“I’m not. I’m calling because I’m coming home. Your mom is going to drive us and stay with me. She wanted me to call and tell you that we’ll be home late tonight.”
I didn’t know what to say. Above being highly excited, I was also worried. Why did my mom have to suggested her to call me? “She wanted you to call? So you weren’t going to?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Yeah. You didn’t. So, do you want me to head over to your place when I get off?”
I needed to clear out as much mess as I could. If Kat walked into that mess she’d lose it. Her perfect house was now damaged, and I was determined to assess the full damage for myself. “Yes. There’s a hidden key attached to a magnet underneath the fender to the riding mower. It’s in the shed. That key opens the front and kitchen door. I have no idea what’s there to eat, but help yourself. We’ll call when we get close.”
“I can’t wait to see you. We’re going to get through this, Kat.”
She was quiet when she replied. “Okay.”
Kat was withdrawing. If she thought she could push me away she had another thing coming. Nothing would stand in my way this time, especially not a dead guy. “Don’t you dare give up on us. I know what you’re doing.”
“I’m not doing anything,”
“You’re pushing me away because you think it’s the right thing to do. You think you caused all of this to happen. Kat, you didn’t make him put that bottle to his mouth. You didn’t make him raise his hand to a woman. He did all of that himself. I know you feel guilty, but he could have chosen other paths. He didn’t have to viciously hunt you down and you know it. If he found my parents address, he very well could have gotten their phone number. Please, Kat, just think about it. We all know you’d never hurt someone intentionally. You did what you had to do to get free. You said it yourself.”
“He’s dead because of me. Nothing you say will change that. Now, I’ve got to come home and face all the people that loved him. They never believed he did those things to me, so they’ll never understand that this was an accident.”
“He was drunk. It was confirmed through blood tests. Those people can say whatever they want, but they can’t deny the damn truth.” I hated fighting with her, but didn’t see an end to it. Kat couldn’t let herself heal. Instead she was determined to keep punishing herself because she felt it was the right thing to do. I would convince her she was wrong. I just wasn’t sure how to do it yet.
“I love you, so much,” I whispered into the receiver.
“I love you, too.” I could hear her sniffling on the other end of the call. It tormented me.
“I’ll be there waiting for you tonight. We’ll get through this together. I promise.”
When the call ended, I was set on getting my workload done early so I could make my way over to Kat’s place. Unfortunately, from being gone for a week, I had a pile to sift through. Hours went by before I was able to finish up. My intentions of getting to the house in time to clean up anything out of place was turning to crap.
I rolled in probably an hour before I expected them to arrive. Nothing could have prepared me for what I found inside. Things hadn’t just been thrown around. The pungent smell of gasoline filled my nostrils. I opened all the windows and doors before searching for where it was coming from. When I found which room it was I almost wanted to throw up.
Gas cans were laying sideways on the carpet. I picked them up and carried them outside, hoping to alleviate some of the stench. When I came back in to reassess the damage I still couldn’t believe my eyes. He’d set fire to their bed. A giant charred black spot was all that was left of the mattress.
In the corner I saw an extinguisher. He wanted her to know that he’d only burned this item. This was all intentional. It took everything I had in me to not break more shit because I was so irrefutably angry.
Since I knew I had to get some of the mess cleaned up, I started with what I could get out of the house. I threw away the bedding, placing it in garbage bags. I tossed out the area rugs, thinking maybe they still had remnants of gasoline on them. I closed the bedroom door to keep the smell confined to one room.
Then I looked around the rest of the house. Plates had been thrown in the kitchen, leaving shards of sharp porcelain everywhere. Curtains had been torn down. The couches were flipped. Tables were tipped over, and everything that had been on top of them. He’d trashed the entire house with the exception of B’s room. I didn’t know whether to even be grateful for it since he’d damaged so many other things.