Crossing Lines: A gripping psychological thriller (Behind Closed Doors Book 3) (23 page)

“You’ll try,” I snarl back.
That first blow I deserved, but I'm not taking a beating lying down. Nu-huh. Life doesn’t work that way.

“Stop it!” Julia cries, stepping in front of Sean. “Please, Darryl. Can’t you see he’s injured?”

“
He’s
injured?” I splutter, not quite able to believe what I’ve just heard. “For fuck’s sake, Julia, that was supposed to be my face!”

Sean’s eyes light up again. “It’s still going to be your face.”

“No!” Julia swirls on the spot. “Sean, stop this!”

“Stay out of it. He has this coming, and he knows why!”

“I don’t need you defending my honor,” she shouts. When it doesn’t stop Sean from progressing, she grabs his arm and cries, “No, Sean. This is my fault!” His glare turns to his sister. “It was me. I kissed him."

“You did what?!” Ashleigh's pained cry bounces around Julia’s bedroom, and like unruly children the three of us freeze. I turn toward the door, where she stands, her lips slightly apart and the color completely gone from her complexion. “You kissed Darryl?”

For a moment, all I can feel is the relief that we have no choice but to tell Julia the truth now.
Thank the Lord! I can stop lying to her.
But just as I’m thinking Ashleigh will clear up this misunderstanding, Sean growls, “Your so-called boyfriend was getting to second base with
my
sister!”

I catch the tremor in Ashleigh’s lips before she presses them together. I notice the water gathering in her eyes before she closes them against it. She takes a deep breath in through her nose and holds it. It’s the longest ten seconds of my life until she opens them again. When she does, she glares an accusation at Julia, as though she doesn’t quite believe it. “You did this to me… again?”

“You?” Sean’s laugh is dismissive and it’s empty as he turns away from Ashleigh. “You and I are going to have serious words about this, Julia.” He spins his temper on me. “And if you’re not gone by the time I get back, then this is tomorrow’s front page.” As he makes his exit he stops by Ashleigh and leans toward her ear. “You’ve taken off my ring,” he taunts her, “So there ain't nothing or no one stopping me now.” Then he’s gone.

“Sean!” Ashleigh spins on her heel. She sprints from the room after him. “Sean, wait! Please?”

“Let go!” he shouts back.

“You can’t do this.” Their feet thud against the staircase. “Please!”

“Get off me, Ashleigh!” A loud clunk and crash follows. “And I’ll do whatever the hell I like!”

“But you
don’t understand…” I've never heard Ashleigh sound so afraid of anything before. There’s a real fear in her voice, about what will happen if Sean exposes us. “This is my fault!”

“Do you hear yourself?” he shouts, “For you to bring him here, you must think the guy has marriage potential… and now he’s cheating on you!” My stomach drops, because when I look across at Julia, I know she hears Sean’s accusations too. “This is the guy you chose over me? I would never do this to you, Ash, because
I love you
!”

We hear Ashleigh gasp.

“What the fucking hell is wrong with you?” Sean demands again.

“He’s not my boyfriend!” she cries. “He's my psychiatrist!”

“What?” Both Julia and Sean say it together.

“He’s here because I asked him to talk to Julia. I swear to God, Sean, I knew nothing about this. And I only asked him to come here because she wouldn’t talk to anyone else."

“Darryl?” Julia’s gaze finds mine. “What is she talking about?" I attempt to reply, but she holds up her hand and stops me. She waits, and she listens.

“I do not fucking believe this!” Sean roars, even louder than I’ve ever heard him shout before. “This isn’t about Julia. It’s about you, and the fact that for the first time in your life, you’re wrong! Well, this isn't happening, Ashleigh, because I’m exposing him, and you, for the fucking frauds that you are!”

“You have no idea what he’ll do to me if he finds out I did this.” The edge of raw fear in her voice hits a terrifying level and fills me with panic. Ashleigh is scared of no one, but herself. “Please. I’ll do anything to stop him from finding out.”

