Chapter 18: Dying Love

POV: Gabby

Word Count: 3072

May 16, 2009

Abby and I had spent a large part of yesterday at the house getting the paint colors picked out, choosing the cabinet stains and the flooring color. Our bedroom and bathroom would be in shades of blue like Zac wanted, tranquil and nice. The two additional bedrooms and the bonus room I told him to paint white including the trim because while I knew one would be a nursery, I didn’t know the theme. The hallway walls would match the wall color for the first floor because the main wall was two stories at the foyer. The up-stairs bathroom, utility and laundry room, and the powder room downstairs would be a pale yellow, something bright.

The garage would be painted but Zac chose grey for it, something natural. The guest suite I had Stella choose when she came by, she went with a lavender and white theme, it would be perfect. The kitchen cabinets I went with a honey blonde color and the countertops were medium in tone, some whites some dark browns, greens the marbling was pretty. The color name I chose was Monroe Bisque and it was a medium tone brown, it wasn’t super dark or super light, with the amount of light it would look perfect. The art room would have dark cabinets and storage space but the walls would be a medium yellow, not too super bright but not dull. I request all the paint be washable, I had seen what the three year did to his mom’s living room on her Instagram. Having Abby there hadn’t hindered the decisions because she was good with colors and décor ideas.

Sierra had me most of today, because they had two sessions again, she was returning me near the second one at 7 pm, because she wanted to watch the show. We grabbed lunch first after she picked me up at Dilly Diner and then we decided to just walk around the Blue Dome Festival, which was right by the diner. The arts and crafts presented here were so neat and I managed to snag a few pieces to decorate the house with. We also ventured to Mayfest and watched performers she knew, but about 2 the black clouds rolled in and she and I went to the apartment, making it just before the severe weather hit. When Zac called, I answered.

“Where are you?”

“I’m at the apartment, we came here when it started getting really cloudy. We’re just going to chill out here for a while.”

“Okay, I didn’t know if you ladies decided on the festivals or something else, but it’s storming really bad over here. We let people in early because of it.”

“Yeah, I don’t blame you I would too. I’m home, safely inside.”

“Okay. I love you.”

“Love you, enjoy session one.”

I hung-up and she smiled. “Checking up?”

“Storming bad there, he wanted to make sure we were both okay.”

I pout the items I brought in by the wall, I’d been packing up some things mostly stuff we weren’t using over the last month. The movies and most video games were already packed up, excessive kitchen items or things we rarely used was also packed up. Added, we reduced what we bought each week so we could use up some of the canned and jarred items. The storage area was already packed up and anything clothing wise we didn’t need like winter clothes was ready.

“You’ve been packing like a crazy person.”

“We have to be out by the first, the plan is Marello is doing our bedroom first, so we can move right there. Everything else would go to the garage unless the house is ready. But, we don’t see a point in staying beyond June.”

“I don’t either, there isn’t a lot here and looks like you’ve pared down too.”

I sat down beside her. “I did. I mean, I really didn’t have a shit ton of stuff when I moved in. But, some of the clothes were in a size too small, he went through his closet and took out a bunch of stuff too.”

“Wow, cleaned out the kitchen items too?”

“We agreed to buy some new things for the kitchen. Dishes, utensils, stuff like that. I have a box with the sets but we’re using at least two plates and stuff so I’ll finish those when we leave and that will go to either someone or good will.”

“I’ll take them. Heather and I are moving in and the girl doesn’t cook. She has no dishes.”

“By all means then.”

“I like his plain white plates.”

“We’re doing white with brown rings, we have them bought there at the house already. There in the garage in a corner out of the way. He’s taken some stuff over but not much.”

“Yeah, there’s a lot here still.”

“Drinks?” I asked.

“Whatever is fine.”

I got us glasses of tea and sat back down. “So, how are you and Heather doing?”

“We’re doing well, ironically. I think that maybe you and I settling what happened let me open up to her. Speaking of.”

She grabbed her purse from the counter and then presented me with a CD simply marked Kitten.

“I know that Zac will probably want to see them, I’m okay with that if you are.”

“Are these…”

She could not have seriously brought me those.

“There the pictures of you and I that Newton took, and the ones I took. You said Zac asked to see the others, well I don’t mind.”

“He wasn’t too thrilled with the ones with Newton.”

She giggled. “Of course not. Heather’s the only one I showed them too and I didn’t think you’d mind her.”

“Not really, I mean you need to be open with her. If it means showing her pictures of us then it’s okay.”

“She wishes she knew you then and way before Zac and she’s mentioned more than once about some threesome there.”

“I don’t think it’ll happen anytime soon.”

“You looked a little down after our game last weekend. Why?”

