“I tried to keep you safe. I really did. They found you first. I would never have brought them here. That’s why I went to prison. To maintain my loyalty. It was all part of my cover. Tonight, Terrington Martin Mitchell will cease to exist. Your death and Mom’s are now being orchestrated. Your car is being planted with explosives and it will detonate in exactly forty five minutes. Your car isn’t even outside anymore. The blast will be so huge and the inferno so great, the temperature will annihilate all hope of any remains. The only identifying factors will be the stainless steel in your leg. We will plant that information into the system to ensure they believe it’s you.”
“Justin?” I whispered.
His eyes told me everything before his words did. “He is going to think you died in the explosion.”
“Why?” I barely whispered.
In a hoarse voice with tears dripping down his face, Preston explained, “Because if he thinks otherwise, they’ll go after him, his family and his friends. These people will stop at nothing. They have no conscience. They’re animals Terri. They’ll kill him.”
I heard this God awful keening, and wanted to tell someone to make it stop. Then the room started whirling around me and I couldn’t see anything anymore.
********
I woke up on the couch with a cool cloth being pressed to my forehead by my mom.
“I’m so sorry honey.” She kept patting my hand. It was all so surreal. I was getting married in six months. Justin and I were going to Bora Bora for our honeymoon. What was she sorry about?
Then it hit me again and I started screaming. “I have to say goodbye. I can’t let him think I’m dead. He’s going to hurt so badly. Oh God don’t make me do this terrible thing!” My body shuddered at the enormity of what was happening. I started screaming again.
Some strange man was there, sticking a needle in my arm and everything went fuzzy again. The next thing that I recalled, I was in a small jet, similar to the one owned by Middleton Enterprises, going God only knew where.
We finally landed in Virginia somewhere. They told me we were headed to another safe house. I would live like this for several months...going from one safe house to the next. Or that’s how it felt anyway. That was after spending two months in the mental hospital. I finally had broken. This strong, self-assured girl, had finally shattered into a million pieces. Quite frankly, at that point I wished I had died. Living without Justin was the worst kind of hell imaginable.
Every day I thought about the anguish I had caused him. He would’ve been better off never having met me. I chastised myself for ever saying yes to him that night of Pearce’s and Lexi’s wedding. Sick with grief over my loss and over what he was dealing with, the darkness kept expanding until one day it enclosed me completely. And I welcomed it with open arms.
Medication failed. Psychotherapy failed. The last resort finally worked. ECT...electroconvulsive therapy. Had I been in the state of mind where I would’ve been able bodied, I’m fairly certain I would’ve taken my life before it ever reached that point. I didn’t have the clarity of mind to even do that. I don’t recall anything about my treatment...nothing.
One day, it was as if the fog started to thin and I could begin to see through it again. Then they explained it all...the treatments...the anesthesia and the induced seizures. They administered six treatments in a two week period and it was like someone lifted the shades that were covering the window. My recovery consisted of therapy sessions and antidepressant medication. The nice benefit, which most people felt was a bad side effect, was that ECT caused temporary memory loss. So as I was getting better and better, I began to remember Justin in bits and pieces. It made it so much easier to deal with the whole situation.
When my doctors agreed that I was healthy enough, I was allowed to live with my mother who was still living in a safe house. My long black hair was now short and bleached blond. I was rather thin and haggard looking. I didn’t give a damn. Mom worried about me. Her eyes told it all. The fine lines around them had now progressed into deep grooves and the dark purple half moons beneath them were so pronounced. I felt bad but I couldn’t help it. I hated she worried about me like that. Now she had two children that would never give her joy and a husband that had been murdered. What a great life she had.
One afternoon I was on the internet surfing away and I decided to go back and look at the news reports of my death. Don’t ask me why, I just did. I watched it all in cold detachment...that is until they camped outside of the Middleton home and started following Justin around. I wanted to punch every one of the media. What was wrong with those people?