Devotion Page 21

  I feel the floor tilt up and force me away from the conversation. My legs weaken as I hold out a shaky hand to grab the balustrade. He still wishes to be with her. He wants everything to return to the way it was. I've failed. It's over. Corey wants his wife back.

  What was I thinking? There was a reason he never called me after we kissed. I wasn't good enough for him then, and I'm not now. I've wasted my time chasing after a man who doesn't love me.

  "No," I mutter. It can't be true. He loves me. I know it. This is all an act. He's trying to do the right thing because he's the perfect man.

  I'm not giving up. I've come too far. Corey needs one final push, and I have no choice but to make that happen.

  68

  Katherine

  I argued as hard as I could with Corey and Officer Jensen until I had no choice but to instruct them to leave. I could tell they wanted to haul me away and throw me into some psych ward like a crazy patient who'd gone off their meds. But I'm not one of those individuals. I know exactly what Corey is trying to do. He can't get to me without people knowing, so he is doing the next best thing by working to have me committed into some hellhole of a mental hospital.

  It's the following evening. Outside the weather is rough. An icy wind hits the house every so often, accompanied by the occasional spot of rain. After Corey and the police officer tried to 'help' me, I didn't speak to Annette. I felt slightly betrayed that she failed to come running to my defense, but then again, I shouldn't have expected her to. I can't blame her for believing Corey over me. He has meticulously planned this all out by making sure he had solid alibis each time he came for me. It would be hard to work against such logic.

  I stumble downstairs, hoping to find Annette. Even if she doesn't believe me, I just want to talk to her and hear a friendly voice no matter what she has to say.

  Ava is in bed. I put her down as best I could. I couldn't read her a bedtime story or go through our usual routine. My mind is too scattered and frazzled to handle such a task. Plus, I could sense in Ava's eyes that she knew something was wrong. The last thing I need is for my own daughter to think I've lost it.

  "Annette? Where are you?" I call out when I get to the living room.

  "I'm here," she says from the sofa.

  I move forward and see that she is lying down, hidden from view. "Can we talk?"

  I hear a groan come from Annette's mouth. "Okay," she says a moment before she sits upright.

  My hands reach out to the back of the sofa as I guide myself quickly around to, and down on, an adjacent armchair. I sit on the edge of the seat with wide eyes, trying to gain Annette's full attention. She can't hate me the way the rest of them do. I've lost too much as it is.

  Annette glances at me. "What do you want to talk about?" Her voice lacks its usual level of care.

  "I want you to understand why I don't believe Corey when he says he didn't attack me."

  Annette holds a palm up to me while closing her eyes. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't want to hear that right now."

  "I get where you're coming from. I truly do. But I need to unload everything in my head before I lose my mind, and I thought I could rely on my best friend to listen to me no matter how crazy she thinks I sound."

  Annette focuses on me. "There's no point."

  "What do you mean there's no point?"

  Annette stares at me. "Don't worry."

  I feel my mouth open to ask her what the hell she's on about, but I stop before a single word escapes me. Annette seems frustrated. It's obvious that I've ruined this friendship by accusing Corey of trying to kill me. What did I expect her to think?

  "I'm sorry for putting you in the middle of all of this," I say to Annette. "I never hoped for any of this to affect you."

  "Don't be sorry."

  "But I am. What's happening between Corey and me shouldn't have to impact you the way it has."

  Annette chuckles to herself. "I've gone about this all wrong from the start."

  What does she mean by that? It feels like we're having two different conversations. "Is everything okay, Annette?"

  "Don't worry about me, Kat. This will all work out in the end."

  "Are you saying that the truth will come out about Corey?"

  "One way or the other," she says, looking away from me.

  I don't know what to make of Annette's behavior. She doesn't seem to be herself. It's like she's waking up from a dream and is mumbling nonsense.

  She pushes herself up and stands in front of me. "I have to go see my mom in Portland."

  "Right now?" I say. "You realize it's eight o'clock, right?"

  "I do. I forgot to tell you about it with everything that's been going on."

  Before I can respond, a heavy downpour of rain pounces hard outside. It's loud on the old house.

  "Sounds like quite the storm is coming," Annette says as she walks off. "Goodnight."

  "Goodnight," I whisper, wishing my friend didn't hate me.

  69

  Katherine - Now

  Corey is trying to kill me. As if sending me to the hospital with a severe concussion wasn't adequate, as if tormenting me in front of a police officer didn't give him enough joy, he's come to end my life. All I keep asking myself is why.

  But I don't have time to think about the why. Corey is about to stab me with the thick blade of his hunting knife. I do everything it takes to pull my attention away from him and focus on yanking open the window so I can escape death. With my back to a man who is trying to kill me, I open the pane of glass out into the stormy night.

  I launch myself through the opening, bashing my shins into the frame of the window as I realize how steep the roof is. My body twists around while my hands claw to grab hold of the bay so I don't fall down from the second floor of the house and break my neck. I stop myself from tumbling down and look up to see the knife swinging out into the night. The blade slices through the rain and comes close to cutting me. With no other choice, I release my failing grip on the window frame and let myself slide down the roof toward the edge of the building.

