Page 217 of Lau Ahi
“We can’t all be perfect all the time can we?” I couldn’t wait to carve the mocking smile off her face but I still had questions.
“We can’t. Imagine my surprise when I realized that in their haste to cover up a serial killer, they completely missed that Brandt had a partner. And that it was you.”
Her face completely drained of color and I thought she might pass out. “Asha—”
“Now, now, Margo let’s not insult me again by lying. You know how I feel about people thinking I’m stupid. Today is already going to be the worst of your life. Don’t make me even angrier in the process.” My chiding worked and she immediately tried to regroup.
“Why do you think I have anything to do with that?”
“Your jealousy. The anger. Ori could see it the first time he looked at you. My sister, my friends, they all had you pegged.They could see your bullshit from a mile away but I missed it. But you did this to get my attention. Why?”
She scoffed and rolled her eyes as though I were the problem. “You really are full of yourself aren’t you?”
“No, I’m smart. The same things you did to make me see you are what lets me know all of this is about me. Dumping her where I would’ve been able to see off my balcony. Waiting until I got back from my speaking engagements and working full-time to have him execute the plan. I doubt you factored in them coming to recruit me but it’s funny how that works out. Giving homage to Brandt so I would be triggered as I tried to help. You tried to mind-fuck me and ended up exposing yourself. Why?” This was the only reason I was here. Why I hadn’t pounced on her or put a bullet in her head yet. I needed to know what the reason for all of this was.
“He liked you. Well, the you he thought you were. I could see why he wanted to keep you so much longer than the others. You know I wasn’t special enough for him to want me the way he wanted all of you. I wasn’t as lucky.” Margo had the nerve to look teary-eyed as she was telling me a cannibal liked me. I knew better than anyone how the mind could fracture but this seemed extremely stupid.
Is this the Caucasian people's version of low-vibrational behavior?
“Lucky? You call being drugged and kidnapped special? Beaten and starved? Pretending to be happy to be dressed up like we were all one big happy family? You’re just as sick as he is if you believe that.”
“I’ve been ignored the majority of my life. My parents were happy to throw money at me and not time. When I went to London I felt alive. I met Brandt and he gave me the attention I craved. But once again, I wasn’t enough. Not even for him. I hadto travel back home but he was still communicating with me and telling me all he was doing. How it would be when I got back.”
“And so you went back.”
“Yes. I was happy to belong somewhere. Even if it were with him. But he still wanted other women.” She wiped a tear from her eye as if someone should’ve felt sorry for her.
“So you joined in.”
Her smile was one of pure joy and I was going to vomit. “It made him happy. For us all to be together. He would always get tired of them at some point but he had the idea of keeping you.”
“And you were jealous.”
“I didn’t mind sharing him for a while but having the idea that you were going to be a permanent fixture, like I was going to possibly be pushed aside was going too far!” She was pouting, swiping at her face truly hurt at having to share a madman with his unwilling victims was the greatest pain she’d ever endured.
“So instead you tried to kill me.” The realization hit me all at once. The way he’d argued with himself that night and I thought he was having a mental break. But he was berating her for what she’d done. The way she’d behaved with me. The times his brutality seemed to be increasingly harsh. It had all been her. Because she was jealous of the attention that a madman had given me. She was truly insane.
“You shouldn’t have been there trying to take my spot.” She had crazy eyes, wide and devoid of humanity, as she looked at me as though her words made perfect sense.
“If you were that crazy for him you should’ve let me go! Tried to help me get away. Not punished me for the attentions of a madman.” I studied her face not trying to reason with her but still wondering if she would acknowledge how twisted her thinking was.
“You were liking it! I could see it in how your body changed. He would make me leave the room when he wanted to have timewith you. But I would watch. Watch the way your eyes would change when you could finally see. You were softening to him. And he thought that you could fix him when I couldn’t. I bet you enjoyed trying to get him hard. You didn’t put up much of a fight.”
I could only stare at this woman as she ranted. “Is that what you think? That being assaulted was fun? Is that how he twisted your mind? To tell you that we were the ones who could fix him for you? But you were angry when you didn’t get to be the one to magically make him whole? Jealousy is a terrible thing, even for you, Margo.”
She jumped up from her seat and I stiffened ready to have a fourth battle for my life. It was almost funny the way people kept trying to kill me but as before she would fail.
“You didn’t have to kill him, Asha!”
“It was him or me and as you can see I’m the one still standing.” I had no qualms about being arrogant in this moment. The desire to end her life was one that wouldn’t go away. My mind was fracturing, split between the present and remembering the past. Reliving every instant that she’d tortured me because of her own disgusting jealousy. The scars on my thighs my husband had so gently kissed away were from her. Careful not to nick the femoral artery but deep enough to scar.To remind.To be the shadow of a memory that thrust my own personal hell to the forefront whenever I saw them. That was a mind fuck.
“You think you’re so special. First Richard and now that agent. What’s so special about you that has men constantly fawning all over you?”
I shrugged delicately knowing it would piss her off. “Just lucky, I guess.”
“Luck. That’s such bullshit. Women like you and your sister all think that the world is for you because you’re beautiful. Thatyou can have anything you want because men desire you and will do whatever you need to just because of how you look.” She flung her hand toward me dramatically as she paced in front of her chair.
“Who thinks that? After all this time of knowing me, you truly believe that’s how I see the world? That I’m some type of siren that is luring men to me?”
