because I don’t give a fuck. It’s not my fault she became nothing more than a roommate to her husband.
“Ask me why,” she demands as she lifts the weapon to my face.
“Why?” I ask, my voice small as the tip of the gun presses into my forehead.
“Because I read them every night, memorizing every syllable as I cry myself to sleep.”
Angry tears roll down her cheeks as she presses closer.
“Nothing to say now?” she asks. “No words about how I’m a horrible selfish bitch who doesn’t deserve Gildardo’s love?”
Realizing there’s no point in lying to someone who clearly knows the truth, I try a different approach. “Can we talk without the gun pointing in my face? I think if we sit down and have a conversation woman to woman, that we can—”
“That we can what? That we can talk about how I don’t deserve Gil? That you can convince me you’re better for him than I am? That you can tell me I’m a piece of shit wife? Isn’t that what you’ve spent the last several months convincing him of?”
“No. I want to tell you about myself. About my story. About how I got here.”
TWO
MARICEL SCOFFS. “DO you think I give a fuck about you? And I think it’s pretty clear why you’re here—to steal what doesn’t belong to you.”
“That’s not true.”
“Shut up. Do you take me for an idiot?” she asks, stepping backward and gripping the gun with both hands. “You’re the reason my husband looks at me like he hates breathing the same air as me. You’re the reason my marriage is over. You’re the reason these landed on my desk today.” She reaches in her jacket pocket and pulls out a thick wad of papers and tosses them at me.
The document lands at my feet, face up. I steal a quick glance at the paperwork, and my eyes widen. I can’t believe it. He’s divorcing her. But if that were the case, why did he end things with me?
“Isn’t that what you wanted?” she asks. “To get him away from me?”
My eyes dart from her face to the revolver. “I had no idea he was doing this.”
“Do you think I’m stupid?”
I don’t reply.
“Answer me. Do you?”
“No. I don’t. But I swear I didn’t know anything about this.”
“And I should believe you? The lying whore who’s been fucking my husband?”
“It’s true,” I say, hoping she’ll consider the possibility that I’m being honest; Gil never said a word about divorce.
She closes her eyes and shakes her head. “Stop lying.”
“I’m not ly—”
“I said stop before I put a bullet in your head!”
Her threat forces me to swallow the mix of bravado and adrenaline that kick in each time she says something that pushes a button. I fall quiet and try to come up with a different approach, yet nothing comes to mind. At least nothing that will get me out of this predicament.
“You so willingly commit adultery, yet you’re being honest with me now? Yeah, right. I don’t believe a word that comes out of your mouth. You’re a filthy, lying whore.”
I instinctively react to her words, taking an involuntary step toward her.
“Go ahead. I dare you,” she prods. “I’d like nothing better than one more reason to make you suffer.”
I grit my teeth and take a step back.
“Or maybe I should just get this over with. Maybe I should make you strip down to nothing,” she says, stepping close enough for the barrel of the gun to touch my chest. “And since you like hard things between your legs, maybe I should slide this gun into your dirty little pussy,” she adds, as she drags the metal over my shirt and then circles my nipple with it. “Then pull the trigger and let you see what an explosion really feels like.”
This bitch is really crazy. “I’m telling you the truth. I swear.”
“Just a little advice—this will go down better if you stop with the lies.”
“What will go down better?” I ask. “What do you intend to do?”
“That’s for me to know and you to find out. Now have a seat,” she says, gesturing toward the corner of the room.
Whatever Maricel has planned, she won’t do it quickly—she’s going to play this out. She wants me to feel fear. Of that much, I’m certain. I follow her gaze to a chair positioned beside a small table in the rear of the living room. On the tabletop are rolls of tape and several lines of rope. She’s out of her fucking