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“I'm sorry,” she whimpers, her head drooping helplessly to the side as she passes out.
“Mom!”
“Shut the fuck up!” Tom snaps. I’m not sure what he’s on, but he’s twitchy and on edge, his dilated pupils vibrating. “What are you worrying about her for, anyway? You’re the one in trouble here.”
“What's the meaning of this?” I ask, proud of the firmness of my voice despite the tight knots in my stomach. “Why am I tied up?”
"Don’t play dumb! You sent that hotshot lawyer after me, got him to snoop through my business,” Tom says, his sneer growing wider. He lets out laugh that reminds me of a hyena – primal and cruel. "You're whoring for favors now? I used to think maybe I could beat some sense into you, but I guess it didn’t work. You were always gonna turn out just like your mother. Just a worthless piece of shit.”
"That's you, Tom," I spit back at him, refusing to back down from his blazing glare. "You’re the useless bastard who feeds on the fear of others. You're nothing but a slimy coward!"
His hand lands on my cheek with a force that has my head lulling to the side. I grit my teeth against the pain, slowly raising my head to look him in the eyes.
“Don’t you dare talk to me like that!” he bellows, his face only inches from mine. He grabs the arms of the chair I’m tied to. “Do I have to remind you of your place?”
“What do you want from me?” I ask, glaring defiantly into his eyes.
“Die.”
“What?”
He straightens himself and steps back. He starts to pace, his jaw clenched, his fingers scratching compulsively at the red sores on his arms.
"I need you to die!" he shouts, my ears ringing from the volume. "You've ruined everything,everything!Thanks to your little boyfriend, I’ve got the cops tailing me everywhere. My customers all think I’m a goddamn rat! I can’t sell shit!”
“Killing me won’t get your customers back!”
“No, but burning this house down with you in itwillget me a nice chunk of change from the insurance company. Enough to get me the hell out of this city. We can finally start over withoutyouaround to drag us down and ruin the fun!”
"You can't be serious," I say with a humorless laugh. "You can’t get away with this. You have a witness! Mom?" I call, looking towards my mother.
She opens her eyes drowsily and I scream her name again, willing her to come to her senses, to tell me she knows nothing about Tom's plans. She turns away from me, but not before I see the guilty tears in her eyes.
I wince as a piercing pain shoots through my heart. It doesn't matter that I've experienced this heartbreak over and over again;it feels just as excruciating as it did when she brought a man home mere months after my dad passed.
“I'll go get the fuel from the garage,” Tom says, already heading towards the door.
Suddenly, the door is pushed open, and I'm shocked to see Curt walk in with a gun aimed directly at Tom.
I stare at him in shock, wondering if this was one of those fairytales where I'm saved from the living nightmare that is my life. I've imagined several knights in shining armor coming to rescue me, but none came close to this incredibly beautiful man.
“Let her go or I'll blow your fucking brains out,” he says coldly, his face set in deadly determination.
“You're a lawyer,” Tom says with a derisive snort. “You ‘re not gonna shoot me.”
“I'm a lawyer,” Curt replies with a smirk that makes him look even deadlier. “I know a thousand ways to get away with murder.”
Tom must see the seriousness in his eyes, because he raises both of his hands in the air as a sign of surrender.
"Alright. Easy, man," he mutters slowly, easing a hand toward his pocket while the other remains in the air. "I'm just taking out a knife to cut her loose." He takes out a pocketknife and shakily cuts the ropes that bound me to the chair. "Here you go…"
“Come here, honey,” he says to me although his eyes are trained on Tom.
I wonder if I’m imagining the quaver in his voice, but that might just be my horrified heart playing tricks on me. I stand up on weak knees and start to walk towards Curt.
Suddenly, I hear a scurry of feet behind me. Startled, I turn around in time for the pocketknife to connect with my stomach, its sharp blade sinking easily into my flesh.
A startled gasp escapes my lips as I blink up in disbelief at the vengeful face of Tom. “That’s what you get for crossing me, bitch!” A shrill scream permeates the air, one that sounds suspiciously like my mother's.
