If she took them off, she would only risk cutting her feet.
She would take her chances on her feet. They would heal.
It was now or never.
Without a second thought, she flew down the stairs, as quietly and quickly as possible.
She stopped when she reached the bottom of the steps.
Holding her breath, she inched her way around the wall.
Only half of the living room was visible from where she stood.
Lowering herself onto her belly, she eased her way across the main living area, behind the leather chairs facing the pool.
One inch at a time. Move. Stop. Listen.
Move. Stop. Listen.
She was almost there.
Move. Stop. Listen.
She didn’t hear him.
She eased her way across the threshold into the kitchen.
Her hands met slivers of glass.
Blood trickled from her palm to her wrist.
The phone was on the countertop.
Only a few feet away.
What was that?
She heard him.
Closer.
She smelled him.
Oh. My. God!
“You thought I was dead, didn’t you, Tessa?”
Was she dreaming?
Yes.
“Didn’t you?” He shoved her face into the glass.
He pushed harder. She felt the glass slice into her skin.
But you didn’t feel pain in dreams.
Or did you?
This was not a dream.
“Answer me, Tessa.”
This was real.
The voice. The smell. The positioning of those black boots.
“Joel?”
Wrapping his fist around her hair, he jerked her head back so far, she thought surely her neck would break.
Cold, hard steel touched her neck.
“Please, don’t do this.”
“You bitch! You ruined my life! Get up!”
Tessa pushed herself into an upright position as soon as he released her. She leaned against the bottom cabinets, using them to steady herself as she tried to stand. Her legs felt like Jell-O. She tried to think. Think. Think!
Joel is alive. Here in the kitchen. Their kitchen.
The telephone rang.
“Answer it, and you’re dead.”
She nodded.
The phone continued to ring. Was the answering machine on? Did she even have an answering machine?
The ringing stopped.
She must reason with him. “Joel . . .” Her voice didn’t sound like her own. Fear stole her breath, her voice. Fear took her daughters’ lives.
Shaking as if the temperature were more like the North-east at Christmastime and not Florida, she tried to speak in as normal a voice as she could muster. “Joel, listen to me. Please. I don’t understand anything. Please. Tell me what you want.” There. Now I sound more like myself.
“You were planning on leaving me. Just like Jack did. He didn’t want to be around me. All he wanted to do was play with Mommy. All the time. He was mine. She said she was going to send me away. You’re just like her, you know that?”
Tessa focused on the man she had once loved. He had aged badly—his hair was thinning, and his green eyes glinted with pure evil. His skin looked like old leather. The sun. Wherever he’d been, he had lived in the sun.
“Like who? Who am I just like? And who is Jack? What are you talking about?” she dared to ask, almost sure that she already knew the answer. Understanding, finally, why the body in the pool had seemed strange. Understanding why Joel was so upset when he found out that they were going to have twins. Understanding why he never spoke of his mother and had never told her his mother’s name.
“Mommy. Jack’s very best friend. Lois. The whore.”
Dear Lord, he was totally mad!
I have to keep him talking. Surely, Sam will be here soon.
“I never met your mother, remember?” she said, hoping he would focus on what he was telling her and not on what she was doing. The drawer where Sam put the knives was just within reach.
“You’re just like her. Stupid whore.”
She moved her hand slowly so as not to draw attention to her movements. An inch at a time, she traced the edges of the drawers, feeling for the knob.
“You think you’re home free now, don’t you?”
She shuddered at his words. “I don’t understand.”
“I watch the news, Tessa, or did you forget that little detail?
Back and forth, his personality veered between childlike petulance one minute and insane, evil Joel the next.
“Yes, I remember now.”
“When I learned you might have a chance at freedom, well, I couldn’t allow you to one-up me, could I?”
He really is batshit crazy! Completely off his rocker.
“Just kill me then. Get it over with.” Her voice was stronger, louder. Maybe she should scream for help. It would be a good time for one of those nosy reporters to do their job. Spy. Sneak. Search.
He laughed.
“Tessa, I have a question for you. If you give me the correct answer, you will add five minutes to your life. Yes, let’s play a game. I always enjoyed playing games. This game is the game of life. You always liked to play games. You played games with them. You always stopped when I came home. Remember? You didn’t let me play.”
For God’s sake, the extent of his insanity was off the charts. She couldn’t even begin to understand the deranged psychopathic man he had become. No, cancel that thought. The sick son of a bitch he had always been. How, she asked herself, could I have lived with him for eleven-plus years and not known how sick and evil he was?
“The game. Let’s play. I’m going to ask you a question, and if you answer correctly, you win. And your prize—there has to be a prize for the winner—is that five minutes will be added to your life.” Once again, his voice was the singsong voice of a child.
“Ask me the question, Joel. Let’s play your game of life.”
“Number one. I like to play this way. It’s like school. Okay, here is the first part of the first question: What is sodium hydroxide?”
His voice no longer sounded the same as before. The singsong quality was gone, though it was still the voice of a child. It was as if a different child had taken the place of the other one.
Multiple personality disorder?
“Tick tock, tick tock. Better hurry, Tessa, time to answer is running out.”
“I forgot the question.”
“Stupid bitch.
