Chapter 24

-Jared-

It didn't matter how late it was. There was a light in Vince's office as I parked the car and entered the house. I couldn't say for sure if he was there, and I certainly approached with caution, not quite ready to confront the truth. But it all made so much sense. How else could someone have entered that room? Vince surveilled every inch of this house, inside and out. It could only have been him.

I walked to his office, stopping in front of the door. With a sense of complete exhaustion, I knocked, and his voice echoed from behind it. I opened the door, entered, and closed it behind me. He smiled upon seeing me, though it had been a few days since we last spent time together, as I had been preoccupied.

"Jared, good to see you. What brings you here so late?" he asked.

"I… I need to ask you something, and you must be completely honest with me."

He noticed the seriousness in my expression and gestured for me to sit, but I shook my head and crossed my arms.

"Is there a problem, son?"

"I hope not," I whispered.

"What does that mean?"

"Vince… when… when I was here with Alison, and I was out for delivery, did you… enter my room and release her?" I inquired. Vince didn't even appear shocked. A calm expression rested on his face, revealing everything I needed to know. "You did…"

"I see she finally told you," he remarked, and that's when I realized the mistake I had made tonight.

"I…"

"You've been seeing her. Jared, I'm not blind… At least not in both eyes," he chuckled before stepping away from his desk to pour us both a drink. However, he was spilling everywhere, prompting curses from him. I walked over and took over the task as he went to sit down, allowing me to bring the drinks. I placed them down before taking a seat myself.

"What became of the plan?" he inquired. "Where is the ruin? The destruction?"

I sighed, letting the sound fill the room before finally taking a sip of my drink.

"The plan…" I repeated.

Vince watched me intently, and I could tell he read me easily because his expression finally betrayed an emotion.

"You finally see it, don't you?" he asked.

"Actually, she admitted it."

His eyes widened, almost appearing impressed by Alison.

"She admitted it?" he echoed.

"She did," I confirmed once more.

"Hmm, that woman surprises me more than I thought she would," he confessed.

"Is that why you went to my room?"

"Jared—"

"I told you how I wanted to handle it! Why would you do that?"

"Because after seeing you two together, I realized I was no longer your only weakness," he explained, causing me to fall back in my chair before letting out a small laugh.

"Alison?" I inquired.

"Alison," he confirmed.

"My weakness?"

"Your weakness."

"But that's… I don't… Explain!" I exclaimed.

"I can't."

"What?"

"It's… just how you two are. You know, sometimes people just… attract each other."

"We hate… I hate her!" I corrected.

"Oh, I don't doubt it, but there is also a tiny part of you that relishes having Alison to yourself. Part of it is probably a normal attraction to a beautiful woman, another part is wanting to make things equal between you two, and a third part is this unexplainable thing where the brain simply chooses to fixate on a focus that makes no sense, and Alison is this focus for you because for so many years all you wanted was to hurt her."

"And I have!"

"Yes, you have," he agreed. "But as we have both come to terms with, it's just not enough. You want to be everything she knows and thinks about because the moment she does, the moment she is completely yours, there is finally something stable in your life, something that can never leave you."

I stared at Vince, shocked and unsure how to comment or deny any of this, mostly because I didn't understand.

"I don't want to spend my life with Alison."

"But you do," he said.

"Vince, please, I need you to be less cryptic right now."

"All right," he said, holding up his shaking hand. "Tell me about the people who have remained in your life or at least been a stable force."

"Um…"

Vince raised an eyebrow.

"You," I replied.

He held up his shaking hands. "And now nature is trying to take me away from you."

"But you're still stable!" I exclaimed.

"But I wasn't the first one," he corrected.

"What?"

"Alison was."

"No."

"Yes, she was."

"She was my tormentor!" I exclaimed.

"But she was always there. You could always count on her being there to make your life hell," he pointed out.

"I could say the same thing about my father!"

"No, you couldn't. Some nights he would come, some nights he wouldn't. He kept you in a constant state of fear and horror, but with Alison, things were planned out, constant. Every day you knew she would come for you. She was stable."

"She was being the worst kind of bully!"

"But to a kid who had nothing, no stability, no one they could count on, is it so strange that some weird fascination latched onto her? Even when you were younger, you wanted to hurt her, to pay her back. Alison's hold on you may have begun first, but Jared, you have spent most of your life obsessing over her too," he reminded me.

I slumped down in my chair, absorbing everything Vince was saying. It left my mind empty of words, unsure of what to even say.

"I thought maybe this revenge plan would finally make you let go of it all, but I hadn't taken into account that Alison actually held an affection for you or that you were slowly going to start craving her too," he explained.

I didn't say anything. I just focused on a spot on the desk, feeling completely lost.

"I let her out because I hoped if you got some distance from her, you might see a little clearer and hopefully, let her go," he confessed. "So, yes, I did go to your room. I did unleash her, and I made sure to scare her off."

I nodded a little, letting him know I heard him, but in my head, I was miles away, trying to find some crack in what Vince was revealing to me, what he was making me see.