“Realized I was a bit whorish. Don’t tell Zac I said that, he’s forbidden for me to refer to myself that way.”

“I agree with him, you aren’t and never were a whore.”

“I don’t remember the number or half of them. I guess because I was pretty much high as fuck then too. I just…”

“Going to assume everyone has told you that you aren’t?”

I nodded. “I’ve known you since you started touring and I’ve kept up even though we weren’t talking. Do you believe I would have stood by and allowed you to just be man hopping? No.”

“I was fourteen.”

She slid over next to me. “The question asked about men and losing virginity, with a man I was 16. With a woman I was 14 and Heather was 14. It’s not uncommon to be young, added look at what you did. You asked someone you knew and trusted, most first timers are drunken parties or regrets.”

“I guess, but it just..”

“Honey if anyone is qualifies to determine if you are or ever were a whore it’s me. I’ve seen some hoes in California girl, you got a long way to go before you can ever classify yourself that way. So what, you don’t remember them all, I don’t either. The higher you are the less you remember. What matters is you remember that first time with Zac right?”

I could feel the blush. “Very much so.”

“You remember the first time with me right?”

“How could I forget?”

“That’s what matters honey, that you remember the times that count. Doesn’t mean anything beyond that.”

I have no idea why hearing it from her made more sense, but it did. I was about to ask her something when the doorbell rang.

“Expecting company?” She asked.

“No.”

She got up and walked over, looked through the peephole before she opened it. I’d rather wished she hadn’t because Lucas was standing there.

“Sierra right?” he asked.

“Yeah”

She let him inside and he had a box in his hand. “This was outside, where is Zac?”

“He has Hanson Day sessions, I couldn’t do anything so Sierra and I were at the festival but the rain drove us away. Where did it come from?”

“It was just sitting on the ground.”

He handed it to me and I knew I’d regret opening it but I did. Inside was another crystal figure, another teddy bear this one was holding a red heart in the front. I picked up the note and read it.

If I could give you one thing in life, I would give you the ability to see yourself through my eyes.

Only then would you realize how special you are to me…

There was yet another pair of thongs, blue ones this time and very pricy.

“Damn girl those are nice. Did Zac buy those?”

“No. It’s not from Zac.”

I packed it back up and closed it. I’d call Mabis Monday and report it.

“Are you sure it’s not Zac? That really looks like something he’d do.”

“No, we think there from Simon but I think it’s just some dude. I’ll call Mabis Monday, he took the other items to check them to see if Simon touched them.”

“Mabis?” Lucas asked.

“He’s a detective here in town, he handled the attack.”

“Oh.”

“So, what are you doing here? I figured you would know this weekend well.” Sierra said.

“I didn’t see them at the studio or Cain’s.”

“There at the Little Theatre. Recording.”

“Well that explains it, I wasn’t sure if you’d be here or there but I was headed down to check on a house and saw the light on.”

“No problem.”

“Well, since you’re both okay I’m going to head out. Tell Zac to give me a call tomorrow sometime.”

“It’ll be Monday.” I said.

“Does he have Hanson day stuff?”

Sierra giggled. “No, he has wife stuff to take care of.”

“Damn skippy.”

He smiled but really he didn’t seem to be pleased with that information, but he headed out and Sierra locked the door.

“Does he do that often?”

“Not really, usually stops if the car is here.”

“Alright woman, what are we doing for dinner?”

“Whatever we can find.”

It took both of us to find things and we found a decent taco dinner. I couldn’t believe time had flown that fast. I made sure the apartment was locked up when we headed to the theatre and I came in the back door with her.

“You ladies have the box seats.” Zac said.

“Sweet.” Sierra said.

“Lucas came by.”

“The apartment?”

“Yeah, he found another box outside. Teddy bear, thongs and a note.”

I relayed what the note said as well and he frowned. “Did he say why he came by?”

“The light was on, so he stopped. He didn’t know you weren’t at the studio.”

“He should have, he was here earlier today before the rain storm.”

“He told me he didn’t know where you were.”

“He and I will have a little talk. Anyway, we’re about to go on. Um, Shawn and Grace aere coming back at nine to help pack up.”

“Okay.”

They actually showed up before the show started and sat with Sierra and I in the little booth. We could be seen by everyone but we were closed off from them. Shawn, Grace and Sierra seemed to enjoy the show and the interaction. Sierra headed out as soon as it was over, thankfully because all I got to do to break down was repack the wires and take the microphones stands and stuff out. I wasn’t allowed to do anything else. We had to clean up which I was doing in the crowd area, basically making sure cups or things weren’t left. I then swept the floor. Once the trailer was loaded and locked Taylor and Isaac headed out, along with his parents. The last little bit was just the stage area and back stage, we finished the stage and I had the trash on a cart.

