She looks up at me now, and she bursts into tears.
“I’m so sorry,” she sobs. “I’m so sorry. I... Jude...he fooled me. I got sucked in, and I can’t believe I fell for it, and I’m so awful. I’m terrible.”
“Why have you done this?” I demand, ignoring everything else she said. “I never did anything to you. What happened wasn’t my fault. Why have you done this?”
She’s silent and then whimpers.
“He...kept saying he wanted to leave you and wanted to have a baby with me, and I thought he was using protection, but he wasn’t. And God, Corinne, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say.”
“That’s a lie,” Jude snaps, and I hold up my hand.
“He never slept with you,” I tell her, and the mere words stab my heart.
“Is that what he told you?”
“Yes. And I believe him.”
“He’s lying. I want to apologize. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen,” she protests. “He said he was tired of waiting for you to have a family. I had no idea that he was going to go this far. You don’t know what he’s really like, Corinne.”
“Fuck you,” I tell her, because I’ve been married to him for fifteen years. “You don’t know anything.”
That’s when her expression changes, and her eyes narrow and they turn stormy and dark, and she spits her next words.
“That’s where you’re wrong. I know everything. I know everything about you, and what you did, and what you deserve.”
I’m stunned and quiet, and she laughs in my face.
“Did you really think I liked you all of these months? It was all I could do to pretend. You’re such a pathetic person, Corinne. God, I could barely stand being around you. Do you want to know something?”
I’m silent and she stares at me, studying me.
“I loved hurting your dog. Why? Because I knew everyone would think you did it. How did that feel, Corinne? Did it feel like shit? Because that’s only a small taste of what you deserve.”
She’s maniacal, and I can’t imagine why the men in the room haven’t rushed to subdue her, until I see the answer for myself.
A flash of silver in her hand, and I see it only as she grabs for me, and then I feel the cold metal against my throat.
It happens so fast, and I had no idea she was so strong.
“Don’t,” she tells Jude as he reaches out for me, “move.”
He looks from her to me, and he’s as helpless as I am, because one small move on my part, and the knife will be buried in my throat. I’ll bleed to death and no one can help me.
“Don’t hurt her,” Jude says cautiously, his hands in the air. “Put the knife down, Zoe. I’m the one you’re mad at. Not her.”
Zoe laughs and her teeth glint, and she’s insane.
“You silly boy. Don’t flatter yourself. This has never been about you. It’s been her all along.”
56
Jude
There’s nothing I can do as Zoe pushes past me, a knife held at my wife’s throat. I outweigh her by a hundred pounds, but if I misjudge a single thing, Corinne would be dead in an instant. I can’t risk it.
I can’t risk it. I fight to stay calm, and I have to force myself to let them go. Corinne looks over her shoulder at me as they disappear down the hall, and the look in her eyes is haunting and raw, and, Jesus, I have to do something.
Dr. Phillips is already calling the police, and I chase behind the two women, sprinting through the hall and emerging into the parking lot just in time to see them get into Zoe’s car.
I get into my own truck, and the engine roars to life. I stay close on Zoe’s tail. The rain falls so hard that I can barely see her lights, even at a close distance.
It all feels surreal as I drive, as I watch their heads in the car in front of me. It feels like a dream or a nightmare. Not something that is truly happening. My phone rings, and Zoe’s name flashes on the screen.
“What are you doing?” I demand as I pick up. “Don’t hurt my wife.”
“Tell your wife how you wanted to fuck me,” Zoe instructs, her voice icy but a bit hysterical. “Tell her how you always wished she was me.”
“That’s not true,” I tell her slowly. “You know that. You pursued me, Zoe. You pursued me all along.”
“I didn’t force your dick from your pants and into my mouth. I didn’t force you to fuck me.”
I hear Corinne gasp, and I realize that I’m on speakerphone.
“Corinne, don’t listen to her. I’m so so sorry. I didn’t have sex with her. I never wanted her. I got sucked in and...”
Zoe laughs. “Don’t you mean, sucked on?”
I flinch. “It didn’t get that far and you know it.”
Corinne is silent.
“Corinne, she baited me. I swear to God. I wanted to hurt her. I... She blackmailed me, and I...” I don’t know what to say. I can hear Zoe laughing at my helplessness and at Corinne’s pain, and my blood threatens to boil right out of my veins.
Their car swerves sharply, and then Zoe overcorrects, bringing it back too hard over the center line.
“Zoe, pull over,” I implore her. “Please. It’s raining too hard to go this fast.”
The road flashes beneath us, wet and slick. Her tires swerve again and then swerve back. She’s driving like a crazy person.
“Don’t tell me what to do.” And her voice is so spiteful. “You don’t get to anymore.”
“I never did,” I insist. “I never wanted anything from you.”
“I wanted everything from you,” she finally says. “And I’m finally going to get it.”
57
Corinne
Zoe’s mascara is smeared, and her eyes pierce into mine. She has her phone to her ear, and she’s talking to my husband.
“He’s mine.” She turns to me, and her voice is so odd. It’s almost like she’s suspended from reality. “I’m carrying his child, you whore. I’m the one he wants. He doesn’t think so right now, but it’s true. When I touch him, he comes to life. I’m everything he’ll ever need. You’re old, Corinne. You’re old and used up, and he doesn’t want you.”
“Don’t listen to her,” Jude tells me urgently over the speaker. “We never had sex. She’s not pregnant, Corinne. I never wanted her. Not really.”
Pain jabs me in the heart, and our car weaves to and fro in the rain.
“You’re lying, Jude,” Zoe interrupts. “You did want me. Remember all of those texts you sent me? How you sent me your pictures and wanted me to see you naked? You did want me. You wanted to be inside of me. Admit it.”
“You pulled all the strings, Zoe,” Jude says, and his voice is so strange. Like he’s not the person I knew, and I guess he never was. “You pulled my strings, you played Corinne. You pulled off whatever you were trying to do. And you’re a crazy bitch.”
“Oh, I haven’t finished yet,” Zoe says, and her voice makes a chill run down my spine, and it freezes the blood in my veins.
“What do you still want to do?” I ask her, and my voice is too quiet. It’s hard to hear in the rain. “Slow down,” I speak louder, more firmly.
For a minute, I see her as the little girl she used to be, with the long pigtails, the one who always wanted to have tea parties with me and asked me to braid her doll’s hair. I almost almost almost soften. But then her eyes glint in the moonlight, and it’s clear how crazy she’s become.
She’s a monster now, and I have no idea how much I am to blame for that.
I’m living in a cage of lies, and that’s all I can see in front of me.
“She’s crazy,” Jude tells me. “She’s crazy, Corinne. She put the abortion pill in your soup.”
My head snaps back and I stare at her, and she laughs, a grotesque sound that ricochets through the car.
“What?” she demands. “You’re surprised? I’m going to take everything from you, Corinne. Just like you took from me.”
In the background, from somewhere, I can hear sirens. But all I can focus on is Zoe and what she’s done, and what she still has planned.
“Zoe, pull over,” I tell her, trying to be firm.
But she laughs again. She knows full well that I can’t make her do anything. I eye the door handle. I could maybe jump out. But we’re going too fast. I’d die. The baby could die.