“She’s pretty.”
My heartbeat stutters in warning. “What did you just say?” I hiss out.
“Your girlfriend is pretty. Is she your girlfriend, Danny, or a girl you’re fucking to forget me?”
“Zoe.” My mind slips into darkness as I say her name. “Stay the hell away from her.”
She laughs cruelly. That wicked cackle instantly provokes my anger. I want to rip out my heart for caring about Viv so much. She doesn’t deserve this shit.
“Don’t worry, she hasn’t met me yet. Have you told her about Jeff?” I bang on Viv’s door, thumping with a tight fist. “Do you think she’s the type of woman who’ll understand? Is that little cutie mature enough to accept her boyfriend fucked his best friend’s woman, after he killed the guy in a fit of jealousy?”
“You bitch,” I snarl. “That’s not how it was. I didn’t give a fuck about you when he was alive, and I sure as fuck don’t care about you now, Zoe.”
“Why should you have all the happiness?”
I exhale down my nose, clenching my jaw. “You’re so messed up. I watched you play with Jeff’s head for months,” I bite out. “It was all a sick fucking game to you. And guess what, I only fucked you out of pity, or regret, or because I was dying under the guilt.” I fist the door again, inwardly begging Viv to let me inside. “If you step one foot anywhere near her, I’ll—”
“Kill me?” Zoe interrupts with a callous growl.
I grit my teeth at her flippant suggestion.Bitch.“I’ll cut you off forever. No more funding your vacations in rehabilitation resorts. I’m done with you, Zoe. We both need to move on from this nightmare.”
“I can’t,” she whimpers. “I don’t know who I am outside of all of this.”
I believe through all the torment, she surrendered herself to grief, ultimately stoking an already apparent drug addiction. I’ve done my best to right the wrongs, and now I have to let go. In hindsight, there’s nothing I can do to reverse the outcome. Jeff died fighting to save a toxic relationship. I let him down. I tried to do the right thing and killed him instead.
Back then I didn’t understand his irrational drunken rage. Tonight, with Zoe taunting me—I get it.
“Zoe, try fending for yourself. You've got a nerve to imply Viv is immature, when you can’t go a day without using your past as an excuse to get fucked up.” I suck in a breath and roll my shoulders. “Goodnight.”
Ending the call, I return my phone to my pocket and take a few steps backwards, gazing up to Viv’s bedroom window.
Lamplight glows in a fiery strip where her curtains almost meet in the middle. It’s after midnight, closer to one, but definitely not too late to knock on her door. This is our thing. She slips into my apartment and waits for my return in the early hours. And now I’m here, loitering on her unlit porch with no access.
I call her cell and then revert to knocking when she doesn’t pick up. Moments later a lock turns and the door jerks open, stopping with a three-inch gap. Dim light slices the shadows. Viv peers out from behind the door. “It’s late. I have to be at work early. There’s no point staying.” Her gaze burns through my shoulder.
“Viv, is something wrong?” I ask, carefully guarded, all too aware that my pulse is seething and my temper is on a tight leash. A shadow covers her face, making the whites of her eyes glitter. “Are you crying?”
I’m a selfish bastard. My woman lost a friend only days ago, and I’ve been too wrapped up in my own historical grief to truly acknowledge hers.
“Go home, Danny.” The edge of her voice shatters like icicles when she says my name.
“Let me be here for you. I’m sorry, Viv. I know you loved Wini—”
“Wini?” She sucks in a sob, and my heart withers. “This isn’t about her.”
My spine stiffens. “Then why are you upset? Why did you take the spare key away from under the pot?”
Viv clears her throat. From the inside, she slots a postcard through the gap. “This. You. Secrets,” she says with a shaky breath.
I grab the picture and hold it out to the moonlight. It’s an old photograph of Zoe and me, taken a year after the accident when my mind belonged to the devil. With Zoe's words so fresh in my thoughts and Viv barricaded behind a door, I zone out.
She’s knows.
She’s afraid of me.
She’s second-guessing her feelings.
Zoe has poisoned her with lies. I bet she twisted the truth. Manipulated the past. And gave Viv a hundred reasons to hate me.
