The instant I have the thought, I’m defeated by it.
“This isn’t over between us.” Rick points a finger at my face. “Not by a long shot.”
“But see, itis. Soon, you’ll be serving a nice long prison sentence, and I’ll be—” I stop and shake my head. “It doesn’t matter where I’ll be.You’llbe where you’ve always belonged.”
“You truly did it, didn’t you? You weren’t just blowing and blustering. You truly are the reason the DA is coming after me.”
I nod. But I don’t feel any real satisfaction in it.
“Do you hate me that much? So much you’d turn against your own flesh and blood?”
After everything he’s done to me, after all the pain and suffering, how can he be surprised?
“Ten years ago, I hated you. Hell, tenminutesago, I hated you. But now?” I shrug. “Now I realize I can’t face my future while holding on to my past.”
As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I feel their weight. Their unassailable truth.
“So I’m going to let go of it,” I tell him. “All of it. What you did to Mom. What you did to me. What you’ve done to so many good people. I’m going to forgive you, Rick. Not for you, but for me.”
He stares at me in disbelief, his too-wet mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.
The whiskey in my pocket sends up her siren’s call. The mattress in the master bedroom joins the chorus. This entire night feels like I’ve been awake in my own worst nightmare.
“Just go,” I say with a heavy sigh. “We’re even.”
“How the hell do you figurethat?” he demands.
I search his eyes. Those eyes that are mirror images of my own. “You stole my childhood,” I tell him evenly. “Now I’ve stolen your future.”
“You sonofabitch,” he snarls.
I laugh. “As many times as you’ve called me that, I should have it tattooed across my chest.”
As if to prove me right, he adds, “You sorry, ungrateful sonofabitch.”
This time I don’t respond. Not because there aren’t a million things I could throw in his face, but because I don’t have anything left in me to give to him. “I’m going to bed,” I say. “You can show yourself out.”
I make the mistake of turning my back on him. Just for a second. Truly, it’s only an instant.
That’s all he needs.
I hear his heavy footfalls and swing around to see the bulky silver picture frame raised high in his hand. I have enough time to lift my arms and yell, “No!” before the hard metal corner connects with my temple and it’s all over for me.
White-hot pain explodes.
The world goes dark.
Chapter Sixty-six
______________________________________
Maggie
You should never take peace of mind for granted. In the blink of an eye, it can be shattered.
I thought, with Richard Armstrong in jail and George Sullivan busy dealing with the potential fallout should his best friend decide to make a deal and throw him under the bus, that things were finally looking up. I assumed we’d come to the last link in the awful chain of events that started the night Dean died.
I should’ve known better.
