“And you believe him?”
“Well, you brainwashed me into believing he was okay. You kept feeding me lie after lie. So what else could I do but believe he did indeed go away willingly?”
“The important part isn’t that he left but that he left without a fuss, and that’s not all.”
“I’m not playing this game with you again, Anne. What are you speculating at?”
“Not speculating.” She scoffed. “He fought me at first, refused to leave his precious ‘Daddy.’ But then I turned his own manipulative games against him. I told him if he didn’t go, I would expose all the photographs and videos he has of you.”
“What? Which photographs?”
“He’d been spying on you, Shaw. He had photos of you sleeping. Of us fucking. But you know what he did? He used Photoshop and replaced my head with his. There are all sorts of pictures.”
The idea of someone watching me without my knowledge and permission made my skin crawl. Even if it was Ari. No, Ari would never do such a thing. She had to be making this up.
“I shouldn’t have called you,” I said.
“You did the right thing. Listen to me, Shaw. You and I have our differences, but you’ve always been a good man. If I wasn’t good enough for you, there’s no way Ari will be. He’s not like us. He does bad things to people.”
“What bad things?”
“You can’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you.”
“What?” She was right. I wouldn't tell anyone, especially if I didn’t believe her words.
“He and his dad couldn’t get along. They fought constantly. Ari would call me, begging to take him away from there. Sometimes when he called, he had a black eye. Another time, he had a broken arm. Turned out his father was beating him. Then one day, both Ari and his father left the state. At least that’s what the message his father sent me shortly before they disappeared said. Sometime later, Ari resurfaced without a trace of his dad. I’m pretty sure he killed him.”
“What?”
“I’m pretty sure my son killed his father, Shaw.”
No. No, that can’t be true.
“Not that I don’t think the guy deserves it if that did happen, but Ari would never do something like that. I saw the pic of his dad you kept in your purse. That guy is like twice the size of Ari.”
“And that’s going to be your downfall. You look at his stature and beauty, but you’re blind to the monster inside. I hope you never come face-to-face with that other side of him.”