My Darling Husband(89)

I shove my aching body to a stand, wincing at the sharp stab in my shoulder. Beatrix’s bullet ripped through muscles and tendons, I can tell, maybe nipped at a bone, but at least it missed my heart, and it shot all the way through. I know from the heavy wetness on the back of my shirt, the red smear I leave on the wall. The drips that fall from my elbow to the fancy carpet as I limp to the side table and my phone.

The screen is lit up with a million messages—no surprise there. Tanya and my sister, Hannah, blowing up my phone, the back-to-back calls and messages practically vibrating it off the table where I dumped it next to the gun. I ignore their messages and fire off a text to Hannah.

Send the link to tonight’s video to Juanita Moore, her card is on the fridge. Do it now, quick, before the cops arrive. People are either going to hate me for what I did, or they’ll understand. I’m counting on you to make sure enough fall in the second category to help Gigi. Love on her for me, sis. Take care of my baby girl. I love you.
I turn the phone off and toss it to the floor.

Dethroning Atlanta’s Steak King. I can’t deny it is sweet, sweet revenge. With any luck the whole world will see how their favorite celebrity chef screwed a poor, single father out of the money he needed for his dying daughter. Now everybody will know that’s the kind of person Cam is, a man who values money and power above all else. Talk about going out in a blaze of glory.

It’s funny. When Tanya called to say that none other than Cam Lasky had moved in across the street, I couldn’t believe my stupid luck. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, isn’t that what they say? I told her to play dumb. I told her to ingratiate herself with his pretty wife, to make herself necessary in their lives, to keep her mouth closed while my brain stitched together this plan.

The other big surprise? That Cam was strapped for cash. He didn’t tell me that part when he pulled out of our deal, just that he had “other business matters that needed his full attention.” I didn’t find out he was dead broke until I sued him for damages, for funds his attorneys told mine he didn’t have. By then my money was long gone, cash I’d set aside for Gigi’s care but Cam assured me was a safe investment in him.

I turn to the dummy speaker, step right up to it and smile.

“This isn’t the way I wanted today to end, baby girl, I want you to know that. Maybe one day, after you get your lungs and a baby boy or girl of your own, you’ll find some understanding in that big heart of yours. But before you do any of that, take a little peek under the bread in the freezer, will you? I love you, Gigi. So much. Never forget that.”

I blow a kiss at the camera and turn away.

I didn’t come all this way without a backup plan, and a backup to the backup to the backup. Like I’m always telling Gigi, she’s getting those lungs if it’s the last thing I do. It’s time to pull the parachute cord.

I figured if anybody could pull together the ransom money, it would be Cam. Even deep in debt, that man knows every martini-swilling, tweed-wearing, steak-overpaying asshole in town. Surely he could sweet-talk some of them into loaning him some cash.

And who knows? Maybe he did, and maybe he didn’t. I won’t believe it until I see that promised bag of cash, until I can count out the bills.

Jade was a surprise, though—not the money-loving Buckhead Betty I originally thought. The way she kept throwing herself in front of her kids. That move downstairs with the screwdriver, how she was constantly risking her life in order to save theirs. That kind of love is a beautiful, beautiful thing.

I think of my Gigi at home, coughing up mucus into a cup. No more pain. No more money problems. No more constant worry about her fate.

Heavy boots clomp on the stairs, and I press myself to the wall, pulling out the switchblade in my pocket, flicking it open and holding it high in my good fist. The blade reflects a glint of white ceiling light that blinds me to everything else. The pain in my shoulder as I lunge for the cluster of cops filing through the door, the shouted warnings right before the blade sinks into someone’s skin, shots ringing out like a string of firecrackers. Everything but my baby’s sweet smile.

“Hi, Daddy,” she says as she reaches for my hand.

My freedom for Gigi’s lungs. My life for hers. I’m more than willing to make the trade.



T H E   I N T E R V I E W


Juanita: The nanny cam footage went viral the second it hit the internet.

Cam: Yeah, for all their tough talk about cracking down on violent content, the social media platforms sure do a bang-up job, don’t they?

Juanita: Most people would agree they failed pretty spectacularly. One tweet led to a couple dozen, which led to hundreds more, crossing over onto Facebook and Instagram and YouTube. Sebastian and his two accomplices, his sister, Hannah, and your neighbor Tanya Lloyd, certainly didn’t anticipate things taking off that fast. The police traced the feed to your home. They got there in the nick of time.

Cam: Well, that’s debatable. Jade and Beatrix were already downstairs when they busted through the door. They’d already gotten away from Sebastian, but the police killed him anyway.

Juanita: Because he attacked one of the officers with a knife. She was in the ICU for days. She almost died.

Cam: Yes, but why couldn’t they have just tackled Sebastian to the ground? Did they have to kill him?

Juanita: Yes, because again, he attacked an officer of the law.