“Christmas was almost the breaking point for me. She’d been awful to you, and I was forced to share a room and a bed with herwhile staying at my parents. She tried seducing me, but I pushed her away. I’d wait until she was asleep and go downstairs. I wouldn’t eat anything she’d prepared, and I made all my own drinks. I installed cameras in my penthouse when she wasn’t around to watch what she was doing. I was on edge the entire time, never knowing what she might do.”
I scrub my hands down my face. “Then Darcy was born, and my protective instincts kicked in. I knew I couldn’t give up, that I had to keep fighting until Gwen was defeated. Gwen was instantly jealous of the baby, and I hired a full-time nanny and a bodyguard. Told Gwen it was to support and protect her, but it was to protect Darcy. Gwen became paranoid and more persistent, and she was acting crazier than usual. By then, I’d had enough, and I was ready to go to the police and just hope someone would believe me. But she told me she knew I was looking for the evidence, and she was so disappointed in me. She laughed in my face. Said I’d never find it, and I wasn’t going to outsmart her.”
I crawl up the sofa, closer to Astrid, because this is going to level her. “That’s when she showed me what else she’d done. How, acting as you, she’d hired a criminal to run Tonya down and kill her.”
“No, no, please, no.” She visibly trembles. “Please, Callan. Please don’t say Gwen killed Paige’s soulmate.” Astrid is shaking all over, and fuck it, I can’t just sit here and not comfort her.
Gently, I wrap my arms around her and hold her shaking form. “I’m so sorry, Astrid. I had no idea she was planning it until after Tonya was dead.”
“This can’t be happening. Oh my god, how do I tell Paige this?” She clings to my shirt, shaking and shivering but not crying.
“I can tell her with you if you want.”
“We have to tell the cops. Gwen needs to pay for this.”
“There is no evidence Gwen did this. All the evidence points to you, and the guy who killed Tonya died in a prison fight three years ago. He was locked up for robbery at the time. He is the only one who could verify the woman who paid him was not you. You can tell Paige, but Paige won’t be able to get justice, not without incriminating you.”
“I want Gwen dead,” she hisses, shucking out of my arms. “She’s got to die. She’s too evil to live.”
“There might be things we can do to keep her behind bars for life, but I’m not doing jail time for her.”
“We could bury her body in the woods or dump her at the bottom of the lake, and no one would ever know. I doubt there’s anyone who would report her missing.”
“I won’t have her contaminating our home, and this isn’t you. You’re not a killer, no matter how much you hate her.”
Her shoulders slump. “I can’t believe all of this. I mean, I can. But it’s so devious and calculating. I was in so much danger, and I never knew it.”
“She’s a danger to everyone, and it’s understandable, it’s a lot to take in. I’ve had years to process it, and I still struggle to accept it all. You’re handling it better than I thought.”
“I’m in shock, Callan. I’m listening. I’m absorbing, and I’m feeling things, but I’m kinda numb to it too.”
“I have experienced every emotion under the sun since this went down, and I’ve had periods where it was all a blur, where my brain locked down to protect me.” I lean against the side of the sofa, summoning my courage. “I was getting flashbacks of that night she drugged me and having nightmares, but the truth was hiding just under the surface, and I could never make sense of them. Until Scott showed up at my door with a laptop he’d found in his attic. I’d never seen a man look so horrified, but when I saw what he’d found on the device, I understood it.”
“It was Gwen’s? She’d hidden the evidence there?”
“Yeah. Scott explained they never went up there. It was a mess, full of old junk and long-forgotten boxes. His guess was Gwen had kept a key to his house and gone in there when they were out and stowed it in the attic. However, his dad passed away, and his mom wanted to clear everything, and she asked Scott to help. Scott found it, wasn’t sure who owned it or why it was there. It was heavily encrypted and protected, but Scott was studying computer programming in college, and he’d also taught Gwen everything she knew, so he eventually got into it.”
“What was on it?”
“Everything I mentioned previously, but there were also hundreds of photos of me, and a folder with the photos of you she framed Ana with. All of them had red X’s through them or abusive words written across them. She’d photoshopped her head onto yours in photos of us together. It was creepy as fuck, and I felt sick looking at them, but then Scott showed me the real footage of the night she drugged me, and that’s when I truly fell apart.”
My lungs constrict, and I struggle to breathe. I squeeze the ball in my hand so tight it feels like my veins are about to pop.
“Breathe, Callan.” Astrid tentatively takes my free hand. “Breathe with me, in and out, nice and slow. That’s right, focus on me. Look at my face. In and out.”
I inhale and exhale until the pressure releases, and I slump against the sofa, feeling like a complete basket case.
“Are you okay?” Compassion threads through her tone as she looks at me. “I know how debilitating panic attacks can be. We can leave this for another time, Callan.”
“I’m okay now. I want to tell you.” I rotate my shoulders, trying to loosen the knots I feel there.
“Take my hand. Use it to ground you.”
I lace my fingers in hers, and it instantly settles me. I maintain eye contact. “The sex that night wasn’t consensual. Shedrugged me, dragged me into the bedroom, stripped me, groped me, and put her mouth on me to get me hard, and then climbed on top of me. She raped me, Astrid. Gwen raped me repeatedly while I was passed out, and she did it on purpose to get pregnant and trap me.”
71
ASTRID
