I peered down at his crouched over body, watching him inhale deeper and deeper to get fresh oxygen into his body.
“She was never your wife. She wasalwaysmeant for me. You just got in the fucking way. You were never man enough for her.”
“Sh-shut u-up,” he stuttered.
“She intimidated you. That’s why you had her put her career ambitions aside, had her catering to you, why you bought her to flashiest and best of everything, and why you fucked anything in a skirt when you had her at home waiting for you.”
“Y-you don’t know sh—” His words broke off as he gasped for air. He looked up at me, eyes filled with terror. “H-help me.”
I took a step back. “It’ll be over soon enough. The pain you’re feeling is from the arteries of your heart constricting.” I looked him up and down. “The calcium gluconate I had injected into your IV via the specialty nurse concierge services of yours is finally kicking in.” Thanks to a little background research I had done on Darryl, I discovered that he got weekly nurse concierge visits to his office after yet another recent surgery on his knee. After that, it was pretty easy to figure out how to get the heart-attack inducing calcium gluconate into his next IV. The alcohol he’d drank once he arrived home likely didn’t help his heart as it began to slow down due to the lack of electrolytes in the body caused by the drug.
“You’re dying, Darryl,” I gritted out low in his ear. “As you do, I just want you to know thatmywife will never spend one second mourning you. She’s too busy taking care of our children and me, her husband, while running her own company. You will be nothing more than a memory.” With that, I took a step back, watching as Darryl gasped for air as he fell to the ground.
I waited for another thirty minutes, making sure that he had truly stopped breathing, before reaching for the doorknob of his condo with my gloved hand. Quietly, I made my way down the right hall—toward the staircase I knew had no cameras—and out of his building.
Weeks later it was reported that Darryl Wright died of a massive heart attack. His body hadn’t been found for three full days. He was supposed to have picked up his oldest son that same night, but when he didn’t show up the child’s mother, Darryl’s ex-fiancée, just figured he’d flaked … again. After her phone calls went unanswered she didn’t try to reach him any longer. It wasn’t until the following Tuesday when Darryl’s assistant showed up at his condo and found his body that the truth was revealed. By then any trace elements of the drug I’d had him injected with were long gone. His official cause of death was ruled a myocardial infarction. His body was cremated after the funeral.
Epilogue
Seven months later
Destiny
I held my hand up to the fingerprint scanner that unlocked the front door of our home. Since the attack, Tyler insisted on completely upgrading all of our security measures in and around the home. We now had a gate that only he, myself and his immediate family knew the access codes to. Not even our security team knew the code.
“I’m home!” I called out as I kicked my sneakers off and pushed them to the side of the door where we kept the shoes upon entering. That also was at the insistence of my husband. A couple of weeks after the babies were born he’d read an article about tracking dirt through the house and how bacteria or whatever can be harmful to children. Now, we’re not allowed to walk around with shoes on in the house.
I’ll have to break us free of that rule soon. But for now, I let my husband think he was in charge.
“Hey, precious.”
My heart rate sped up a little bit when that dimple appeared with that smile.
“I would get up but I’m being held hostage at the moment,” he teased.
I laughed at the sight of Annalise crawling over Tyler’s waist, apparently trying to grab the rattle that Travis was shaking with his right hand while he worked hard to lift himself by pressing his left hand against Tyler’s shoulder. Tristan was perched on the navy blue velvet couch that Tyler rested his back against, trying to climb over Tyler’s head.
“You do look a little occupied.” I giggled, watching the man I loved with all of my heart lovingly playing with the children who were my world.
“How was your workout and lunch?”
I strolled over to my family and lifted Travis so that I could take his spot on the floor right next to his father. I pressed a kiss to my baby boy’s cheek and then answered, “It was great. Zumba is always a fun time. Lunch was great but Resha is going through some type of identity crisis.”
Tyler gave me a look. “Sounds serious.”
I shrugged. “Serious but maybe a good thing.” I paused and smiled as Tyler pulled Tristan from the couch and nuzzled him and Annalise, causing both of them to giggle. My heart swelled.
“This whole Mr. Mom thing looks good on you,” I teased for the umpteenth time. After the attack and birth of the children, Tyler took a leave of absence from the NFL. I’d insisted that wasn’t necessary and that his team and fans were counting on him, but he’d been even more adamant that his one and only priority was the well-being of the four of us.
I leaned my head on his shoulder and smiled when his lips made contact with my temple. “I love you.”
“Oh yeah? How much?”
“So much that you don’t have to cook dinner for a whole week.”
He grunted. “We don’t cook. We have a chef.”
I frowned and then giggled. He was right. He nor I wanted to cook but we also wanted to feed our family well so we sprang for an all-natural, organic chef who even made pureed baby food. It was well worth the hefty price tag.
