go.” She hugged him to her and pulled them both over the ledge.
“Noooooooooooooo!” Angela let out a bloodcurdling scream as she watched them fall over the edge.
To Adonis, it felt like they were falling forever. His wife’s screams filled his ears, but, at least, they drowned out the sounds of Courtnie still professing her love over and over. He thought of his kids and how he would never get to see them grow up and graduate school. His wife, who he had promised to love, honor and protect, but had failed on all counts. His few minutes of pleasure had co
st him everything.
“Adonis, I told you that I will always love you, in this life…”
In the brief flash between their bodies making the ground and death taking Adonis, he was granted a small measure of joy knowing that them hitting the ground would keep Courtnie from ever finishing her sentence. He was sick of hearing it.