Forever Saved - Kathleen Brooks Page 0,79
hurl himself at Molly and throw his body between her and Stella. He either had the choice to shoot Molly or talk her down. As upset as he was, he still couldn’t reconcile what he was seeing with what he knew of her. It was so out of character for Molly that, in a way, it paralyzed him. However, he had to see what had been in the syringe. If he could talk her into telling him, then he’d know how to save Stella.
“Jace,” Molly said with surprise and then a hope he’d never seen before.
She turned back to Stella and smirked. “I told you he loved me.”
Jace stepped forward again. “Of course I love you. But what’s going on, baby?”
Molly froze and looked back at him. The look of utter devotion and obsessive love broke his heart. How did he not see it? How did he not know she had thought they were married? Now all the jokes about being his work wife didn’t seem so funny.
“I’m getting rid of her, Jace. This whore broke up our marriage.”
“Come here, baby. No one has broken up anything.” Jace used his left hand to motion for her to come toward him. Molly stepped forward just enough that Stella was behind her, but then stopped.
“How do I know that? How do I know you and this whore aren’t trying to get rid of me instead of the other way around?” Angry suspicion roared to life in Molly’s eyes. Her body posture went rigid as she stared at him. Everything in him tried not to look at Stella. He kept his eyes soft and let the hurt he was feeling show, even if the hurt was for Stella.
“Baby, have I ever lied to you?” Jace held his breath as he waited for Molly to answer his question. Behind Molly he saw Stella sit up. Whatever she’d been injected with hadn’t incapacitated her yet. Her hands were free and she was working on the ropes binding her feet to the chair. Luckily, Molly was thinking about his question and didn’t see his quick glance behind her.
“No. You’ve never lied to me. It’s why I thought our relationship was perfect. But then this whore seduced you. You’re just another weak man who only thinks with his dick! What did she give you that I didn’t? You’re just like the others—a lying, cheating, man-whore who thinks it’s nothing to break a woman’s heart,” Molly spat. She was so angry spittle flew as her face turned red. Her hand tightened on the empty syringe. She was about to turn around as Stella worked on the last knot.
“Wait!” Jace called out, stopping her from looking back at Stella. “I’m sorry if you thought that’s what I was doing. I was trying to show the world how evil Stella was. I was trying to show that she was one of those women who didn’t care if a man was married or not. She needed to be exposed. That’s what I was doing. The whole town knows that now. But, baby, what others hurt you? Who would do that to you?”
“Dr. Boucher, Dr. Lozano, Dr. Goss . . . they all used me. I was their everything and then they just discarded me like I was nothing.”
Jace’s whole body felt as if it had been plunged into an ice bath. Those doctors were the last three she’d worked for. They’d been in a medical practice together. He’d wondered why she had only worked for them for around a year before leaving. He’d asked her and she said she wanted to take time to travel and he hadn’t thought about it anymore.
After Molly had submitted her résumé, he’d asked for the references. She’d turn them over to him. They’d each written her a good letter of recommendation. Then there’d been a tragic accident. The partners were holding a quarterly meeting late at night when they were killed by an unexplained carbon monoxide leak. It had hit the medical community hard. Molly had bawled at her final interview, which had been put off a week since they were all attending the funerals.
“You punished them, didn’t you? Just like you’re punishing Stella,” Jace said calmly as he saw Stella loosening the last knot.
“Of course I did. They thought I was just a plaything. They thought I was just someone to be pushed aside when they were done with me. I showed them. They forgot I was the clinic’s wife, not just theirs. I