Color Her Red (6 page)

“She was
in
the house.” I’m still pissed but more horrified, my emotions are reflected in my shaking voice.  “She wasn’t just
at
the house she was
in
Kate’s house.” 

He looks at me;
his eyes are sorrowful but his lips form a hard-pressed line.  He doesn’t respond; he stares intently at the dark road in front of us. 

“I saw her,” my voice strains, “when you pulled out of the driveway.”  The image comes back to my mind and
an unforgiving chill sends shivers down my pale skin causing all of the tiny hairs to stand on their ends. 

“I saw her too.  I saw her too.”  Kate says the words quickly, like they are escaping from her.  I can hear the fear in her voice
through her shortened breath.  “What was she holding?”

I didn’t see anything.  I close my eyes and all I can see is her staring at me
with those wretched eyes.  My body shudders and I feel an overwhelming urge to vomit.  The car is silent, leaving her question to turn stale in the air. 

Fear is not an emotion Kate is comfortable with; it’s quickly replaced by anger.  “What the
fuck
was she doing in my house?”  The two of us stare expectantly at Thomas who is actively avoiding our gazes.

Thomas finally speaks
after a moment of silence passes, “I don’t know.”  His voice is low and I get the sense that he is lying, holding something back.  I gape at him; once again I am torn between sadness and anger, although this time fear is added to the wild mix of emotions overwhelming me. 

“When I got to the backdoor,
it was unlocked.”  He looks down at his white-knuckled hands gripping the wheel and then in the rear view mirror.  “I couldn’t see her, but I heard her.  She was somewhere in the backroom.” 

“What
was she doing there?”  Kate repeats her question; we’re still waiting for an explanation.

“I
don’t know.”  He’s stern with his short response.  “She came to my office yesterday.” He admits this with a concerned expression even though his voice is still harsh.  I can’t manage a response.
My hands start to shake and I force them into fists.

“I swear it’s the first time I
have seen her since we ended it,” his voice is less harsh and laced with apprehension. He glances nervously at me, gauging whether or not I believe him.  I feel dizzy and nauseous; I lean my head against the cold window in a feeble attempt to steady myself.

“And when did you end it?”  I ask him accusingly.  I finally get it out, feeling pricks at the back of my eyes.

“A long time ago I swear, years ago. And I haven’t seen her since… until yesterday.”  His voice is low and sincere. I don’t look at him; I keep my head down to avoid his gaze.  My head is throbbing.  I want to believe him, every word that he says.  But it just doesn’t add up. 

“We dated years ago.  It was just a good time.” 

I slam my head back in my seat and roll my eyes.

Kate sneers at his response, “A good time?  Really?”  She lets out a spiteful laugh.  “That insane bitch i
s in my house right now!”  She’s pissed, really pissed.  “Who just walks into someone’s house?”

“The police ar
e on their way,” he searches for her eyes in the rearview mirror, “Michael is taking care of it.”  He sounds apologetic in his response.

“Tell me everything right now.”  My voice is demanding.  “I want to know everything.”

He gently puts his hand on my knee and I angrily smack it away. 

“No.  Don’t touch me.  Tell me right now Thomas.”  My tears are freefalling and I make no attempt to wipe them away.  I glare back at him, my body shaking.  My voice breaks, “Tell me now.”

He hesitates, looking at me with concern, and pain.  “We started seeing each other the summer before I met you.  We were only together for a few weeks, if that.”  He looks at me desperately, hoping that I believe him.  “You know how I was before I met you.  I wasn’t committed to anything or anyone.  She wanted more and I didn’t so we ended it.”

“Who ended it exactly?” Kate asks with resentment.

“I ended it,” he looks down for a second and then returns his gaze to the road.

“And I’m guessing you were a huge dick about it.” Kate jeers from the back.

“I wasn’t any more or less of a dick then I always was.  We were over and I told her that.”

“That doesn’t make sense.  Why was she in Kate’s house?”  I look at him and wait for a response. 
Why is she dangerous? 
The question is burning into me but I fail to ask him.  He is still holding back.  I want to threaten that I will leave him, tell him that it’s over. I can’t take this bullshit.  But I calm myself; he’s never lied to me before. 
Not that you know. 

He grips the wheel tight and
pulls onto the highway, looking in his rear view.  I look in the side mirror.  There is no one there. 

“Do you think she’
s following us?” Kate asks warily, the change of her tone is sobering.

“I don’t know, possibly.”  He takes a deep breath. 

“Tell me what the hell is going on.”  I try to restrain my anger; my throat feels raspy from yelling. 

“When I called it off
, she went insane, completely out of her fucking mind.”  I stare at him intently waiting for him to continue.

“What did she do?” I ask cautiously under my breath
.

“She
kept calling me and sending me photos of her.  And then she showed up at my house, my parent’s house.”  He looks disgusted.  “I didn’t even know she knew where my parents lived.  She was stalking me.  I told her it was over and to leave me alone.  But she just didn’t get it.  She would hold on to me crying, and stand in front of my car so I couldn’t leave.  I had to call the cops and have a restraining order issued.”

“What the fuck.” Kate moans and collapses in the back.  Thomas hesitates and then continues.

“I got a call from the hospital that she had over-dosed on Xanax or something, I don’t remember, like a week after I had her arrested.”  He sighs and shakes his head as if remembering something dreadful.  “I really didn’t want to see her but they said I was her emergency contact and that she had no one else.  She was begging me to take her back lying there, in the hospital bed.  She was a complete mess, pathetic looking.”  He hesitates.  “Her arms were tied down; they said she tried to kill herself.” 

