Ghosted: A Destructive Fixation (Part II)
Ghosted: A Destructive Fixation (Part II)
“Guess proposing is just your thing, huh? Molly said, sucking her teeth. “Way to make a girl feel special.”
He shook his head. “I deserve that, but no I never proposed to Loreli. She thought the ring was for her and that I’d hidden in there, but really it was the last ring I’d purchased to propose again to Riley.” He chewed on the side of his lip. “I didn’t want to lie to her, but a part of me wishes that I did because when I told her the truth, she slapped me hard across the face and then gave me this look that scared the hell out of me. Looking back, I realize I should have had more tact about it, but I just didn’t want her to get the wrong idea. Marriage was too soon for us, and while yes, I should have halted moving together, especially to another city, marriage was a hard limit for me.”
“What happened after that?”
“As you could imagine, things changed. Lorelai went from this sweet, thoughtful woman to someone I hardly knew. I couldn’t move an inch without her accusing me of cheating or fantasizing about her sister. She started showing up at out-of-town conferences, lunch meetings, and a few times some of my female clients had their tires slashed.”
“Woah…”
“Yeah…when you’re in the thick of it, sometimes you don’t see how bad things are escalating. I tried to end it a few times, but she constantly reminded me that she had given up everything to move and be with me. The guilt ate at me, especially since I knew in my own way, I’d used her. So, I stayed with the hope that eventually things would get better. They didn’t. I started to feel like a prisoner in my own home, and what was worse, she began to pressure me into marriage. It caused us to fight a lot, and I started to spend most of my time in another wing of the mansion just to get peace to myself. The thing was, she somehow always knew where I was and what I was doing and I couldn’t figure out how, until one day I found a tracker under my car.”
“She was stalking you?!”
“Mhm. There were cameras too…seventeen to be exact. When I confronted her about it, she burst into tears and screamed how she’d worked and spent so much money to be exactly what I wanted. Then she started pacing back and forth, sputtering that none of it was worth it. All the recon she’d done when Riley died up until now didn’t even work because I wanted to be so stubborn.”
“W-what does that mean?”
“It means that she’d been stalking me before we’d even met. Once the floodgates were open, she wouldn’t stop talking. She told me about how Riley bragged about having two rich boyfriends, and how she’d spoken to Riley the day of her murder and how she was gloating about Steven’s proposal. She said that Riley told her that his ring was bigger, he was richer, and I was an emotionally damaged puppy. She said that was the moment that she decided that I belonged to her, and once Riley died, she seized the opportunity. She ransacked Riley’s apartment and stole some of her clothes. Then she dyed her hair and practiced her makeup to make it similar to the way Riley wore hers.
“She hired an investigator to tail me after the funeral and report back to her the things that I like, my hobbies, dislikes, etc, and she used that and what she knew about Riley and turned herself into the perfect woman for me. And all the while she’s in the ramble about everything, she couldn’t seem to comprehend why everything she’s saying terrified me.” Robert’s hands shook as he leaned his head outward and glanced at the closed door of his office. “She walked over and caressed my face, asked me what was wrong and said that this all would be a funny story to tell our grandchildren.
“At that moment, I realized how psycho she really was. I backed away and told her to leave, and that I wanted nothing to do with her, and she lost it. She started screaming, and punching herself, and just repeating over and over that she was the perfect one for me. I didn’t want her to harm herself, so I made my biggest mistake. I grabbed her shoulders and tried to calm her down, and shouted Riley, stop! I didn’t mean to say Riley’s name; it just came out. With everything she’d just told me about the both of them, my mind was everywhere, and I honestly just wanted to get away from them both, but by then it was too late. Lorelai pushed away from me, and as I went to apologize not just for that, but for leading her on, she grabbed the letter opener off my desk and while laughing jammed it into my chest, piercing my heart.”