Chapter 31 Chapter 30:
Anna:
“I am on my way, don’t panic. Okay?” Clara is the type of woman who won’t ask what happened over the phone. My hands are still trembling as I drop my now bloodied phone into my pocket, I can’t risk getting a stain of blood anywhere.
I look at Kevin’s bloodied body on the floor and grimace, thinking how Clara will react, I shouldn’t worry, she’s dumb. Easy to fool. The rain is splashing outside more heavily now, the rumble of a thunder resounding nearby.
It doesn’t take twenty minutes before I hear the pulling up of a car, rushing towards the window, I pull open the curtains and through the hazy rain, I see Clara paying the Uber driver, wearing nothing but a faint shirt now soaked with rain water. Poor girl had to rush all the way here without even thinking.
The doorbell rings.
“Clara!” My voice is laced with panic as I fling open the door, Clara looks me up and down, it did not occur to me how Clara might react seeing my body filled with Kevin’s blood, the confusion in her bright, widened eyes morphs into pure horror as she lets out a guttural scream.
“Shhh!” I quiet her down and guide her inside, which is a terrible mistake because the moment she walks in, she takes everything in, including Kevin’s almost decomposing body, his hollow eyes are opened as he stares up at the ceiling and the blood splatters everywhere.
She screams louder.
“He’s dead.” She says shakily, her body trembling. She takes a step back and I grab her hand, trying to shut her down. Tears spill down her cheeks, “how did he die, Anna?” She keeps her eyes fixed at me, still crying.
How do I tell Clara that I assaulted my husband because he was yelling at me?
I flinch, faking tears of my own. “I didn’t want to tell you this, Clara, about my marriage.”
“What’s going on, Anna?” Clara looks worried.
“I haven’t been truthful about my marriage with Kevin, but Kevin..” My voice breaks and I cry the more, Clara moves closer to me, bringing me into her arms, taking in her perfume irks me. “He abuses me physically and emotionally, I didn’t want to tell anymore because he threatens me, outside, I know we are the perfect couple, but there’s more behind closed doors.”
Clara looks very shocked, “Kevin doesn’t seem like that person, why didn’t you tell me, An? I am your best-friend.” She seems more shocked and concerned than ever. Good, I have her in my net. Now, to reel her in.
“He was abusing me again tonight, and I swear. He was going to kill me. I didn’t think at all, it was my last chance of survival. I just took the bat and tried to fight back, it was self-defense, Clara!” I cry the more, looking more pitiful.
Clara stares at me strangely, my heart hammering loudly in my chest.
“We should call the police.” She sniffs, “he was attacking you. You wouldn’t go to jail, we will be alright, you can come live with me for a few days till the New York PD clears the investigation.” She keeps shaking her head, piecing up new possibilities.
What? Is she out of her fucking mind?
“We can’t call the police.” I say in frustration, almost keeping myself from yelling. Calling the police means jail, and who wants to go to jail? This clearly isn’t working; I shouldn’t have even called her.
She is of no use, there’s a low chance that she will rat me out to the police, because I am not fucking calling them.
“We can’t just leave...his body like that.” Clara’s tears dribble on the carpet, and I grow angry. Why is she leaving evidence behind? Shit, I am going to need a ton of bleach to make it look like nothing happened.
“Clara, I need you to calm down.” Seething my teeth, I grab her quaking shoulders, forcing her to look at me, her chest is heaving, her breaths coming out in slow gasps. “I will handle this. I just need you to go home, have a clean bath and go to bed.”
She’s nodding her head furiously, “You will call the police, right?”
She looks so vulnerable and scared, I feel pity for her.
“Yes, yes. I will.” My voice turns firm, “however, when the police come, I was with you all night, okay?”
“You were with me.” She says and I nod my head. Good girl.
“Now go.” I push her towards the direction of the door, I trust Clara much, even if the police comes looking for Kevin, she will cover up for me, after all my husband is a sick deranged bastard who abuses his pregnant wife, which reminds me, I have to fake my miscarriage between next week.
“Stay safe!” I literally shove her outside the door, slamming the door in her face. Breathing in, I calm myself down, for some unknown reason, I don’t feel scared.
