When I get out, Mick walks in and I tighten the towel around myself. He puts some clothes down, but his expression lingers on my wet flesh. When he walks over and leans down, licking the moisture off my shoulder, I shudder, and vomit rises in my throat. He takes it as a good sign and steps back, grinning. When he’s gone, I drop to my knees and dry retch until my stomach screams at me to stop. I can’t even vomit, there is nothing there. Tears stumble down my cheeks and I swipe them angrily away. They won’t break me.
Not now, not ever.
SHARLEEN BRINGS BREAKFAST in about an hour later, and I can see just how much she hates having to do it. I’m not going to eat a single thing she put on that plate, because I don’t trust her. God, not even a little. She is very likely to have hidden shards of glass in that porridge, or poison in that juice. She hates me, and she has made that very clear. I feel the same. So when she places it down, I simply look at it and say nothing.
Mick strides over, handing her a gun.
Confused, I look between the two of them.
“I have to make a call. If she moves, shoot her.”
She smirks, delighted with being tasked with this chore. “Yes, Mick.”
Great, he’s leaving me with a woman who would rather see me rotting at the bottom of the ocean than alive and breathing. No doubt she’ll shoot me for the shit sake of it and tell Mick I tried to attack her. She’s that kind of woman. When Mick walks out of the room, I glare at her, and she returns it with full force.
“I have to know,” I begin, unable to help myself, “why you did this to him. He loved you.”
Sharleen looks shocked for a moment, and then her face turns stony hard again. She covers it with that mask she has spent so much time creating. I wonder if she ever had feelings, genuine feelings. Was she ever in love with Jagger? Did she ever feel anything for anyone? Or has she simply always been this cold-hearted monster?
“I didn’t plan my life to go like this,” she bites out, “but I was in trouble and Mick helped me.”
What sort of trouble? What could she have possibly done to end up here?
“Why didn’t you go to Jagger?”
“Because I was pregnant with a child that wasn’t his,” she says, her voice ice cold.
My mouth drops open, shocked and confused. She was having an affair. Does Jagger know? Who was she with?
“You cheated on him?”
“Yes, and when the other man found out about my child, he wanted nothing to do with it. I needed an abortion, but I couldn’t tell Jagger, so I went to his father. I had met Mick a few times and I knew that he knew people that could get it done for cheap, without it ever going on my record.”
Oh my God. That’s the reason she decided to turn her life upside down. Because she cheated on her husband with another man, got pregnant and didn’t want to keep her baby, so instead of doing things right, she did it sneaky, just like she always does.
She’s a selfish, rotten human.
“I made a deal with him and here I am,” she goes on, shrugging.
As if it’s nothing.
As if it was just something she had to do.
“Did you love him at all?” I say, shaking my head.
She shoots me a horrible expression. “Of course, I fucking loved him. Jagger was my life, but I had to make a choice.”
And what a choice she made.
“You betrayed him. You could have made that better but instead you sunk yourself even further. It makes no sense to me. You make no sense to me.”
She huffs. “Mick’s good for me. I love him.”
“You think you love him,” I snort. “But in reality, you’re nothing but a toy. He doesn’t want you here, he is just using you because you’re easy. He was begging for me last night, that’s how pathetic he is. He’s in it for bigger reasons than you. God, you really are pathetic.”
She aims the gun at my head. “I’ll shoot you, Willow. Believe me.”
“Do it,” I challenge. “Do you think I’d care? I have no way out of this mess, but I can tell you something, I’ll die before I let anyone hurt Jagger.”
Her face drops, something deep inside her coming to the surface, and she lowers the gun.
“It would be better for you to run, Willow. Mick is giving you a chance to be free when he has Jagger. I suggest you take it, because if you don’t, you’ll never know the meaning of the word happiness again.”
Before I can answer, Mick comes back into the room. He smiles at Sharleen and rewards her with a kiss that has her practically melting into him. She truly does believe this man cares about her, and for that, I do feel a little sorry for her. Only a little. When he pulls away, I can see the love and admiration in her eyes. A true mess.