  A voice screams, following me down. I take a few moments to realize it's my own. It only stops when I slow my descent using my bare feet on the slippery metal surface of Annette's old house. My legs slam into the guttering of the roof, but the aging material holds firm enough to prevent me from going clean off the edge.

  For a moment, I stare out into the thick rain pounding down and discover how high up I am from the ground. My heart beats so hard it feels like it might break my ribs.

  With as much caution as I can exercise, I slowly turn my head and up to the window bay and find that Corey isn't following me along the dangerous path. He has disappeared inside. Is he looking for something to help push me over the edge? My gaze stays fixed on the opening above, waiting for my attacker to return with a solid object to throw at me. But the terrifying moment doesn't come.

  I snap out of my trance and work out how the hell I'll survive this. My options are limited. I could try to hang off the side of the house and drop two floors down to the hard ground below or make my way along the guttering to a valley in the roof that belongs to the first floor. Not wanting to break both my legs, I edge myself across the cold metal on my butt, shuffling toward the relative safety of a lower section of the building.

  The guttering creaks and moans from my weight as I proceed. Each time I place pressure on the next section, the previous area my foot was pressing on snaps outward. I keep moving, trying to increase my speed as a large piece of the guttering gives way and submits to gravity. Realizing the full length of guttering my feet are pushing on is about to break off the side of the house, I roll myself over and desperately try to cling on to the slippery roof with my fingers. There's nothing to hold on to, so I press my body against the cold surface like I'm on the edge of a mountain.

  I can't move.

  All I can do is pray my weakening grip holds out long enough for someone to find me.

  70


  Katherine

  A rumble in the distance tells me the storm is getting worse as I cling desperately to a steep roof slick with rainfall. Thunder radiates out from lightning that has already passed across the region. Did Corey wait until there was bad weather to end this all? Or had he gotten lucky?

  With not much choice, I call out for help, but my voice gets drowned in the rain, too heavy to fight. But I continue to yell, nonetheless.

  No one is coming for me. Annette had to leave for the night to go visit her mom. Corey must have known that I would be alone in the house with Ava.

  The stabbing pain in my stomach makes me wonder what this monster has done with my daughter. Does his hatred extend out to her? He was always good to Ava. So much so that I believe she genuinely loves him. She doesn't understand why I no longer want Corey in our lives. How do you explain to a five-year-old that you've had to leave your husband because he is trying to murder you?

  As my grip on the roof fades, I can't help but wonder what drove Corey to this moment. Am I really that terrible a person that he feels his only option is to take my life? I don't deserve this. I've been nothing but a loyal and supportive partner to Corey, even through all of his torture these past few weeks. If he never hit me over the back of the head, I'd have still forgiven him for the promotion debacle. Our relationship was more important to me than my career. Now I realize how stupid I was to think such a thing.

  My fingers let go.

  I feel a sudden yank pull me downward as I lose my grasp on the roof. My legs pass over the edge and pull the rest of me down with them, but I cling on to the fresh edge of the crumbling metal. My body is hanging off the side of the second floor.

  "Help!" I yell out, desperation coating my voice. "Please, help me!" But it's no use. Annette's neighbors are too far away to hear me. I have to save myself.

  Feeling my arms, hands, and fingers burning to let go, I shuffle along the edge, straining to advance toward the lower valley of the first floor. It's all I can do before my body finally gives up and lets me fall.

  I move across the roof one small hand grip at a time, slowly progressing to the valley. It's less than ten feet away from me but it's too far to try to swing out and drop onto it. Again, the metal of the ancient house buckles under my weight. I ignore the ominous sound and continue to inch along the edge until I give in to gravity.

  I plunge to the lower valley and land on its peak. My hands grab what they can and help me throw my legs up and over more freezing cold metal. A smile cracks across my face once I realize I'm no longer going to smash into the solid ground below. I practically hug the valley, thanking it for being there. That's when I notice a small window above me that I could easily reach. The ground is still too far down to drop to without potentially snapping an ankle, so I scoot myself along back toward the house.

  I'll be okay. I'll get away from Corey, I tell myself. By now he must have fled, knowing that I will call the police the second I can. I wonder what alibi he has lined up this time.

  Pushing myself up to my feet on the slippery surface of the roof, I reach for the wall of the house with my spare hand. A moment later, I pull my body to the window and grab its frame. Both of my arms ache with a burn I'll feel for days, but I don't care. I'm alive.

  The fixed window provides sunlight to the stairwell within, meaning I'll have to determine a means to smash the glass out and crawl my way through. Inside, there's a decent drop to the lower level. I'm not in the clear yet.

  As I try to work out how to get back into the warmth of Annette's house without cutting myself on old glass, I hear a thump behind me. I glance over my shoulder and see a ladder propped up at the edge of the valley's peak. My grip on the window frame tightens.

  Is it Corey? Would he really go to this much trouble to kill me, risking his own life for the chance to plunge a hunting knife into my chest?