I wish I knew who she’s talking about, who she’s terrified of. “If you cared for me at all, you wouldn’t—”

“Do you know something, Ashleigh?” His voice is now so cold even I feel the chill. “I am fucking done caring about
you!
”

The heavy oak front door slams; a moment later, Ashleigh cries out and something crashes against the marble floor below us. I turn to Julia, torn between staying to talk this through with her and going to help Ashleigh, as something else smashing is followed by a loud thud.

“She’s behind this?” Julia asks. She sounds calm about what we’ve just overheard.

I’m left facing what should be a tough choice: between admitting the truth to her, or standing by Ashleigh and denying it all. But it really isn’t a choice. My loyalty is with Julia. “Yes. She is.”

“Please tell me the only reason you agreed to this is because you love her and you’d do anything for her.” She doesn’t give me more than a second to reply. Not that I would have been able to if I’d been allowed. I don’t know what to say. “Are you really screwing her, Darryl?" She asks. “Or are you a figment of her imagination, with the sole purpose of exposing the man I love as an abuser? And destroying him, me, and our marriage in the process?”

“Please, let me explain.”

“Get out!”

“It’s not what you think.”

“I said, get out!”

“Please, Julia.”

“No!” She cries. “I fucking hate you, the both of you. Now get out!”

“Only after you listen to me.”

“I’m not interested in any more lies
you
and
she
have concocted. I'm not leaving my husband. In fact, I’m going to ring him right this minute and tell him what you’ve done, and how far you’ve gone to fool me, so far that I almost fucking slept with you!”

“No!” I shout. The thought of her running back to Wayne because of this makes me sick. I can’t let that happen.

“Why not? After everything we’ve been through, he’s never done something as abhorrent as this.”

“If he’s such a great guy, Julia, why’d you shoot him?”

“Fifteen years with that crazy controlling bitch, I know when you’re twisting my words.”

“Why would I do that? I have nothing to gain from misconstruing the truth.”

“You have nothing to gain from pretending to be in a relationship with Ashleigh, either!”

“Can you honestly say if you knew I was here to help you, you’d have said any of the things you’ve told me?”

“You lied, just to get closer to me?” she asks. “I thought you were different, Darryl. Everyone is either wrapped up in her charms or scared to death of her. When she says jump, no one asks ‘how high’? They just do it, and hope to God they make her happy. I thought you were better than that. It's what made you perfect for her. Do you know what, Darryl? You should consider it, honestly. Because you’re both perfect for each other, and you can both lie and deceive and manipulate each other to your heart’s content”

“I wouldn’t have done this if I’d had another choice, Julia.” I step toward her a little. “But Caleb and Ashleigh were so insistent you needed my help.”

“Caleb? Caleb is in on this too?”

“Please let me explain.” I plead. “This is the most revolting thing I’ve done in my life, and…”

“I don’t care!” She yells so loud it hurts my ears. “You planned and plotted to get me into bed!”

“No!” I deny over her shriek. “I would never do that.
Never!
” She looks at me, and I think she might believe me on that.
“Julia, I was only ever meant to talk to you. And I risked everything I’ve ever worked for to come here,
just
to talk to you. If anyone finds out about this, Julia, I’ll lose my medical license, the practice, the charity, everything! And I risked it all for you."

“Why? What the hell has this got to do with you, anyway?”

“Because Wayne hit Ashleigh!”

Julia gasps, and I guess I could have said anything else and she wouldn’t have been more surprised. “She didn’t go to the dojo in New York last week. She wasn't injured training. It was Wayne. He gave her the black eye, and she broke Katrina’s vase after she let him walk away, and then she came to me.”

“No, he’d never—” Julia backs away from me as she shakes her head. “She’d take his arm right from its socket if he ever—”

“And she did, the first time. Broke it, in fact. Before you and he were together. They were arguing about Sean, and he gave her a black eye and she retaliated. I think that’s why she’s too scared to do so again.”
And now it falls into place for me. The man Ashleigh’s terrified of is Wayne Swift, because he can, and will, push her into retaliation.