"Jared?" he called out when I still wouldn't look at him. Slowly, I dragged my eyes to his, and I knew he must have seen how broken I appeared.

"What's wrong with me?" I whispered.

"You aren't the first one to fall for your tormentor," he reassured me.

"No!" I exclaimed. "I don't love her!"

"You're correct. It's not love. It's not the pure kind we know from movies and people who haven't suffered the way we have. It's not the sort of attraction that a therapist recommends you to seek. It's called obsession for a reason."

"So what do I do?" I asked, truly seeking an answer.

"What I have already instructed you to do. You let Alison go. You let out all the information you have on her, giving her no chance to ever find her footing again. Once you see her destroyed, crumbled at your feet, that attachment will lessen a little because you will see a much smaller version of her."

Vince leaned back, looking pleased with his plan, but I began shaking my head.

"What?" he inquired.

"But I have already seen it," I whispered.

He lowered his glass slightly, appearing intrigued. "I have already broken her, and seen how small she truly is. It's not enough."

"But you haven't ruined her."

"I'm not so sure," I admitted. "She isn't the Alison I remember anymore. It's like watching someone constantly trying to stop the water from running between their fingers when I look at her. She isn't the monster I remember because I have seen behind it all now, and it…"

"It what?" he asked.

"It… intrigues me," I confessed, and Vince sighed, rubbing his eyes. "She has even confessed some things to me she has never told anyone."

Vince lifted his head, appearing interested. "Like what?"

I sipped my drink, glancing down at my hands holding it afterward. "Her first boyfriend raped her."

"God…" Vince murmured, knowing it was a tie between Alison and me.

"Her mother is an alcoholic."

"Oh, fuck."

"And her father is barely present in her life."

"Jesus!" Vince exclaimed, throwing his arms out and letting them fall. "You're identical!"

I nodded a little. There were numerous connections between Alison and me, and as I voiced them aloud, I found myself growing slightly terrified at the sheer extent of them.

"So, I hope you have a plan B," I whispered, meeting his eyes again, but he seemed a little unsure himself, which was something Vince never was—unsure.

It grew quiet between us, and a sense of desperation gnawed at me. "Vince!"

"Son, I'm thinking!" he yelled, and I fell silent once more as he tapped a finger against his glass, his gaze fixed on me.

"You need her out of your life. You need to focus on your new family," he began.

"I agree, but it's a bit hard when right now my target is her father and his friends, and I can't target them one by one like usual."

"Why?"

"Because if I strike one of the snakes, the others slither back into their holes. They do everything they can to avoid any connection between each other. I know it's going to set off alarm bells. If it weren't for that, I would have taken out Rick and Cal already!" I snarled.

"You've been investigating Cal?"

"He... was at the party for Alison's father, and he... was hitting on Alison."

"Jared," he scolded.

"I think those pictures I sent out might have emboldened them."

"How so?" he inquired.

"They know her marriage isn't perfect. There's a crack they want to exploit, and, as I said, her father isn't very present. I believe it was her marriage that kept her safe after she moved out, creating greater distance between her and her father," I explained.

"You've put a target on her," he confirmed.

"I'm afraid I have."

"Then maybe you should hold off on taking them all down," he suggested.

"Vince! Are you actually suggesting I let Alison get wrapped up in sex trafficking?"

"It might be the cleanse—"

"Absolutely not! That's not what you and I do. We don't sell women!" I snapped, and Vince groaned, rubbing his eyes again. I knew he wasn't actually serious. He was merely desperate for a solution. At least… I hoped that was the reason.

"Maybe we need to handle her like we did with Mason Rich's pregnant wife," he suggested.

"I can't kill her!" I exclaimed.

"That's why I will handle it," he assured me.

"Vince, no."

"Why not?"

"I thought we already made it clear. Apparently, I..." I trailed off, unable to admit it, even though it had become glaringly obvious to me since I couldn't bring myself to leave Alison alone.

"Just… don't kill her," I whispered.

"Would it make you sad?" he asked, almost tauntingly, placing his hands on his desk. "Frustrated? Angry? Seeking revenge?"

"Yes!" I yelled. "Fine, yes!"

"Just wanted to hear you admit it," he said.

"I can't help it."

"No, you can't. I know. Why else did you get Mason's wife pregnant? I knew even then your obsession ran deep. I just thought you were more interested in ruining Alison than repeating the process."

"I don't want to get Alison pregnant!"

"No? What if you knew she could get pregnant, would you not be even a little bit interested?" he goaded, but I held my tongue, knowing it didn't matter what I said. Not after what Vince had made me admit. "Jared, you need to leave her alone. Completely. Don't even engage with her when you see her around her father, which hopefully won't be often since you claim they aren't close."

I sighed, nodding. I knew he was right. The only way to break a habit or obsession was to not feed it. It was time to go cold turkey.

"I will," I promised.

"And don't grow soft on her father," he warned.

"Never!"

"Good. As long as you do your job, I trust you, Jared, and I trust you can pull yourself out of this too. Now that you finally admit you have a problem. You can work on it."

I nodded. I could.