Page 110 of Shattered Souls
I make out the outline of a bed, except it’s not the right size. I’d been so confident I would walk in on Bertram and Riley cuddled up together that it takes me a moment to understand what I’m actually seeing.
A single bed is pushed against the wall, and a small, plastic kiddie table and chairs are set up on a rug beside it. A cold chill seeps down my spine, and I clap a hand over my mouth. Riley wasn’t lying. She has Aurora back, and they are living here—onmy husband’sdime.
This is so much worse than I imagined!
Whirling, I march for the door, moving directly to the next room down the hall.
Flinging open the door, I balk.
Again, comprehending the sight before me takes far longer than it should. Except this time, my world tilts. It topples. It crashes down around me.
“Oh my god! David!”
I rush to David’s side, where he’s lying on the floor, convulsing. Tears fall unbidden from my eyes as I fall to my knees beside him. My hands hover over his chest, but there’s so much blood. It’s everywhere, spilling relentlessly from a deep gash across his throat.How? Why?“David, my love,” I cry.What happened to you?Despite the sickly pallor to his face, it’s clear that he’s been beaten to hell.
The sound of gurgling is loud, and when it stops, along with the convulsing, the room is suddenly eerily quiet. “David?” Leaning over him, I find a spot on his shoulders not soaked in blood and shake him. However, his glazed-over eyes never shift from the ceiling. He doesn’t blink. Nothing.
Sobbing, I curl up in a ball beside him. Nothing makes any sense. Why is he here, in Bertram and Riley’s apartment?
My poor David.
He was the only one who cared about me.
After my idiotic husband got sent to prison and my daughter saddled me with her kid, he was the only one who ever asked me how I was. Who wanted to spend time with me. Wholistened.
In those early days after Bertram was arrested, he’d bring me flowers and a bottle of wine, and we’d talk for hours. If I had a problem, he’d step in and sort it. He was good like that. Useful. He knew the job of a man. Ensured I was taken care of while Bertram was indisposed.
As the years passed, he was the only one I could confide in. Bertram and I had an agreement that we’d stay together. He needed me to keep up appearances once he was released and to dispel the rumors my daughter started after whatever spat they got into. I wanted his money and to keep the lifestyle I’d become accustomed to.
However, it was David who gave me everything else. The comfort I needed. The support. He provided me with everything my husband had failed at over the years. He’d seen how Bertramtreated me behind closed doors—his indifference toward me—and said it wasn’t right. That I deserved better. He gave me that better. He gave me something my husband never had: love. Ilovedhim.
I sob. How can he be gone? This isn’t how it was all supposed to unfold. We were supposed to go to Europe. David had wanted it just to be the two of us. We have plenty of money now, but I couldn’t let Riley win. I refused to hand my husband over to her. Not after all the lies and backstabbing. He wasn’thers. He never was, and I’d never allow him to be. IneededDavid, but IwantedBertram—at least until he no longer lusted after Riley.
The three of us would go to Europe after Bertram was released. I’d continue the charade with him for as long as it took for him to move on from his obsession or for Riley to marry, and David and I would have our stolen moments until then. David understood. He knew I couldn’t just walk away, not after the two of them made me out to be a fool.
I had to make him suffer. Makethemsuffer.
After his incarceration, David had become more to Bertram than a mere employee. Bertramreliedon David too much, so it wouldn’t seem strange if he joined us in Europe, continuing his role alongside Bertram until such a time as we could offload him. At that point, Bertram could do whatever he wanted so long as it wasn’t returning to my daughter’s bed, and David and I would have each other. It would have been perfect. Itshouldhave been perfect.
A shadow falls over me, a chill running down my spine. Startled, I push myself upright, eyes going wide as a gasp falls from my lips.
“Lydia,” he purrs, the corner of his lips curling upward. “How convenient.”
My composure crumples, my gaze dropping back to David’s pale face. “D-David.” My lower lip trembles. “He’s dead.”
“Yes,” Bertram drawls. “I am aware, since I’m the one who killed him.”
My face whips toward his, and for the first time, I take in my husband as he looms over me, a dark figure of menace and dread. His eyes, blazing with an unholy fire, pierce through my very soul. Dark hair falls in wild, untamed strands around his face, framing a look of pure, unadulterated evil. He looks like a demon conjured from the depths of my nightmares, every inch of him exuding a terrifying, almost supernatural power.
“W-what?” Certainly, I heard him wrong. Why would he kill David? David did everything for him. Unless Bertram found out about me and David? Did he kill my lover in a fit of jealous rage?
Interest piqued, I look up at my husband through a new lens.
Bertram scoffs. “Get that starstruck look off your face. My reason for killing him had nothing to do with you.”
His words may as well be a slap to the face. Sparks of the anger that drove me here break through the surface of my grief, and rising, I meet my husband’s eyes, unblinking as I lift my chin.
“You won’t get away with this! I saw who you’re keeping in that bedroom! What is this place?” I sneer. “Your love nest? Are the three of you playing happy families here?” I spit the words at him. “How did you even find her?”
