Chapter Forty-Two Him

Chapter Forty-Two Him

Married, Day One

Elias had one job. His people needed to find specific information on Addison that would defang her blackmail attempts and

send her running back to the streets. Languishing in a perpetual state of who is she was the one thing I could no longer tolerate, as I made clear in my instructions to Elias.

You need to dig up her past. Every trailer park. Every bar. Every strip joint. The men she’s fucked. The ones she’s blown.

Hell, the women she hooked up with. Every piece of her life, including where she’s ever lived, where she banks, anywhere she

might store something she doesn’t want anyone to find, and every person she trusts. Rip her life apart.

Acting unconcerned was not an option with that map and the tape I still doubted existed potentially floating around out there.

Without any significant movement in unmasking Addison, the walls closed in. I’d spent two decades building an uncrackable

puzzle box of stories. Wasted fake tears on unsavable sick children because the audience I played to demanded performative

pain. Comforted weeping parents. Pretended to care while hitting and exceeding every career milestone.

All of it intensified my apathy. Conquering came too easy. The insatiable drive for more, as unidentifiable as that end goal was, was what pushed me forward. Get away with it once and you could do it again. That

insight should have resulted in a sense of freedom, but it was confining. It set a bar I obsessed about jumping over.

Then Addison stormed into my life and destroyed the monotony. She had a goal and determination. I had a new target... one

that remained a mystery.

Getting the marriage license had served both to stall and as subterfuge for gathering more intel. I’d hoped she’d produce

a birth certificate as a means of identification but of course not. Just that damn Ohio driver’s license, which I’d already

photographed and given to Elias. The court clerk who gave us the marriage license asked for Addison’s social security number.

She provided one that I learned a few days ago wasn’t hers.

The woman lied about everything, but her time was almost up.

Whatever this confidential, you can trust him detective Elias had on retainer intended to do, he better do it fast because today was my wedding day. Not a real one like

my first wedding. There would never be a real one with Addison.

Today was the day I was going to teach Addison a harsh but necessary lesson. She liked to play games. This one was called

hire a fake officiant and make her think she’d won . I needed her comfortable. Off-balance. Basking in the bright light of her impending failure and unable to see the trap waiting

in front of her.

Elias and I stood in the family room of a guy who was supposed to be a minister. He worked at the church next door and agreed, for three hundred dollars, to play the role of minister and “borrow” the minister’s house while he was away at a retreat. The guy clearly welcomed the extra cash. It was a small price to pay to maintain my freedom, and all it took was some this little bitch is trying to trap me bonding to win the man over. Problem solved. For now.

I wore a suit but only because I came straight from an office meeting. This mockery didn’t deserve formal wear or a day off.

It barely warranted an acknowledgment. But New York law required a witness and since Addison might have enough brains to check

the rules, I dragged Elias along. He didn’t know this setup was fake. He came to make sure the prenup got signed.

We did that song and dance earlier. Addison refused my version of the prenup, as expected. I signed her version because it

didn’t matter. Before I signed I wrote that we had to be married today for the document to apply. She agreed to the change.

But where was she? She’d been in the bathroom for ten minutes and, real or not, I wanted this nonsense completed and behind

us. “I’ll go check on her.”

One knock and I opened the door. Addison sat on the bathroom counter in a straight black sheath that landed just above her

knees. The cheap material matched the gaudy gold-plated watch she wore. The whole outfit summed up her bargain-store existence.

Well, she’d remember where she came from when I dumped her back there. That would teach her to take the money and run next

time. A hundred thousand dollars would have changed her sad little life.

“What’s the delay?” There wasn’t a reason to sound anything other than frustrated because we both knew what a travesty this

was.

She crossed her legs, showing no signs of standing up. “We need to wait.”

“For what?” If she’d invited the kids to this abomination...

“The minister.”

“Problem solved. He’s in the other room.” I gestured for her to move. “Let’s go. You and that black dress. The dour color

is a little much, don’t you think?”

“I mean the real minister.” She jumped down and stood in front of me, as if taunting me to take a swing at her.

Her grin set off a boiling rage inside me. A scalding heat that burned and destroyed all it touched.

“You didn’t really think I’d let you pick the person who married us, did you? You’re a known liar. Other people might not

get that you can’t be trusted, but I do.”

I didn’t say anything. Couldn’t. The urge to strike her overwhelmed every other thought. The vision in my head of her bloody

and gasping on the floor excited me more than anything had in a long time.

She brushed her hand over my jacket lapel, like she might with a real fiancé. “I checked out the so-called minister you picked.

It took two calls to find out he was going away this week.” She nodded in the direction of the closed door to the rest of

the house. “I checked earlier and saw the guy sweating all over the couch out there. Not sure who he is but I hope you paid

him well for his time.”

“We came out today for you to make some ridiculous point? I’m a busy man, Addison.”

“We’re getting married today as planned.” She had the audacity to smile at me. “I had to rip up your prenup and make you sign

mine before the ceremony could start.”

I saw the papers on the edge of the bathroom counter. That line about the marriage date had boomeranged on me. If we got married my only out would be her death. Now I had another reason to end her.

“Elias watched you sign.” She sighed. “Calling the whole thing off now, without a good reason, would not work out for you.

Face it. Your strategy backfired.”

The cheap bitch winked. It took all of my control not to lunge.

She wouldn’t shut up. “Before you try to grab the document and rip it up then rant about how Elias works for you, ask yourself

if he’d risk lying in court for you. And, of course, I already took a photo of your signature and sent it to a trusted source.”

Anger swept through me again, invading every cell, shifting and shaking through the foundations I’d built and shored up for

decades. The praise, the devotion, every minute of standing in the spotlight and repeating my heartbreaking life story, crashed

in on me.

“I’m going to kill you.” It was a fucking promise.

“Yeah, that must be a hard habit for you to break. You disagree with someone then murder them.” She shrugged. “There are other

ways to handle conflict, you know.”

I came within an inch of throwing her on the ground. The possible explanations ran through my head. She fell. She tripped.

I could sell any of them to the men in the other room.

She didn’t seem to realize she’d waded into peril because she wouldn’t stop gloating. “You won’t kill me because then everyone

will know you also killed them . Zach. Your beloved family. The people who cared about you and never saw it coming.”

“I’ll come up with a way to get out of this.” I always did. Nothing could touch me.

“You won’t because you can’t handle having the fucked-up layers of your life peeled back and your rotten core exposed.” The doorbell rang but she ignored it and stayed in the bathroom. “All you have to do to make me happy is lose everything. Your family. Your reputation. Most of your money. Your freedom. The good news is we’re almost there.”

The rumble of conversation in the family room reached the bathroom. Someone entered the house. Someone who might actually

bind me to this bitch.

“You’re going to mess up one day soon.”

She shook her head. “I’m actually not.”

Her self-confidence pissed me off as much as the grating sound of her voice. Killing her would be a relief. Just like Dad.

She acted like him. Two people who had a sarcastic comeback ready to fire at all times.

“The lie about being a hero is all you are, Richmond. Without it, you’re a sad loser. Pathetic. Someone who should be locked

up and forgotten. Thrown away like garbage.” She patted my shoulder. “But enough foreplay. It’s time to get married.”

The way her tone changed with that last part. Amused, almost chirpy.

Strangling her. That was the answer.

A satisfying buzz came with imagining the moment she realized her pleading blew apart my decades-old never again vow. Circumstances had changed. Not my fault. She did this. She pushed and nagged. She wouldn’t let go. She brought this

on herself.

She straightened my tie. “Come on, darling. Time to get hitched and start that prenup rolling.”

One more time. I’d have to kill one more time.