  My eyes dance left and right as I hear the ladder squeak and strain under the weight of a person climbing up toward me. In a panic, I pull off my sweater and wrap it around my fist as fast as humanly possible. The window behind me has to go.

  The pane shatters with ease but leaves a jiggered mess in its wake. I do what I can to clean it until I slice my palm open on a smashed blade of glass. I yell out and seize my hand, using the destroyed sweater to stem the blood that is now gushing out.

  There are still too many sharp edges stuck in the window frame for me to crawl through the opening without slashing my body to shreds. Devoid of options, I give up on getting back into the house and try to think of a better idea.

  But I don't have time to brainstorm.

  A figure pops up at the end of the valley and climbs up and over the top of the ladder and stands on the same roof as me. A hood covers their head, casting a thick shadow over their face. It's only then that I realize I'm not staring at Corey. He's much taller than whoever is standing in front of me.

  "Hello, Katherine," I hear a voice say to me through the heavy rain. The figure is brandishing the same hunting knife I saw earlier. That weapon made me leap through a second-floor window onto a steep roof during a dangerous storm. I can't work out who it is I'm staring at. If only it weren't raining, I'd be able to tell who has climbed a ladder in the middle of the night to reach me.

  I get my answer when Annette pulls her hood back and reveals her face. A thousand realizations hit me at once. How could I have been so stupid?

  71

  Katherine

  "What's the matter, Katherine?" Annette asks me.

  My jaw drops and pulls my mouth open. "What are you—?"

  "Confused?" Annette asks as she twirls the knife in her hand.

  "Why are you—?"

  "Oh, come on. You can't seriously be this stupid."

  "All of this. Everything that's happened. It was you, wasn't it?"

  "Guilty," Annette says as she throws her arms out wide while still maintaining a solid grasp on the sharp blade.

  "But why?" I ask on autopilot. The betrayal hasn't set in yet and will take some time to become a reality in my mind.

  Annette takes another step toward me on the narrow peak of the valley and closes the small gap between us a little further. "You really must be this stupid if you don't understand why."

  I know why she has done this. The moment I saw her face, I knew why we were standing on a hazardous roof in the middle of the night getting soaked by the rain. But I can't accept the truth.

  "Say it," she says, reading my mind.

  "Corey," I mutter.

  "That's right. You thought that you could steal him from me and that I'd give up."

  "I didn't take him from you. You and Corey never dated."

  "But you knew how much I liked him and how badly I wanted to see him again."

  "Of course I knew. But it doesn't mean I tried to ruin your chances with him. He came to me. I didn't approach him. We hit it off straight away and never meant for you to get hurt."

  "Well I did!" Annette yells. Her voice pierces through the rain and smashes into my eardrums. I witness an intensity in her eyes that is hyper focused. How long has she been planning all of this?

  Annette moves closer to me again, one foot over the other, balancing without effort. "You knew exactly what you were doing. You couldn't stand to see me finally meet someone that might take me away from this hellhole of a town and out from your shadow. So what did you do? You sought Corey out and did everything in your power to claim him before I even had the chance to tell him how I truly felt." Annette raises the knife and points it toward my eyes.

  "It's not true. Corey and I getting together was bad timing. Nothing more. I'm sorry things didn't work out the way you hoped, but after that night, he only saw you as a good friend."

  "You're lying to me. I know what you did. You got in under his skin and turned him against me. I don't doubt that you filled his head with lies about me so he would never want to see me again."

  "Annette, I—"

  "Enough! I won't stand here for anothe
r second and listen to your attempt to confuse me. I will admit this has all gone on far longer than I ever expected. It would seem Corey is too decent a human being to understand when the person he has married is nothing but a piece of garbage. I never wanted things to come to this point, but here we are. You've left me no other option."

  Annette walks closer to me, holding the knife firm as I back up to the house. I feel the wall and the broken glass touch my spine. Pain shoots through my skin that I ignore as adrenaline takes over and throws me into survival mode.

  "Don't make this harder than it has to be. For once in your life you won't have your way."

  "Please, Annette. I've always been there for you and you've always been there for me. Don't do this. I'll get you help."

  Annette swings the knife at me before she is within range, throwing her off balance a little. I feel the blade slicing through the air and come close to my eyes. "I don't need help. You do. You can't see what a disgraceful person you are. How can you call yourself a friend after what you did to me?"

  I'm dead. There's way too much rage exploding out of Annette's soul for her to see reason. It's clear to me now that something has changed within her mind. She's not the person I once knew, and I can't stop her. And to make the situation worse, I have nowhere to go.

  With my only other choice being death, I charge at Annette while she regains her footing. I reach for the knife, but she fights back, flexing and bending her arms away from me until I trip past her. My body drops hard to the roof and rolls, but I clutch tightly on to the metal surface. I claw my way to my knees and realize that Annette has dropped her knife.

  We lock eyes.

  I stare at Annette. She stares at me and heaves with a combination of rage and breathlessness. I glance over my shoulder and see the ladder within reach.