“Are you serious?  What did you do?”  I ask in complete disbelief
and horror. 

He doesn’t look at me;
instead, he keeps his eyes on the road.

“I didn’t know what to do.
She completely lost her mind.  It’s not like I led her on.  She knew I didn’t want anything more than a good time.”  Finally, he takes a regretful, dejected look at me.  It’s difficult to look back at him.  I am in shock and disbelief.  I have an urge to vomit; I close my eyes tight and try to force it down. 

“Are you alright?” he asks warily.

“Yes.  I’m fine.”  I lie. 
I want to vomit all over your car, Asshole. 
I take a deep breath in an attempt to calm the sickness in my stomach and my simmering resentment, “What did you do?”

“I left the room and told the doctor I wasn’t her boyfriend.”  He looks back in the mirror and pulls off the highway.  “I told them I would pay for her treatment but that was all I would do.  I didn’t want to know her progress and I didn’t want anything to do with her.  I never asked how much and I never really looked into it.  I know she was in a mental institution after the hospital.  I just gave them whatever they asked for and I didn’t bother with it.  I figured once she got treatment she would snap out of it and leave me alone.  I thought it was done and over with, until yesterday.”             

             
“When she came to see you?” I can’t even fathom what happened in his office. 
Do I really want to know? 

             
“Yes.”  He takes a breath and continues before I can object, “She just walked in, like I knew she was coming.”  He hits the wheel hard causing my body to shudder.  “I can’t fucking believe Sarah would just let her in.” 

             
“She just let her in?”  I’m mortified that his senseless secretary would carelessly allow a psycho-ex walk into his office.

             
“She was close with Sarah years ago; she used to work for the company.”  Kate snorts at his response from the back. 

He was so reckless.  I have no idea how he could have possibly been so successful, he really only cared
about fucking everything in sight. I’ve never asked him about his past, I knew too much from Kate as it was.

“I di
dn’t want them to know what happened.  I never told them.”  Again, the look of regret crosses his face.  “She sat down and just stared at me.  I didn’t say anything.  I didn’t know what to say.  The last time I saw her she was in the hospital.  She tried to kill herself because of me.  I don’t know what she expected me to say.”

             
“What happened Thomas?”  My voice hurts now; I try to swallow to ease the pain.

             
“She started talking about how she loved working for my office. I was hoping she was going to ask for a reference and that would be the end of it, but then she lost it.  She started crying hysterically and talking about how she should be my wife.”  My entire body tightens and I struggle to breathe.  His grasp twists around the leather wheel and from the corner of my eye I can see his body tense. 
She wants to be his wife?

“I didn’t know what to do.  I had to call security.  As soon as she left
, I had Michael look into her history.  Apparently, she was let out of the institution after about a year, a few weeks later she was readmitted.  Michael is still gathering all the details.  She’s on some serious meds or at least she should still be on them.  She was released last week.  I don’t know why and given her condition she should be readmitted.”  He looks in the rear view mirror again.  “Michael is trying to get in touch with her psychiatrist now.”

             
“So she’s completely psychotic?” Kate mutters in the back of the car. 

             
Thomas looks down at the wheel, gripping onto it, and finally turns off the road pulling into The Gramercy Hotel parking lot.

             
“Why was she readmitted?  Did she contact you when she got out the first time?”  I don’t want to know, but the words fall out of my mouth.  My eyes dart at him, measuring his reaction.

             
“No she didn’t.  I don’t know why all of this happened. I never could’ve guessed,” his voice trails off. 

             
“So she is the one that leaked those photos then?” Kate comes to the realization before me.  I completely forgot about the photos.  I breathe in deep and let out a long dismal breath keeping my eyes closed. 

             
“I imagine it was her.”  He puts the car in park, and stares down at the stick shift.  “I don’t even remember those pictures being taken when I was with her.  I don’t know who took them.” 

             
“Does she know where we live?  Is that why we are here?”  I ask the questions in a low defeated voice, not making eye contact, just staring out the window.  I lean my head against the cold glass, my knees to my chest, as I try to calm myself.  After everything today, I just want to crawl into my bed and hide.

“She came to our house earlier today.
  When I got home I could see her in the window.” My head jerks in disbelief and I gape at him.  My heart feels like it is being ripped out of my chest. She was
in
our house,
in
our house? 

“Rose?”   Her name escapes my lips as a whisper.  Rose is our housekeeper; I can’t imagine what she would have done. 

“She’
d gone for the weekend already.  I called her; she had no idea.”  He closes his eyes.

“How did she even get in?”  The question leaves me just as I think of it.

“I’m an idiot, Emma.  I used the same security password that I had at my old place.” 

My eyes widen. 
The thought of that woman in my house is too much for me to bear. I can’t believe she just walked into my house.  She wants to be his wife.  She was waiting for him. 

She might have been waiting for you.

Shock and terror grips me, holding me still against the leather, as I come to that realization.  Thomas can see it in my face.  He makes a move to touch me, but stops when I glare at him. 

I hesitantly ask, “What did she want?”

“I don’t know.  I called the police right away and had Michael track you down to make sure you were okay.  I stayed in the driveway, waiting for the cops to come or for her to make her move.  I didn’t even get out of the car.”   He swallows hard as both Kate and I stare at him, waiting to hear what happened. 

“They spent over
an hour searching but they couldn’t find her anywhere.”  He finally looks at me with his soft blue eyes and rests his hand on my knee, trying to console me or trying to find comfort, I can’t tell which.  “That’s why it took me so long to get to you.  I didn’t want her to follow me and confront you.”  I look at him with a mix of confusion and fear in my eyes. 
Confront me?