I feel....free, light-weighted. I dial a number and bring it close to my ear, Theo picks up immediately.
“Hey baby, did you change your mind?” He asks, his voice slurring, I can’t tell whether he has had a glass of wine or not, but I know him too well, he has a high alcohol tolerance.
Calmly, I say. “I killed my husband; I hit him with a bat. I need you.”
There’s silence on the other end, and a shiver runs up my spine. “Theo, you there?”
“Good girl, baby.” He says, his voice thick. “What do you want to do with his body?”
“I want us to get rid of it, quietly.” I say.
“Alright, don’t leave any splatter of blood anywhere; get rid of your fingerprints on the bat. I will bring bleach to wash the blood, wait for me. I am on my way.” The line goes dead and a ghostly smile appears on my face. Why is everything just so easy?
\--
Clara:
I am drenched with rain water, shivering in the bus stop. When Anna called, I hadn’t even thought of driving. My mind was so distraught I had to call an Uber, but now I feel so...numb.
Kevin’s dead, and Anna. She killed him with a bat because he was deranged, I still find it hard to wrap my head around the whole possibility, Kevin abuses her? There’s something weird though, I have known Anna for all my life, her eyelid twitches when she’s not telling the truth.
And, when she was telling me about Kevin, I could have sworn I saw her left eyelid twitch, I shiver, cold biting at my skin. How in the hell am I going to get home? I can’t even call an Uber: My phone is dead.
The sky is hazy and no car has zoomed past me, tears build up behind my eyes and I bite them back. What in the hell is wrong with me?
As the rain blurs my vision, a sleek car pulls up beside me and the tinted window rolls down to reveal Axel, my heart clogs in my throat and I force myself not to look at him.
He breathes in a sigh, hands on the steering wheel. “Get in the car, Clara.” He doesn’t even glance my way.
Without hesitating, I get into the back seat, it feels so cold but smells exactly like him, clean, masculine and oddly comforting, and despite the awkwardness, I feel less...alone.
Axel begins moving. The ride is blurry, with me tracing the rain patterns on the window, my mind keeps pulling back to Axel, the guy that Clara used to bully is now the one driving me through the rain to God knows where.
We pull up into a tall building and Axel opens the door for me and I feel my body growing warm. He still pulls out the door for me despite everything.
“Hello, sir.” The doorman greets us at the door. A Hispanic middle aged man with a bright smile.
“Hello, Roberto. Did you get the brownies I sent you yesterday?” Axel taps his shoulders warmly.
“Yes, sir.” His voice is laced with a Spanish accent and the corner of his eyes crinkles, “my daughter really enjoyed it. Thank you so much.”
Axel nods his head, before gesturing at me to follow him. We step into the elevator, my body suddenly growing warm at his close proximity.
“So...You give boxes of brownies to your doorman?” I don’t mean to sound accusatory, but he’s basically a billionaire now, why should he hand out brownies to a doorman?
“He lost his wife last month; the least I can do is bake him brownies and take his little girl out every Sunday. A lot of people are going through difficult times, the least we can do for them is just to show up.”
Sadness overtakes me; it’s very hard to imagine the smiling man downstairs with only a little daughter, striving to survive.
The elevator rings and Axel invites me into his house. I marvel once we step inside, the elegant lighting, the polished marble and the expensive down to earth furniture. It’s so hard to imagine the man who dresses and acts so casually is the man who lives in this kind of luxury.
I am still processing everything when Axel asks, “Cocoa or tea?”
I reply immediately. “Cocoa.” My voice is shaky. I watch as Axel disappears to the kitchen, I catch a sight of something moving under the table, I hear a lazy purr and a cat strolls out, staring at me with its sharp golden eyes, looking bored as hell.
“Hi?” I say gently, not sure how to react around the cat. Axel returns with two steaming mugs of Cocoa, and blankets.
“That’s Mr. Whiskers.” He beams with a smile, “He’s really friendly, he just has to get used to you.” His voice lightens up as he talks about his cat, he must really like his cat, he literally wears a shirt with his cat’s face on it when he was still working for me.