“You might be that gullible, Darryl, but I know better. Ashleigh never reveals her weaknesses unless it’s to her advantage. And if she revealed them to
you
, then you’ve been her puppet all along!”

“But—”

“I heard your explanation, Darryl, and I don’t believe you.” She points to the door. “Now get out!”

Chapter Sixteen

THE LAST THING I WANT
to do
is leave Julia, but I suspect I could plead my case to her all night long and she’d still ask me to leave.

It pains me even further to walk away knowing she thinks what happened between us was planned. I know she hasn’t yet thought about the fact that she kissed me, and that she wanted me, or what that means for her marriage. Will she run back to Wayne after this? Even though she said she didn't want to, right before she kissed me? I’ve blown everything. She’ll never discuss anything with me again. Yet I can’t bring myself to regret kissing her. And that makes me even more determined to fix what I’ve broken.

Another loud crash echoes from the floor below as I leave Julia’s bedroom. I turn to the stairs where the path of destruction begins. A dozen or more family portraits are strewn across the stairs, their glass fronts shattered and their elaborate frames unrepairable. The mirror at the bottom of the stairs has fallen from its holding and lies askew against the lower steps, decorated by an intricate cobweb shattering, and a red pool at the heart that has trickled to the ground.

More drops of blood lead me through a warzone. Anything fragile enough to break is broken. It’s like a museum exhibition of a giant jigsaw puzzle.

“Ashleigh?” I call as I pass another enormous mirror that has succumbed to a webbing pattern. I look back at the hallway and the damage she’s caused. It appears Ashleigh Jordan does know what it’s like to
really
lose it.

I turn into the kitchen and find her, over the sink, with a paring knife in hand. Its blade is trembling precariously near the ulnar artery in her wrist. “What the fuck are you doing?”

She looks up. Tears and mascara have left streaks of black down her cheeks. The image of perfection who’d left Julia’s bedroom has been absolutely destroyed along with the house. “I have…” she hisses and grits her teeth. “I have… the mirror—” She winces and then resumes with the pending excavation of her left hand.

“Whoa!” I shriek and cross the kitchen. “Give me that!” I have to wrestle the blade from her uninjured hand. “Slip up and you’re fucking dead!”

“Would it be less painful?” she asks before sucking the air through her teeth again.

“Possibly.” I sigh, remembering how painful hitting that bathroom mirror had been the night Izzy left. I’d required sutures. Slowly, I inspect the cut, but not without noting the way she tilts back her head, and screws up her eyes, as more tears trickle over her cheeks. “You need to go to the ER.”

“No.”

“Ashleigh, it’s really jammed in there. It needs medical attention.”

“You’re a doctor.”

“It’s been fifteen years since I was treating physical injuries. This needs sutures, and sterile dressings, and possibly surgery if you don’t want a permanent reminder of how fucking stupid you are for refusing proper medical care.”

“I said no!” This time she glares at me, like she’s going to take the knife and remove it herself. “I know she heard. No matter what you said to her after that, you can’t fix the betrayal. So I’ll live with this until she talks to me because if I leave now, she won’t be here when I get back.”

“Ashleigh,” I sigh again, reaching for a clean dishtowel. “You can’t keep her here like a prisoner, any more than you can stop her from going back to Wayne.” I wrap the towel around her wrist and apply a little pressure. She winces, but I continue the firm hold. It’s in her best interests. So is holding her arm upward to slow the bleeding. “It’s Julia’s choice.”

“You were supposed to fix this, Darryl,” she whispers, “but you’ve only made it worse.”

“No, Ashleigh.” I unintentionally squeeze her hand and she yelps, snatches it from my grip, and calls me a name I ignore. “You did this. I played my part in it, but this was your plan, and it was never going to work. I told you that.”