I wiped my hands using a white towel hanging down from the drawer handle by the sink. As I stepped toward Adele, my frustration continued to spill out.

“You’re going to listen to me tonight. I’m exhausted. Yeah, tired beyond belief and this whole damn world can blow up for all I care. So, for the rest of the night, you’re going to shut your fucking mouth!”

From her shocked expression after my rant, I’m confident that Lane Dagger never spoke to her that way before. Her mouth remained partially open as she was about to say something, but she stopped herself. Her pretty eyes turned dark and narrowed from the verbal attack. As I stepped past her, she backed away. I entered the narrow hallway, then glanced back.

“Point me toward a bed.”

She nodded to my right.

“You know where the spare bedroom is,” she whispered.

“Lady, get this through your brain tonight. The Lane Dagger that you know was a son of a bitch. That means I’m truly sorry for what’s happened to you. You have every reason to hate him. It’s damn clear that he’s hurt you. Probably so many times that you despise looking at him. Only a full fledge shithead won’t keep a beautiful woman like you happy. I know you won’t believe me, but I’m trying to fix the problem.”

I refused to look at her because the day had worn me out and I wanted to keep from exploding again.

“Tomorrow morning, you and I will talk about the future. That’s just you and me talking. No lawyer or other folks looking in at us. It’s my responsibility...no, that’s not right.” I shook my head as my mind wanted to shut down.

“It’s my requirement is to fix things. Now, I can’t think anymore, so I’m going to sleep before I fall on my face.”

Walking away, I finally felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders. The strange feeling came because I told myself that I was past caring about anything that others did inside this crazy world. While I’d be a lying hypocrite if I shouldn’t consider the impact that Lane had on others. I still needed to survive.

“Starting tonight, my future is what I make of it,” I stated to myself as I walked away.

My vow came out in that moment of exhausted frustration. But I meant it. Even if I must do some dirty things, I’ll live and figure out how to get out of this fucked up place. After all, I still owed a certain bitch and her thugs a punch in the face. Certain of my goal, I decided that morals and values be damned. As far as I’m concerned, this place is hell and I’m going to be the devil.

From the hallway, I saw the open door to the master bedroom and paused for a moment. There were two beds in the room, which left me puzzled.

Husbands and wives don’t sleep together?

Shaking my head, I found the other bedroom and went inside. I pushed the door closed with my back and felt the weariness wash over me.

I wonder if I’ll wake up in the morning. Or maybe they’ll find my body with a knife through the heart.

In the kitchen, Adele felt tears fall from her cheeks when she heard Lane close the door to the spare bedroom. The heated silence he left suddenly weighed on her like an anvil while she fought to control her emotions.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Since Lane unexpectedly arrived, his unbelievable actions shocked her to the core. Adele truly believed that her husband was happy to be rid of her. Lloyd told her that Lane wanted the divorce to happen as soon as possible. That’s why Lane didn’t bother to bring his own lawyer. As long as he got half, he was happy to walk away from her. Lloyd kept assuring her that the divorce would be fast and quiet.

Why didn’t he sign the papers?

She concluded long ago that her husband married her for her money. Lane’s actions until a few minutes ago showed her the accuracy of her belief. But his furious reaction at finding Lloyd and her on the couch shocked the woman to the core. It also sent other pent-up emotions swimming through her.

Lane Dagger suddenly showed jealousy!

The thought that a cold and calculating person might suddenly throw caution to the wind baffled her. Lloyd might do something in response to the attack, but that didn’t concern her for the moment. Instead, she grappled with Lane’s emotional outburst and cursing. Proper and always contrived, her husband acted like a mechanical device more than a person. He even made love to her that way, but sex stopped not long after their marriage started. A frustration that tore into her as well.

Why can’t I find happiness?

Despite her initial concerns about his personality after they met, Adele believed all the lies that he told her. The woman fell hard for him, willing to overlook his coldness. During their whirlwind courtship and their first few months of marriage, Lane treated her like royalty and gained her fullest love and devotion. Adele told herself that she could mold him into the type of man she wanted.

Then he took control of her money. Soon after that occurred, her husband practically abandoned her. She sat home alone for countless hours, seeing Lane only when he came to the apartment after his day at his office or spending time with the elites in Stull Junction. After the honeymoon, her husband quickly changed his whole manner into a distant roommate. He isolated her and abandoned her without a second thought. It took several months before Adele realized that Lane Dagger could never become the hot-blooded and passionate lover she wished for.

Yet, for a moment, she recognized a savage delight in his eyes when he punched Lloyd. Even more, she thought about her husband fighting to keep her. At least that hope came to her as Adele saw him struggle to control his anger after his glance at her. It was the first time she experienced such hostility coming from Lane. The idea that he was jealous and could not stand her being with another man gave her a fleeting hope. Distant and misplaced as it might be, it was a feeling which kept creeping back into her thoughts.

Adele stood there, rerunning the events when Lane entered the apartment. While she recognized her husband immediately, something about his face bothered her. Her recollections of his handsome appearance seemed too vague, almost like trying to recall the appearance of a distant relative you see occasionally. It made no sense since she saw Lane in Lloyd’s office two weeks ago.

However, Adele immediately recognized that his attitude, manner of speech and even his expressions appeared different. Even talking about himself in the third person made her stop to consider his actions. Everything was too strange for her to understand, which left her with one thought. He’s planning something. Adele heard him saying that his future was what he made of it.

Nothing about us!

Sniffling, Adele wiped her tears and cleaned the kitchen counter of the leftovers that Lane left. After putting away the milk bottle, the woman quietly walked into the narrow hall, pausing by the door of the spare bedroom. Too many terrible memories of him outweighed the good times in her mind. Isolation and degradation in his words hurt over the years.

At times, Adele wanted Lane to lash out at her. At least he’d be human and show emotion about his wife. The vicious punch that she saw Lane inflect on Lloyd came back to her. For a moment, her husband appeared happy to fight. It was another uncharacteristic thing about him.

Adele believed the only reason that Lane became a private detective is it allowed him to spy on people. Early in the marriage, she read through his black book one time. The highly personal and damaging information he got about many people in the city bothered her. She begged him to find another path to keep him occupied, but he dismissed her pleas.

What did he mean by fixing things?

She wrapped her arms together, debating for a moment, then Adele Dagger walked into the master bedroom and closed the door.