To the Stars (Thatch #2)(69)
WHEN WE GOT home hours later, I understood just how much planning had gone into that punishment—and in only a matter of hours that morning. Once my parents had arrived at the hospital, we’d only been able to stay for another twenty minutes before Collin had told them about his parents’ anniversary dinner, which we “weren’t allowed to miss.” But only after swearing we would be back, and promising he would get Hadley moved to a suite in the hospital. Just enough time for my parents to see that I was alive and mostly well, and well loved and spoiled by my husband, and to remember why Collin was their favorite.
But not long enough for them to notice my hatred toward him, why I would tense whenever he went near Hadley, or why he would give me a look that promised so many horrible things when I left his side for more than a second. And of course, with everyone so focused on Hadley, no one noticed my shaking, my too-thin body, or the red mark on my cheek I hadn’t attempted to cover.
Hadley had had a nearly lethal dose of PCP in her system when she’d driven her car into the side of a house. In her state, she’d climbed out of the car—even with a broken arm—and had fought police officers when they’d attempted to restrain her. Police officers who had just happened to be following her.
She was heavily sedated and handcuffed to the hospital bed with those same officers stationed outside her room when we’d arrived. But then Collin had saved the day when he announced he’d make sure all the charges against her were dropped, and would take care of the damage costs. Of course, he’d waited to do all this when my parents had shown.
In their hysterical state, my parents had only been thankful for my husband and what he was doing. While I was thankful this wouldn’t go on Hadley’s record, I couldn’t stop from studying the officers as they’d taken the cuffs off my sister, and then left. Because there was no way something like that could just go away the way Collin had made it—especially with this new chief Collin hated so much—I knew they were receiving money from my husband. Just as the officer who had arrested me had.
“Get ready,” Collin said without a glance in my direction as he took off for the bedroom.
I waited until he was in there before going into the guest room to check the closet. I’d known—well, hoped—Knox would know to leave when we did, but was still disappointed when I found the closet empty and bed made. The windows in there were still closed and locked, and the front door had been locked when we’d come home, so I wasn’t sure how he’d left, and knew I didn’t have time to go around trying to find out.
I walked into the bedroom just as Collin came out of the closet—already in a different dress shirt with a tie in his hand. His face showed that he’d been wondering where I was.
“I told you to get ready,” he growled.
“How did Hadley have PCP in her system?” I asked shakily. I knew I shouldn’t, I knew I wasn’t supposed to question him, but he could’ve killed her.
Collin’s eyes narrowed. “Ask her yourself when she’s back to normal. It’s probably from all those clubs she goes—”
“She doesn’t go to clubs. What did you do, Collin?” I whispered, pain for my sister evident in my voice. “It was salt. I threw up because I’d been so scared and unable to breathe while trying to eat the eggs, that my stomach kept churning until they came back up. I would never poison you, and you almost killed Had—”
“Don’t finish that assumption,” he warned.
“Where did you even see her? Why can’t you just leave my family out of this?” I knew what I was about to say could have the opposite reaction I was going for, but I had to try. “If I wasn’t always so afraid of you hurting them, I probably wouldn’t mess up so often!”
His lips twitched, and he turned to look into a mirror so he could knot his tie. “Don’t act like this was anyone’s fault other than your own. It was just a coincidence that I decided to have lunch at the same place Hadley was at with a friend. We talked for a few minutes when her friend went to the bathroom, and I made sure Hadley had . . .” His hands stopped fidgeting with his tie, and his eyes found mine in the mirror. “. . . salt.”
I inhaled audibly and my head started shaking, like I could make the words go away. I’d known, but hearing his pseudo-admission still shocked me. I don’t know why—nothing should have shocked me about Collin anymore. “I hate you.”
A few things happened at the exact moment I realized I’d said those words out loud instead of just thinking them. I stopped breathing, Collin froze and his lifeless eyes turned murderous, and I knew—I knew—I’d made a mistake. Not just in finally saying those fated three words, but with Knox. In not letting him take me away . . . in not trying to get away from Collin.
I knew right then that if I had my whole life to do over again, I would’ve waited for Knox. That if I only had the past two and a half years to do over again, I would’ve fought harder to get away from Collin until I’d succeeded. That if I only had the past two weeks to do over again, I would’ve begged Knox to help me get away from Collin, and would’ve spent my life running from my monster, as long as I got to spend it with the man who had always held my heart.
Funny the things you realize, the things you wish you’d done differently, and the things you just wish you’d done when you know your life is about to end. And I had no doubt my life was minutes from being over.