Chapter 26 - Ethan
For the next week, it seems like everywhere I go, Margaret McCoy is there. I see her at the store, and at Harold’s Pub. I run into her when I visit Dominic, clutching his baby and shooting daggers with her eyes. I even see her on a trail by the river when I go out walking one evening.
I just can’t get away from her.
Every time I see her, my jaw clenches and I look away. She’ll stare at me with that gloating look of hers, and we won’t say a word to each other.
She doesn’t have to speak, because her face says a thousand words.
I know what you did, it says. And now I can hurt you with it.
She knows that I care about Zoe. Everyone knows. It’s been obvious since the first day she walked into the office. Even if we’d wanted to hide our relationship, we wouldn’t have been able to.
This morning, on my way to work, Margaret McCoy is at convenience store when I go in to grab a coffee before work.
“Ethan Clarke,” she says, glancing at me as I walk up to the cash register. “Fancy seeing you here.”
I look at her and then up at the cashier. “Thanks, Ted,” I tell him with a nod. He grunts, and glances at Margaret.
She’s still staring at me. I turn towards her, and suddenly the frustration of the past week is boiling over. I’m sick of seeing her face, jeering at me every time she sees me. I’m sick of feeling like I’m walking on eggshells. I’m sick of being scared of what she’ll say to Zoe… or what she’ll do.
So in this moment, I’m mad. I stand up straight and stare at Mrs. McCoy, almost for the first time since she’s arrived.
“What do you want, Margaret?” I spit. Her thin lips curl into a grin. For the first time, I notice the lines around her eyes and mouth, and the frizzy, greying hair on her head. Her eyes are sharp, but there’s an edge to her movements that I’ve never noticed before.
Still grinning, she takes a step towards me and raises her eyebrows. She opens her mouth, her voice barely above a whisper.
“I want to ruin your life, Ethan,” she snarls. “Just like you and your brothers ruined mine.”
I snort. “You did that to yourself, Margaret. That had nothing to do with me.”
“You ruined my marriage,” she spits.
“You did that yourself, as well,” I say, a little louder. My heart is thumping. “You’re the one who was unfaithful to your husband. I had nothing to do with that. Do you know that he thanked my brothers and me? After you left and he recovered from the shock of finding out his wife had been cheating on him for years with my own father, he thanked me. What does that tell you?”
Her mouth falls open in shock but she recovers quickly. “Your father didn’t seem to mind that I was cheating on my husband. But then again, he was reaping the rewards, wasn’t he? How does it feel to know your father was an adulterer?”
“Fuck you, Margaret. Go back to the hole that you crawled out of and get out of my life.”
I turn to leave and I hear her cackling behind me. “I’m only getting started, Ethan! We’ll see how much that little girlfriend of yours loves you when she finds out who you really are.”
I glance at Ted, behind the counter, who has listened to our whole exchange. He raises an eyebrow and then turns away. I grab my coffee off the counter and storm out the door, the bells above the entrance jingling merrily as I walk out, like they’re mocking me.
My truck is parked nearby, and I slam the door as I get in. I’m panting as if I’ve just sprinted a hundred-yard dash. My heart is racing and my entire head feels like it’s burning up. I put my coffee down in the cup holder and put my hands on the steering wheel, squeezing it until my knuckles turn white. I lay my head down on the steering wheel and take a few long, wheezing breaths to try to calm down.
Margaret McCoy is back, and she’s out for blood. She can’t get to Dominic, because he’s with Mara. They have a new daughter, and Margaret seems to care for the baby. At least, it looks that way.
She can’t go after Bill, because, well, he’s the Sheriff. How do you go up against him?
But that leaves me. I’m the easiest target for her, and she knows it. I burned down the hotel, along with Dominic and Bill, and that was the beginning of the end for her. It was the end of her business success, the end of her marriage, the end of her family.
And now, she wants to end it all for me, too.
I drag the air in and out of my lungs to try to calm down. My thoughts fly to Zoe, and for the thousandth time I regret telling her I didn’t have anything to do with the fire. My lie hangs over my head like a black cloud, and I can’t seem to bridge the distance between us because of it.
With another deep breath, I try to calm down. Margaret has no proof. Zoe believed me when I said that I had nothing to do with it, so why would one old woman change that? The whole town has turned its back on Mrs. McCoy, so I should be safe.
Should being the operative word.
I jump when someone knocks on my window. Bill Whittaker, the Sheriff, is standing outside my window. I roll it down and nod to him.
“Hey, Bill.”
“Ethan,” he says, glancing behind me at the convenience store. “Everything okay? You stormed out of there pretty fast.”
“Margaret McCoy,” I say as way of explanation.
Bill grunts, and hooks his thumbs into his belt loops. His eyes darken and he glances at the building again, narrowing his eyes.
“Any idea why she came back?”
He swings his eyes back to me and I lean back in my seat, dropping my hands to my thighs. I take a deep breath and exhale loudly, shaking my head and closing my eyes.
“Yeah,” I finally answer. “I do.”
Bill waits a moment and then leans against my door. “Care to share?”
I open my eyes again and look at the man who committed arson with my brother and me. If he feels any remorse, he’s never shown it in the year that has passed since the fire. I stare into his eyes and finally say the one word that can explain Margaret McCoy’s presence in our sleepy little town:
“Revenge.”