Page 54 of Saving Meadow

“Beth? What’s going on?” I wriggled again trying to move my hands. “Why the hell are my hands taped together?”

I finally got myself upright and realized both my hands and my feet were duct-taped together. My original panic multiplied by a hundred.

“So many questions. I think I liked it better when you were passed out.”

“Why are you doing this? I didn’t have anything to do with you getting fired. I promise.”

“Fired. I don’t give a fuck about that stupid job.”

“Why would you do this?” I asked and tried to pry my hands apart, but the duct tape wouldn’t budge.

Duct tape. I remembered the conversation I had with Nick about using tape to tie up Beth. The irony wasn’t lost on me that I was the one taped by Beth. Nick. He’d know I was missing when he got home, and I wasn’t there. Or would he? What if he thought I’d changed my mind about going to his place and went back to mine? Would he look for me?

“Remember when you woke up in the hospital and I came to visit you?” she asked.

I’d never forget the visit. I’d only just woken up from the attack when Beth had appeared at my bedside. At first, she acted like a concerned friend. Careful and cautious with me, then out of nowhere she’d turned into a cold-hearted bitch. That was the first time she’d commented on my face, and how sad it was that I was now ugly and no man would ever come near me again. Yeah, damn right I remembered.

“Yes,” I answered.

“You know what’s so funny? You have no idea how close you came to dying.”

“I think I do.”

“No. Not in the alley. In the hospital. I came in ready to finish what I’d started. I couldn’t have you running to the police and blabbing. But when you woke up and cried your eyes out to me and hugged me, I realized you had no memory of what had happened, and it wasn’t worth the risk of killing you with all the nurses in and out. Not to mention, scrubbing the hospital’s server would be too difficult, there’d be footage of my visit. I let you live Meadow. And you know what I got in return?”

What the hell was she talking about? Let me live? No. No way. Beth was a crazy bitch, but there was no way… was there?

“I’m confused, Beth.”

“I’ll tell you what I got. You talking shit about me behind my back. Every fucking day, you talked shit about Queen Bitch, douchebaggette, twat-waffle, any of those ring a bell?” she yelled.

Shit goddammit. She had my phone and was reading my messages to Veronica Venus. Fuck. She was right; there was about five years’ worth of messages. Wait. If she had my phone, Nick would find me.

“Five goddamned years.” She held a phone up shaking it, the shiny purple case reflecting the dim light in the car.

“That’s not my phone,” I lamely said.

“No shit. Do you think I’m dumb enough to bring your phone so your FBI boyfriend can track it? How stupid do you think I am? And the office security feeds have been erased for the last seven days. No one’s going to find you Meadow.”

Wait, then how was she reading my messages to Veronica Venus?

“Did you clone my phone?” I asked.

“Why the hell would I waste my time doing that? The only two people you talk to are your mother and me. You really should’ve been more careful about browsing the internet on company computers. Message boards, online shopping, plastic surgeons to try and fix your ugly-ass face. All on company time on the company computer.”

Me?

What the fuck! I’d never spoken to Beth on my cell phone.

“You? What are you talking about?”

“Do you know how nauseating it is listening to you cry and whine every day about how bad your life is? How lonely you are? How your life was stolen from you? You cannot possibly know how many times I wanted to tell you to shut the fuck up. Flirty sluts like you who think they can bat their eyelashes and steal other people’s husbands are the ones that ruin lives. No one ever thinks about the wife at home, trying to make her husband happy. Giving everything of themselves for nothing. Nothing. All it takes is some skank in a short skirt and you lose everything. Why wasn’t I good enough?”

Holy shit, she’d lost her mind. The woman was batshit crazy, obviously, I mean I was duct-taped in the back of her car, but she was completely off her rocker. I had no idea what she was talking about, and I was afraid to ask.

“They deserved it. Every one of them. Fucking whores out trolling for men not caring if they’re taken or not. You got lucky, I was sloppy the first time and impatient. I took you out back too soon, and you were still able to talk. Never made that mistake again.”

The mother of all lightning bolts hit me. Jesus fuck. It was her!