“Going to run this out, I won’t unload it. I’ll park it by the dumpster and we can do that last.”

“Okay.” They said.

I pushed the cart which didn’t weight anything out to the dumpster and parked it beside the bin, I then turned to head back, It was lightly raining and I was almost to the trailer when I heard something and turned, found someone was behind me.

“It appears that if I want the job done correctly, I have to do it myself.”

I went for my phone and realized it was inside. “What do you want Simon? Really, you should move on.”

“It’s hard to do that when you are still around. The police have raided my contacts. Never thought you were smart enough to connect my teaching methods as my code. Then again, when they failed to find the disk I assumed it was destroyed.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me you wanted it back? I could have saved you time Simon. I would have sent it to you without problems. But you chose a cowards route and tried to have me killed over it.”

“They weren’t suppose to kill you.”

“Yeah, they tried.”

“They’ll get what is due to them. But, you need to come with me. Let’s stop all this bullshit and running around. We both know where you belong.”

“Yeah, I know. But it’s not with you. You killed Max Simon.”

His face twisted into his clear confused face. “Max is dead?”

There was genuine shock in his voice.

“Yes. You killed him Simon, you done that because he couldn’t get me to come back to you in March.”

“Babe I haven’t talked to Max since November, I’m not sure what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“You sent him in march, he punched me to knock me out and bring me to you. Stop lying.”

He got a little closer and I held my ground, maybe if I stood up to him he would finally see.

“Gabriella, I will only say this once. I have not seen Maxwell since November. I did not send him in March, I’ve been patiently waiting for you to be alone, I figured today was good.”

“What about your little gifts? Figurines and little notes.”

“Sounds like you have an admirer. I wouldn’t waste money on figurines, notes or the postage.”

That really didn’t make me feel any better about the notes and stuff and Max, if he hadn’t seen him then it’s possible he hadn’t killed him.

“Now that we’ve established that, it’s time to go.”

“No. I married Zac and I am not leaving him. I’m not coming back Simon, you can do whatever you want but you’ll do it without me.”

“You went and married this bitch ass punk over me? How many times did I ask you?”

“You never asked Simon. You told me that when you felt ready we’d just do it. No need to plan, no need to bother with formalities.”

“Yeah and you got married in Vegas because you were drunk. Guess he got the trophy wife he wanted.”

“I’m not a trophy wife to him. He loves me for the person I am and not because of what I do. He’s lifted me up and made me see that I’m worth a lot more than you ever said I was. That I’m worth more than what Jacob said.”

“Jacob was a strange man. Max mentioned him a few times and his little obsession with you. Perhaps he’s sending these little gifts? I mean the way Max talked he loved you. Then again once you were my bitch Max didn’t care. If he hadn’t let his clouded feelings for you get in the way, he would have kept control.”

“He wouldn’t have done that.”

“Are you sure? He was fairly pissed that you kept disobeying him with Zac. Not that I wasn’t, we should have know your whorish ways would guarantee us that you’d fuck him. Tell me, when was your first time with him? I’m sure it’s not Halloween like Maxwell claimed. I’m sure you were in his bed much sooner than that.”

“No. I wasn’t. But, I don’t have to justify anything to you. You’re my ex for a reason, you beat the crap out of me and kicked me out of the house. That was as good as over in my mind as anything else. I don’t know what you think occurred but we weren’t and haven’t been an item since you kicked me out.”

“You should have known better. Let’s go.”

“I’m going inside.”

I started to turn but the slight glint of something caught my eyes and I found him holding a gun and it was pointed at me. I swallowed because this was something new, in all the shitty things a gun had never been pointed at me. Not even the thugs he sent before used a gun.

“You don’t seem to be listening anymore. Your ass is coming with me, whether you want to or not. There is no more debating. You will come with me. You will file for a divorce. As soon as that’s final you will be my wife. No more miscarriages either, no, you will have my children.”

I had very limited options here, he wouldn’t shoot to kill if that was his plan but the problem with that was I didn’t think that was his plan. I was certain that as soon as he found out I was already pregnant, he’d kill me and the baby. I took a few careful steps back, if I could just get to the door, it was propped open and I could get there and get inside and I’d be fine.

“Gabriella Skye! Stop going backwards.”

I heard the click of the gun. “I can’t Simon. I don’t love you. I’m sure you’ll just kill me. I won’t tell the police anything else, just let go.”

“GET OVER HERE!!!” He screamed.

I jumped and moved back, intent on just running like hell. It was harder to hit a moving target and I knew my chances of making it to the door were high, but I never got that chance.

I heard the shots…

 

 

 

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