Page 25 of Trading Up
I watched as Paloma weighed her response, and finally she nodded, tears forming in her eyes.
“Yes. Yes! I knew you would understand! We’re in love,” she smiled as she cried, nodding her head like it all made sense.
“So, ask yourself, Paloma. You’re a smart woman. If Sarah knows how it feels to love someone, why would she try to take that from you? We’re getting married. She even made sure the boys weren’t in his life anymore, so it could be just you and your daughter. Why would she undo everything after she went to all that effort?” I started walking again, slowly, as I talked. I wanted to be as unassuming as possible. I tried my best to spin some bullshit that made no fucking sense, make sense. I had to twist it just so, praying that it was believable.
“What?” She seemed confused by my stance.
“Why would she go through all the trouble of leaving no trace of herself behind in his life, to pop back up all of a sudden? She’s happy. You’re happy. Everybody wins, right? He even hit one of my servers from behind like the bitch he is! He did it just to steal a uniform to get in here to see her. My guy’s in the cooler with a bleeding head.” She nodded like it was starting to make sense. I took a few more shuffled steps sideways towards where Sarah stood.
“You!” She hissed, the gun immediately coming back up. I froze, partially in front of Sarah, still kind of in front of Will. I didn’t move, felt like I didn’t breathe, nothing until she started screeching again. The crack that echoed through the hall sounded like a whip cracking, over and over and over, and over. When she kept squeezing, but nothing was happening, that was when the police came charging in, disarming her and arresting her.
It felt like I was watching this happen from someone else’s point of view, because there was no way that this was my life. How? How was this my life right now? I turned to checkon Sarah and felt myself stumble, momentarily lightheaded. Probably the adrenaline was leaving my body. It was an intense twenty minutes.
I went to take a step and stumbled to the ground. I felt her arms come around me as she tried to get me to lie down. I didn’t want to lie down. I was lying down when I opened my eyes again. She was over me, tying her shawl to my leg and twisting it tight as fuck with her shoe. She ripped part of her dress and pressed it to my arm.
Did I get shot? I looked up at her, confused, before remembering something she said to me yesterday.
I was on my way out of our room when she stirred and saw I wasn’t in bed with her. “Hey,” came her sleepy voice, stopping me from walking further, “Wake me up.”
“Huh?” I asked, looking at her like she’d lost her mind. She hated mornings.
“Wake me up,” she insisted, “I want to say goodbye to you before you leave. I want to kiss you before you walk out the door. You never know when it might be the last time. And I want you to know that I love you. So…wake me up.”
That was all I could think about as the weights on my eyes pulled them closed. I couldn’t fight it anymore. I just needed a quick nap.
Fuck.
T W E N T Y-F I V E: Lie In It
Sarah’s POV
I rode in the police car while it followed the ambulance carrying Devereaux to the hospital. I held my breath the whole way, unable to do or say more than nod, shake my head, or offer up strangled noises that sounded like some kind of words, but definitely not English. I couldn’t think straight. I kept replaying that moment and what came after in my head, when she kept squeezing the trigger, and the cracking sound coming from the gun.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
I closed my eyes and covered my ears like a coward. I crouched down, trying to make myself as small as possible. When the sounds were over, I heard the thundering of feet and shouting.
“Police!”
“Drop the weapon!”
“Hands on your head!”
“Don’t move!”
Once I heard the handcuffs clicking in place around her wrists, I slowly stood up. I looked around, and Row was still standing. Turning, I saw that Will had been shot at least once,his white shirt quickly being discolored red. He stumbled into an officer, who promptly helped him. I turned back to look at Row, who still hadn’t really moved, and started to walk to him. My heels clicking on the marble floors were the only thing I could hear. He moved his head like he was looking to find me when he stumbled. Like turning his head had made him dizzy. I hurried to steady him. He quickly went to his knees before passing out. I turned him over and started pulling his jacket off him.
No.
No.
