Page 107 of Magdalene Nox

The play was over and the curtain dropped. Magdalene was done with theater too. She reached under her desk and pulled out the phone, the voice recorder app clearly visible when the screen lit up. George’s eyes widened at the realization that her every word had been captured, preserved as evidence, but Magdalene only gritted her teeth and growled, “go on,” and George lowered her hands in her lap and obeyed.

“You ordered the archives moved from the basement, so I moved them to the attic, and as I was moving them, one of the laborers wondered if we weren’t at all concerned about how big of a fire hazard it was becoming, with the old furniture and old electric up there in a dusty attic. It’s like he wrote a step-by-step plan for me to get rid ofher.” She spat the pronoun as if it tasted bitter on her tongue.

Still, George did not take her eyes off her, once again drinking her in with decidedly sick fervor. Magdalene swallowed hard, trying to tamp down her nausea. She’d burn this dress. There was no washing off this dirt.

“It was very easy to set up. Very easy. You know how industrious I am. You always praise me for being smart, for being efficient. I was very efficient that night. But then you arrived, and my whole plan was ruined. So I had to change things up. I took the picture and sent it to Orla, set that bitch up to take the fall. Really, for someone who used to hold such an important and authoritative position, she is a remarkably stupid woman.”

Alden had told her about a picture circulating among the trustees, one that Orla had brought to the mainland the night the school burned down. The photo showed Magdalene and Sam kissing, and Joel had been frothing at the mouth to use it to break her contract. Magdalene had tried but failed to muster a sliver of care.

The picture had resulted in Orla’s arrest, since it had been taken from such an angle that only someone who’d been in the attic with them could have taken it. Seeing the old headmistress earlier, running to save the day alongside Sam and Joanne had been jarring. But it all made sense now. George had set Fenway up for the fall.

Determined, Magdalene leaned on her hands, and even the few inches closer to George felt foul.

“Tell me, if Sam wouldn’t have had the wherewithal to aim for the hinges and break down the door that way, would you have come and saved me? Or would you have let me burn?”

She didn’t need the answer. It was all over the silence, all over George’s tears, all over her shaking hands. George, her secretary, her ‘best friend’ was a failed murderer.

And Magdalene would get it all on record. So she could end this. If she hadn’t seen this coming, if so many people got hurt because of this sick obsession, the least she could do was finish it with as little damage as possible. And a full confession would ensure that.

“For a couple of seconds after taking the picture, I just stood there and watched the two of you together, and I hated it so much, because I knew... I knew then that it didn’t matter if you were fired based on that photo. It didn’t matter if you left Dragons. You weren’t mine anymore. You didn’t want me anymore. You hadn’t spent a single evening with me since we’d landed on these wretched rocks. You only wanted her. I had to punish you, too. If you weren’t going to be mine, you weren’t going to be anyone else’s.”

The bile in Magdalene’s throat gave way to a scream.

“I was never yours!” The words, like bullets, pierced the stillness, and it was George’s turn to quail.

Magdalene couldn’t take it anymore. All bets were off. She would either strangle George or slap her, possibly both. She counted on Sam to hold her back. Maybe. Magdalene finally stepped out from behind the desk. She took a few steps, her heels–a metronome, the only sound in the room.

The last remnants of reason prevailed, and instead of striking, Magdalene did something she knew would inflict much greater pain. She spoke her truth.

“In that moment, George? That moment you hated so much? I was happy, safe and beloved! I was everything I ever wanted to be.”

George’s tears spilled over, and her sob was wretched. Magdalene’s tone didn’t waver.

“When the police come, you will tell them again what you just told Sam and me. You will confess, you will take whatever plea deal they offer you. There will be no trial. You will not drag Sam or Timothy or me or this school through more dirt than you already have.”

Magdalene bit the inside of her cheek, tasting blood, the pain a steady leveler to the madness in front of her. She’d cry and grieve later. Now she’d make sure the snake would never slither back, would never touch one of her own ever again.

“And after?” George’s voice trembled with tears.

“After?” Like a bird of prey, Magdalene swept close to her, their faces inches apart. The stench of fear was almost unbearable. She curled her lip, disgust etched in her every word. “After? George, I trusted you. I gave pieces of myself to you, to our friendship through the years. There were times when the wolves were hounding me, when I believed you were my only friend. And yet you were the wolf that stalked me and hunted me all my life. The one who ruined my marriage, who destroyed my relationship with a man who did not deserve to be used this way, despite his many faults…”

Her breathing was too fast, her heartbeat too loud in her ears, but she refused to let that get in her way. Magdalene straightened and looked down at George, who was suddenly so small and pathetic. But she needed to say this last piece. It was vitally important that George hear it. That Sam hear it too.

“You crossed all the lines, George. Lines that I will never allow anyone to cross ever again. But one in particular, you never should have. So there will be no ‘after’. Even if they ever let you out of whatever miserable hole they put you in, you better never show your face in front of me again. Because of that line, George. If you’re wondering which one it is… You hurt Sam, George, and for crossing that line alone, I could ruin you.”

And just like that, all hell broke loose. As George was howling and screeching about loving her, a group of cops came barreling into the room, Sheriff Green read George her Miranda Rights while she continued to spew hate at Sam and profess that she’d only ever wanted to love Magdalene. Joanne and Orla were trying to hold off Lily and the other girls, who were suddenly in the hallway, causing even more of a commotion.

And amidst all the chaos, Magdalene focused only on Sam who returned her gaze with so much love, so much devotion, eyes full of unshed tears. And Magdalene knew her own would come later. But for now, in those shining depths, she found her peace, and her relief, and her reason. To go on, to love, to live, despite the misery inflicted on her for years.

She’d need to process what had happened and she’d need to move on. But under the light of those eyes, under their warmth and their kind acceptance, Magdalene knew she’d be given time and space and safety. And she’d heal.

29

OF IVORY CHAPELS & RELUCTANT RING BEARERS

Three years later…

The chapel washer crowning glory, if she said so herself. She didn’t bother hiding her smile at the memory of years ago, of Sam demanding to know why Magdalene was spending the meager remnants of the school’s money on this one building.

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