Whiskers eye me curiously; I reach out to brush its fur but the cat inches away from me, strolling out of the room. I sigh, well that’s a no for pets. Stepping closer, Axel wraps the blanket around my shoulders, his fingers accidentally brushing against my bare skin.
A tingle rushes up my spine and our eyes lock. His gaze, steady, almost intense and for a moment, I seem to forget about everything: Dead Kevin, Anna who has been abused but has been so scared to tell anyone.
“You’re soaked.” Axel breaks the silence and I snap out of whatever trance I am in, forcing myself not to cry. What does he think of me? Someone pathetic who needed shelter from the rain? Do I matter in his eyes? Am I someone he’s supposed to be spending time with?
“You can’t go home right now, you can sleep in the guest room and maybe, I can drive you home tomorrow?” Axel looks at me. “It’s down by the hall upstairs, goodnight. Clara.” As he turns to leave, I feel the need to call him back.
“I am sorry,” I blurt out without thinking, causing him to halt in his steps. His shoulders stiffen and I bite down on my lips. “I am sorry for rejecting you, Axel.”
He snaps his gaze towards me, his eyes, always so impossible to read now, blazes with some sort of unknown anger, his jaw clenches as he stares hard on me.
“Why?” He snaps, his voice laced with bitterness. Just knowing that I caused his bitterness makes tears welling behind my eyes. “Why are you apologizing now, Clara? Because I am a billionaire, you think I am worthy of your apology?”
“No, I swear. That’s not it.” My chest tightens, he crosses the distance between us, searching my eyes, while folding his hands.
“Go on then. Tell me why you decided to do that to me, Clara.” He waits patiently for my answer as I shrink back.
“I-I.” I hate myself for how weak and squeamish my voice sounds, suddenly it feels like I am seventeen again. The memories of a hurt Axel standing in front of my locker punching me in the guts.
“After that day, you made my life miserable. You know how many times Anna disgraced me in class, at lunch. You made me wanted to fucking disappear, I waited for graduation to be over so I could never see you again. Was it bad? Was having a crush on you meant I had to sacrifice my peace of mind in the process?”
His words crush down on me as my chest constricts the more.
“Do you know the funniest thing? You never apologized. I wasn’t expecting you to anyways, in everyone’s eyes, I was the student on scholarship, the one that no one gave a damn about. Do you want to know why I came to work for you? Because I thought that maybe after all these years, somehow you and Anna would have changed, but no. You are exactly the way you are.”
Why can’t I open my mouth and say something? It feels rigid just standing there, with tears misting behind my eyes.
Axel sighs, before turning. “Good night.” He walks out of the room, leaving me alone.
I keep in my tears as I go to the bedroom, crying into the pillow.
\--
The next morning, when I wake up. I feel as though I am going to be sick, my body pounds with a light headache and my limbs feel tired, sitting upright, everything that happened yesterday rushes to me. Kevin’s dead. Anna killed him. Has she called the police yet?
Thankfully, I plugged in my phone last night, reaching out towards the bedside table; I grab it and begin scrolling. Instagram informs me that Anna has posted, I furrow my brows, she posted on Instagram even after everything that happened?
With trembling hands, I check out the post: It’s of Anna leaning behind her window, holding a steaming mug of coffee. Underneath it is ‘First day waking up without hubby! However, it’s for the best, Kevin has gone to alcohol addiction rehab for a year, he’s away from social media, so no one tries to text him. a year feels too long, I will miss you, hubby!
My stomach tightens, my phone shaking in my hands. What in the hell is going on? Kevin, rehab? For a fucking year?
But, he’s dead. Why’s she pretending that he has gone to rehab? Didn’t she call the police at all?
I hurriedly move to our chat box and send her a text.
Me: Hey, Good morning, An. Was wondering what your post was about? Why are you lying to everyone?
The three dots appear immediately.
Anna: Don’t tell anyone about this, Clara. You are the only one that knows my secret, so please help me keep it. If anyone asks you how Kevin is, you say he’s in rehab. Got it? That’s what friends do; they keep each other secrets, right?
I begin typing.
Me: Yes, they keep each other secrets.