Chapter 12 - The Knock in the Dead of Night
The clock on the microwave blinked midnight,
marking exactly three weeks since the night I had discovered Caleb and Tessa on the living room couch.
I had not slept,
my body wired with a chaotic,
exhausting mixture of adrenaline,
and fear.
The police officers had promised to keep an eye on the building,
but the knowledge that Caleb was roaming the city,
unhinged,
and furious,
made it impossible to close my eyes.
Suddenly,
a loud,
aggressive pounding echoed through the silent apartment,
the sound originating from my front door.
My breath caught in my throat,
and I instinctively took a step backward,
my hands flying up to cover my mouth.
"Claire!"
a voice screamed from the hallway,
the sound muffled,
but unmistakably saturated with panic.
It was not Caleb.
It was high-pitched,
hysterical,
and completely broken.
It was Tessa.
I cautiously walked toward the door,
peering through the small glass peephole,
and gasped at the sight waiting on the other side.
Tessa was completely soaked from the rain,
her hair plastered to her skull,
her clothes hanging off her frail frame in wet,
heavy clumps.
She was shivering violently,
clutching her arms around her chest,
and her face was streaked with dark,
smudged mascara.
"Please open the door,
Claire,"
she begged,
pressing her forehead against the thick wood,
her voice dropping into a pathetic,
desperate whine.
I unlocked the deadbolt,
but kept the security chain firmly in place,
opening the door just a few inches to look at the woman who had destroyed my life.
"What are you doing here,
Tessa?"
I asked,
my voice completely devoid of warmth,
or sympathy.
"Mark locked me out,"
she sobbed,
her teeth chattering loudly,
her eyes wide,
and manic.
"He changed the locks,
he took the kids to his mother's house,
and he served me with papers."
"And why is that my problem?"
I asked,
staring at her coldly,
feeling absolutely nothing for the shivering wreck standing in my hallway.
"Because Caleb won't answer my calls!"
she shrieked,
her voice echoing loudly,
bouncing off the concrete walls of the apartment building.
"He promised me he would take care of me,
he promised we would go to the condo downtown,
but the security guard told me the locks were changed there too!"
I stared at her,
realizing that Caleb's carefully constructed empire was collapsing,
and it was crushing his mistress in the rubble.
True North Holdings was frozen,
locked down by Maya's aggressive legal maneuvers,
meaning Caleb couldn't access his secret love nest,
and Tessa was completely homeless.
"He lied to you,
Tessa,"
I told her quietly,
delivering the final,
crushing blow to her fragile delusion.
"He has no money,
he has no condo,
and he has absolutely no intention of saving you."
She stared at me,
her mouth opening,
and closing like a suffocating fish,
as the brutal reality of her situation finally pierced through her stubborn denial.
"But he loves me,"
她 whispered,
her voice barely audible over the sound of the rain hitting the hallway window.
"He loved himself,"
I corrected her,
my tone sharp,
and unyielding.
"And you were just a mirror he used to admire his own reflection."
I closed the door,
sliding the deadbolt back into place,
and ignored her desperate,
wailing sobs until the building's security guard finally escorted her off the premises.
The game was over,
May you like
and everyone who had played it was finally paying the ultimate,
devastating price.
