Page 197 of Ice Darling
Chance, Gunner—and a very winded Campbell—all jump forward a step as if to hold me back. But I don’t punch Ray yet. The way he’s shaking with laughter, this man has lost his marbles.
He stops laughing and goes deadly serious. “She’s a murderer. If Cordelia hadn’t fought with Gwen, if she’d just said congratulations on being pregnant, none of this would have happened. She wouldn’t have had those complications. She wouldn’t have…” Ray’s face twists with grief. “I wouldn’t have lost my family.”
I can’t believe this is the vitriol Cordelia’s been subjected to since her sister died. The words must have cut into her soul. Especially since Ray genuinely seems to believe this nonsense.
Those tears, the anguish on his vermin-like face, they look real.
I shove him away, disgusted, and he goes flying into the bed.
“Cordelia’s not the one who disrespected your wife with another woman while she was pregnant.Youdid that.” I point at him. “You, you piece of scum. You’re not worthy enough to be the chewing gum under Cordelia’s shoe. You think heaping all the blame on her will save you? You think it’ll ease that guilt gnawing away at your puny heart if you punish her?”
Ray’s eyes almost pop out of his head.
I loom over him. “Cordelia’s not the reason you lost your wife. She’s not your punching bag, and she’s not your penance. Your days of playing mind games with her areover.”
I expect Ray to charge to his feet and throw a punch. In fact, I’m itching for it. If he throws the first punch, I can rearrange his face and call it self-defense.
But Ray remains on the edge of the bed, his shoulders hunched over. And I see, in that staunchly defeated pose, exactly why he lashed out at Cordelia. The guy’s a punk and a bully.
There’s no way he’ll fight me because he doesn’t fight people his own size.
“What am I supposed to do?” Ray wails like a spoiled brat. “How else do I see Gwen if I can’t see Delia?”
My chest rises and falls, and I step back in utter horror.
“She’s the reason Gwen is gone. You think Iwantto see her?” His eyes dart back and forth with manic energy. “But it’s like…she’s all I have left.”
I stare him down, my face set like stone.
Anger surges and builds, demanding its pound of flesh. For Cordelia’s sake. For her tender, tender heart’s sake.
I need this man to feel a quarter of the pain he inflicted on her.
The deadly silence in the room reverberates as I move forward. Chance, Campbell, and Gunner hang back. They won’t stop me. They’d probably join me.
I grab the broken man by the collar again and speak in a deliberately low tone. “She’snotGwen.” I shake him. “And you lost the right to be in her world when you drove her away from her family and her life withlies.”
Ray’s arm flops down, and he stares at the ground as if he’s not here. Lifeless. Just like the wife and child he buried in their caskets.
Maybe if he wasn’t such vermin, I’d feel sorry for him.
Maybe.
But right now, all I want is to get my message into his thick skull. “Cordelia didn’t have anyone on her side when she left, butshe’s in Lucky Falls now. She’sminenow. If you mess with her, you mess withme.”
“Me too,” Chance growls.
“And me,” Gunner snaps.
Campbell clears his throat. “S-same.”
I haul Ray by the front of his shirt and close the distance between us, my voice low and lethal. “Don’t mistake me holding back today as kindness. If you show up again thinking I wasn’t serious, you’ll regret it. I promise you.”
Ray swallows hard.
I step back, and as I’m about to move away, I notice the picture of Gwendolyn on the nightstand. Ray has been as deflated as a two-week-old balloon, but when I reach out to see the photo, he snatches it away and hugs it protectively to his chest.
I stare down at the pathetic, broken man. “Mourn your wife. Don’t torment her sister.”
