Where was she?
I looked back towards the crib that was made up and took the note from the wall, my eyes scanned the information:
Sarka, 2yrs.
Father: Vladimir Chrobak.
Weight: 19lb 3oz.
Underneath that were several handwritten notes detailing how often the child fed, what she was enjoying, what she disliked.
“This is her, Arch. Ella’s baby.” I said, my voice quiet.
Voices from behind a door I hadn’t noticed made me flinch, and I looked up.
“Someone’s coming,” I whispered, quickly taking all notes from the walls and running to the bag I’d dumped, I shoved them all inside and listened as there was a click of a lock and the door opened.
I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it sure as she wasn’t her.
Carter.
She didn’t see me at first. Her arms held a sweet red-haired child who babbled happily, skinny fist clutching a small brown teddy. She placed the child on the floor and instructed her to go and play before locking the door. I leaned back against the wall and watched as the child threw herself on to the sofa, waving her teddy around and chatting when the woman I’d come to know very well turned around once more, this time her eyes did meet mine.
“Carter!” She jumped, dropping the plastic bag she held to the floor. The child startled and looked my way, but I was no-where near as exciting as the teddy. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
I grinned. “I could ask you the same thing.” I gestured to the room. “Playing happy families with Ella’s kid, huh? Nice one, sweetheart.” Her face was a goddamn mess, swollen lumps under each one, a pale yellow bruises across her entire left cheek. I almost cared. Almost.
Marnie scoffed and stormed towards me. “Are you kidding me? Happy families? You think I want to be stuck down here with a brat that’s not mine?” her nostrils flared, and a vein in her head rose to the surface of her skin. It was crazy to think I thought she’d once been sexy as hell.
I crossed my arms over my chest and smiled. “Wanna explain then?”
She laughed, but it was a cold noise. “I don’t have to explain a goddamn thing to you. You see this?” She asked, pointing to her face. “Jozef nearly fucking killed me, thanks to you.”
“Ah, he found out, did he?”
“Don’t look so fucking smug, Carter, it distorts your features.” Reining in her temper, she regarded me for a moment, and the bitch I knew appeared once more. “You’re looking well; found a new pussy to fuck, have you?”
I couldn’t help myself. I flew towards her, grabbed her skinny throat, and slammed her against the wall. The child never looked up, not once, thank Christ. “I’d shut your damn mouth, if I were you, Marnie.”
Her eyes bulged, but still, she smiled, bony fingers clawing at my hands. “Fuck, y-you!” She spat.
“Where’s Jax? What does that door lead to?” I growled, pressing my body against hers to hold her in place.
“Carter,” Archie’s voice warned, “don’t do anything stupid, my boy.”
I ignored him, slamming Marnie against the wall. “Fucking answer me.”
She half laughed and half spluttered, I loosened my grip just enough to let her talk. “Do this to Amy, did you? Throw her around? Put your hands around her neck?”
“Don’t you say her name, don’t you fucking dare, Marnie, just give me answers and I’ll let you go.”
She cackled now; the noise made my eyes squint. “For Christ sake, Carter, she’s alive.”
All the air around me froze, my ears buzzed, and my entire body became solid. Had I fucking heard her correctly? “Don’t play games with, Marnie.” I squeezed her throat harder, watching as her face turned bright red.
She was scared now, her lips making a P shape as she tried to beg.
Loosening my grip again, I raised my eyebrow and waited for her to stop coughing to talk. “I-I’m not playing games; Amy. She’s alive. They planned the whole thing.”
“Stop fucking lying!” I cracked her head against the wall, and this time the child did look my way, her bottom lip wobbling at the sudden outburst of a strange and angry voice, but she remained on the couch.
Marnie slumped to the floor, her eyes rolling around her head, but I wasn’t finished.
I took the gun from its holster, pulled her to her feet, and held the barrel to her stomach, pressing deeply, anger made my hands shake.
“Carter, please, listen to me, alright? I’ll tell you everything.”
Her hands held my hand, the one holding the gun, and I shook my head. “I’m not moving this until you quit being vague and give me answers.”
“Okay, okay,” she tried to appease me, and then she was taking huge gulping breaths, shaking her, no doubt, pounding head. “Amy and Vlad were having an affair. Once she found out about us, she went straight to Vlad and told him.”
My brow pulled together. “Amy planned her death because I fucked you? That’s a bit fucking dramatic, don’t you think?”
She continued to gulp down air, huffing and puffing, cheeks flushed, and blood trickling down her neck from a wound I couldn’t see. “Carter, there’s so much to this story, it’s not as black and white as you think. So many fucking lies.” She gasped, my hold on her remained tight. “The baby, Carter…Oh, fuck.”
For the first time in all the time I’d known her, Marnie looked human. She looked as though she genuinely gave a fuck, and whatever she was about to tell me was going to hurt her to say. “She’s pregnant, that much was true, but…”
“But fucking what?” I yelled now. The child cried out and scurried from the couch, throwing her tiny body beneath her crib, teddy clutched to her chest.
“Fuck, Carter,” she cried. “The baby, it’s Vladimir’s.”
“You’re lying!” I screamed, spittle flying from my lips on to her face.
“Carter, my boy, please.” Archie’s voice came, but it sounded so damn far away.
“Why the fuck should I believe you?”
A bitter noise left her lips. “What do I gain from lying? I’ve already lost you.”
All at once, the last few months were vivid across my vision. The pregnancy stick, Marnie naked in the warehouse sucking my dick, Jax leaving, the funeral, the grief, and the despair I’d felt. The shame and anger. The woman I loved hung up with rope, her beautiful flesh carved and peeled away. The blood. The nightmares.
And all this goddamn time…
I couldn’t fucking breathe. The pain in my chest was unlike anything I’d ever felt before, I went deaf, watching Marnie’s lips move some more, but I couldn’t listen to it. The lies. So many fucking lies.
I cried out as my heart finally broke beyond repair, the agony it sent through-out my body consumed me, and I screamed.
I pressed my forehead against Marnie’s and screamed until my voice cracked.
And then, I pulled the trigger.
“Carter, no!” Archie shouted through the earpiece, but it was too late.
Marnie didn’t make a noise. Releasing her, I watched as her body slumped to the floor, a pool of red liquid pouring from her stomach, her lips parted, the color draining from her face, her tiny hands pressing against the hole I’d created.