Page 20 of Breaking Sanity
“I guess it’s safe to assume this was your doing?”
“Guilty as charged,” he laughs, sending a cold shiver down my spine.
Theo is about an inch taller than me, but he walks with a distinct limp. So instead of circling me like a hungry vulture about to nosedive for a decaying carcass, he looks like a waddling penguin about to catch a fish. Once he finally stops back in front of me, I can see the wear the last few years has had on him. His death wasn’t just hard on me but also on Theo, more because of the money he lost rather than the child.
You would never guess he is a couple of years younger than me because of the bags and fine lines thatcrease around dull dead brown eyes. Not to mention the receding hairline that makes him look like he is in his late forties and the salt and peppered trimmed beard. His teeth still look as if they are still trying to social distance themselves.
The best way to describe him is Shrek’s Italian cousin minus the stereotypical tracksuit. Instead, he wears slacks and a button-down shirt. He does have that olive skin that tans so perfectly in the summer with defined muscular arms and chest but the slight beer belly matches Shrek’s.
I’d rather fuck Shrek, just saying.
His looks were not what attracted me to him. Yes, I did have a sexual attraction to his profile hence the swiping right on the app. It was his personality and sense of security that he gave me that kept me. We could stay up for hours talking about different topics. He is an intelligent man but arrogant as all get up. The sex was nothing worth boasting about, but I could live with that. I felt like we had that open communication down and it would be that way forever. But I was terribly wrong.
The divorce was super nasty. We were only married for under a year, so he kept the house that was in his nameand the car. When child support got brought up and he would have to pay, it escalated to a ridiculous child custody case. He dragged me through the mud and tried to destroy who I was as a person and mother. Luckily I had an amazing lawyer so I won the child custody and got to have our son almost full time. That was short lived.
“Why Theo,” I ask.
I try to keep the tears back as the love-struck version of myself that still stays alive for him peaks out. But I can feel her shatter to pieces knowing he wants us to suffer for a divorce I never wanted.
She never completely went away, even when he made the last years of my life a living fucking hell almost daily. I tried to smother her but she just came back whenever he showed a shred of kindness.
Now, with this, she will finally be put to rest and I can kill the bastard like I have wanted to do since before the trial.
“Are you really asking me Alley, after everything you’ve done?” He stares at me as if I have grown an extra head.
“After whatIhave done,” I ask. “You have got to be kidding right? This is your doing.”
“You gave me no choice,” he shouts, getting in my face.
“Oh, that’s fucking rich,” I laugh with no humor to it. “You had a fucking choice, Theo. Instead, you decided to make our divorce a two-year headache and pay for her trial. You should’ve walked away and he would still be here!”
“It’s all your fault. You wouldn’t let go. You were obsessed with me and ruined everything,” he screams.
“I was obsessed with you,” I mimic. “Is your head really so far up your own ass that you really believe that? Your obsession, lies and greed are what ruined everything.”
To be clear, I had to resort to mediation for any contact with him because of his comments about my body, his interrogation about my love life when he found me on a dating app, and his constant obsession with where I was all the time. The man cheated and lied to my face. He even cheated on me on our honeymoon for Christ sake. And the mans’ greed? He only fought for custody of our son to not have to pay in child support because his mom didn’t want him to spend his money on his bastard child.
During the divorce, she tried everything to help him with his case, including constantly calling the cops on me. I had her arrested twice for harassment and filing a false police report.
Then at a baby shower for a mutual friend, I met his new wife and we got to talking. I am not to blame for his lack of honesty. Although, I will admit it was a petty move to keep exposing him after her first initial shocked reaction. So maybe I am like ten percent to blame. Not like it mattered that much, he had a new woman on his arm within 24 hours.
“Keep telling yourself that Alley,” he says smugly, finally removing his disgusting presence from my personal space.
He starts to fix his tie and states, “for the amount of grief you have caused me and my family, this place will be your punishment. Luckily for me, your attitude has pissed off enough people so I am not footing the full bill.”
“You know if you weren’t such a coward, you wouldn’t have to pay some group of assholes to do it for you,” I taunt. “Just when I didn’t think my opinion of you could get any lower, here we are.”
“Enjoy prison, darling,” he smiles, ignoring my jab.
I hate his use of the word darling. Theo always used it in such a degrading manner, that made me want to punch him. It did lead to a lot of arguments.
“That’s the thing,Theodore, this may be a prison but at least it saves me from watching you destroy the image your father had of you and turning into the mother you claimed to hate. That sounds worse than this place, honestly.”
I know I am just lashing out at this point, and that keeping my mouth shut would be more beneficial especially with the nine year sentence that he could easily extend or even shorten if I keep provoking him. But I never claimed to have self-preservation, plus I know just how to piss him off.
He has such a fragile ego and a high regard of himself, that it takes insulting his alpha male bravado and destroying the idea his dad would be proud of him to make him snap. Which he does, because he swiftly turns and makes a dash for me. I’m not sure if I would call it luck, but at that moment the door swings open with a new masked giant. He jumps in front of him and blocks Theo’s path to me.
“Visiting hours are over,” Sebs declares, appearing in the doorway with his skull jaw bandana covering his lower face. “Indefinitely.”
