Chapter 4 – Zane
“Well, I’m here for you whenever you want to talk. If it’s before our scheduled meeting, Dylan, just give me a call.”
“I will. Thanks, Camilla. I don’t know what I would do without you. If I hadn’t told her what was on my mind, I would have let it all go in the wrong way. That or I would have driven myself crazy.”
“You’re fine, Dylan. Everyone has some doubts. I didn’t mean to give you anything to second guess. I was just trying to help.”
“You have, Camilla, more than I can ever tell you. The last couple of years have been the worst in my life, and you were always the shining star that got me through.”
I heard her giggle a little. It wasn’t the same as it was with Tyler, but it still bothered me just as much. I didn’t like to hear her make that sound, and I made a mental note to say something to her about it later. She was my woman, and she was going to have to be more professional when it came to her clients. They might not have known what she was thinking, but I did, and I didn’t like it.
Waiting until the man she called Dylan was gone, I decided to call her and see when I was going to see her that evening. We now were seeing each other every day, but since I’d been working most of the day, I hadn’t heard what the rest of her day was like. I didn’t know who was on her patient list for the day, something that I was going to remedy next time I was in there. There were only some of her patients whose conversations I wanted to hear, and Tyler was one of them.
I’d learned a lot about the man, and the comments that Camilla made about married men and cheating had me perking up. She’d made out like she wasn’t that against it, and the first thing I thought of was billionaire Tyler. He was married to a beautiful woman, but for men like him it just wasn’t enough. He wanted Camilla too, and I was going to make sure that it never happened.
Rewinding the tape from the day, I went through and tried to find everyone who’d been there. After a couple of weeks, I was now able to identify most of her clients by the sound of their voice. When I pushed stop and played a segment from earlier in the day, the voice I heard had me pausing. It was Tyler. I made a note of the time. Camilla was so precise with her schedule that I knew exactly when to listen from and to. She always kept everyone on time, and even the rakish rich man was taking the appointment seriously.
I listened for a while, but every laugh and innuendo that was pushed back and forth made me mad. It made me want to wring his neck and teach Camilla a lesson. She had to know that she was mine and there was no getting out of it. I wanted her to know that I was watching her and everything she did was on my radar. I saw and heard everything.
“Hello?”
“Doc, good to hear your voice.”
“I’m busy right now, Zane. I have another client coming in.”
“She’s running late, so I think you can take a minute and talk to me.”
There was a pause. I turned the sound down on the live recording so that it wouldn’t be heard on her side of the phone.
“Of course, Zane. How is your day going? Did you solve that problem you had with the code?”
She was pretending to be interested, but I knew that it was to keep me misdirected. Every breath she took was a lie as far as I was concerned. The woman was so deceitful.
“Haven’t done much, just wondering how you were.”
“I’m fine. Just working.”
“Who did you see today?”
“You know that I can’t tell you that, Zane. It’s confidential and I’m their doctor.”
“But you’re mine, Camilla. That’s what matters.”
“Just the same old clients. I’ve had them for a long time, nothing new.”
“Did you see Tyler today?”
The silence on her side of the phone was deafening, and I had to wonder what she was thinking. I wanted her to be filled with guilt for what she’d done to me and to our love. I wanted her to sweat, guessing if I knew or not. I wanted her to be bothered.
“How do you know about that?”
She didn’t even try to deny it, and I was going to take that as a step in the right direction.
“I told you before, Camilla, I know everything.”
“Are you watching me again?”
“I never stopped.”
It was her turn to be shocked by the truth. I wished I could see her. I could hear her breathing get a little harder, and I made a comment about it. Camilla still assumed that I was on the phone hearing it. She still didn’t know that I was really listening to everything she said.
“Why are you doing this, Zane? You tell me that you love me, but then you go out of your way to scare me. What does this prove?”
“It proves that I’m in control. I want you to give up this idea that there’s another way. I want you to see that your only choice is me.”
“This is not how a healthy relationship works, Zane.”
“Don’t lecture me, Doc. After the advice you were giving today, you should be ashamed of yourself. It’s good to know that you feel so little about marriage.” I hadn’t even gone through the audio of Tyler all the way. It was hard to hear, and I’d needed to reach out to talk to Camilla. I didn’t want to hear her admonishment right now.
“What do you mean, Zane? How do you know what I said to a patient?”
“You aren’t paying attention, Camilla. Let me help you out. Turn your phone over on your desk.”
There was noise on the phone and through the speakers in my sound room. I knew that she was doing as I told her. I couldn’t wait to put in real cameras that would make it possible for me to see her and to see her reaction. This was one of those moments when I would have given anything to have already had that in place. I wanted to see the look on her face when she realized that I’d heard everything. Then would I receive some well-deserved guilt and an apology?
“What’s this?”
“Don’t touch it, Camilla. It’s a bug that lets me hear everything you say and do in there. Leave it there. I just wanted you to know it was there. I know everything.”
“I don’t understand, Zane.”
“You’ll understand it all soon enough, Camilla. I promise you that. You’re going to be mine. I’ve said it before. I don’t think you quite get how far I’m willing to go to make sure it stays that way. No one and nothing is going to get in our way.”