Chapter Thirty-Five
Kristen
By the time the world stops spinning, I’m in an unfamiliar car. I squint. I’m on…a road? With…Tessa?
What the…
“Where are we going?” I say. At least, I think I say it. My tongue feels thick and clumsy.
“To a hole.”
Oh my God. My mind is sluggish, but not that sluggish. I watch crime shows.
“I had a hole dug in a field between the grove and the city. I knew you’d come.”
I don’t know where this “hole” is, but I hope it’s far enough that I’ll have enough time to recover from whatever she fed me. I might be a lightweight compared to Liza, but I’m not this bad. I didn’t even finish that one mimosa.
“If you’d just come on the yacht…” Tessa sighs. “It would’ve been easier. And water feels so much nicer on your skin than dirt.”
“What yacht?”
Wait… “Are you my Number One Admirer?”
“Who else? You aren’t pretty enough to get a man. Not without tricking him, anyway. Or without your brother’s money. I saw the way Antoine looked at you when I came to the city to talk to him. Because of you, I had to walk away without saying a word. I could tell he’d be beyond my reach as long as you’re around.”
“You love Antoine that much?” I ask, trying to get her to talk and buy some time. Or is it not how it works if she’s driving? Maybe I can get her distracted… If she crashes the car, will I survive the accident? I can’t think.
“It isn’t about him, not really,” she says. “I just can’t live without money. You know what it’s like to not have it?”
“Uh…yeah, actually. I was poor for a while.”
Tessa gives me an unblinking stare for so long, I can’t help but wonder if she’s going to crash. How come nobody noticed how crazy she is? It’s just so…obvious! She finally turns her gaze back on the road. “Don’t lie. You’re too heavy.”
Too heavy? I must’ve heard wrong. Or maybe just imagined it. It’s hard to keep track when your stomach wants to chuck everything up.
“So all this is for money? Wouldn’t it easier to just get a job?”
“No job pays enough. But Antoine will. Don’t look so surprised. I’m doing you a favor. He isn’t that great for the long-term. He made me so miserable, I seriously wanted to die. I actually tried, but it didn’t work.” She looks at her wrists. “Thank God the scars are gone. I can’t walk around with damaged skin. Modern medicine is amazing, isn’t it? But that costs, too…plastic surgery isn’t free.”
I stare at her. Is she telling me she tried to kill herself? Because Antoine made her that unhappy? “Why didn’t you just leave him?”
“Then he wouldn’t have known. He had to know. He had to feel what I felt.”
Okay. My head is still thick, and I have no medical training, but Tessa is officially crazy. What she needs isn’t money, it’s professional help.
“Does your brother know how you feel?” I ask, remembering how sad Antoine looked, talking about losing his friendship with Eddie.
“Of course. He knows everything.”
I know I should respond. Or at least, she’s looking at me like she’s expecting some explosive reaction. But as my head throbs some more, all I can think is how crushed Antoine’s going to be when he finds out his ex and former best friend are both loonies.
I close my eyes, hoping it’ll lessen the nausea. I probably should be more scared, and I would be if my head weren’t hurting so much.
Still, I don’t think I’m going to die. Antoine will find me before anything bad happens. If not, I’m going to haunt him for rest of his life.