Till Life Do Us Part

Chapter 1

7 years later.................

The door opened before she could even knock. She never understood how he did that. On several occasions she had asked him how he always knew when she was at the door but he had always chuckled and smoothly evaded the question. But she wasn't stupid and had suspected that something was off. At the beginning she had tried not to think too much of it but recently, she couldn't help her growing irritation towards him as the taunts imcreased. Even more so when he "conveniently" began to guess her exact locations. Then she had totally lost it yesterday when they had had the fight. She had conducted an all out search and luckily for her, the results of her search sat comfortably in the front pockets of her coat.

He opened the door smiling but one look at her face had his radiant beam dimming. Sensing an outburst, he moved aside and bid her come in. She stalked in and pointedly went ahead to lean on the nearest chair, passing the message that she was in no mood to sit or go into the bedroom. Her gaze remained fixated on him as he shut the door and turned back to her, his smile regaining it's brightness once again. She had once found that attractive, his ability to maintain a poker face even in the most pressurizing situations. Lately she found herself bristling with irritation anytime he did that. 

He was naked and intentionally so, she suspected. But her eyes didn't rake over him hungrily like they would have years ago. Neither did she feel a spark of desire. 

"Put some clothes on". She didn't even try too hard to infuse the boredom into her voice. He walked over to her leisurely, obviously trying to give her ample time to make her regret her words. She couldn't believe this display. c*****g an eyebrow mockingly, she finally let her gaze wander. His skin was as pale as curdled milk and he had a fine spritz of thick blond hair everywhere possible. He worked hard for his body and his efforts paid off well,she had to give him that. Making a point of letting her eyes rake over him slowly, she finally raised her gaze back to his face and prayed to God he could see the indifference and boredom in her eyes. She knew he did when she saw his neck flush ever so faintly.  Obviously he wasn't used to having an indifferent effect on her. And women in general.

He finally came to a stop in front of her and tilted her chin to stare into her eyes before slowly lowering his mouth to brush little kisses on her jawline. She tightened her folded arms in between them and made sure to get her point across clearly. But he chose to ignore it as he pressed his body into hers, sending her stumbling back a few steps. Highly irritated now, she put her hands on his chest to hold him off and clashed her stony gaze with his. 

"Put some clothes on". She whispered sensually, almost like a lover would. She saw his lust filled eyes turn confused before she pushed away from him and made her way to the other side of the room, settling into one of the chairs and folding her arms in emphasis. She meant business. 

"I'm sure you don't really need me dressed to say what you have to say". He said as he settled into one of the plush chairs too. She heard the slyness in his voice and only barely managed to stop herself from wrinkling her nose in disgust. He probably thought she would argue. But she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of thinking his nudity was such a big distraction to her. Mainly because it wasn't. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the bug and placed it on the coffee table. She saw when his eyes flashed in realization. So it was his after all.

"Why are you bugging me?". She could practically see the wheels in his head whirring as he debated whether to outrightly lie or come clean. "Don't even think of lying to me" Her voice trembled with anger.

He looked away and ran his fingers through his hair and when he finally turned back to her, he had his poker face on again. Her hands itched to slap it right off. But she kept her hands folded in her laps instead, setting her mouth in a tight line. 

"Danica......it's not what it looks like".

"It's not?" She c****d an eyebrow for a more dramatic effect. 

"Baby......" He rose from his seat and made his way to her, his nakedness totally forgotten as he came to a stop in front of her, settling into the arm of her chair and taking her hand in his. She yanked her hand away and stood up, aiming to gain as much advantage of height as her 5'3 stature would allow ".......everything I do is all out of love for you I swear. I only had it installed to......."

"Monitor my movements obviously" She remembered the hot flush of anger that she had experienced as she discovered the little bug, carefully installed in the little crevice of her glove compartment. "That's how you've been "conveniently"....." She emphasized the word with exaggerated hand quotes ".......able to guess my locations. Just like yesterday. And every other time!!!!" Her voice was dangerously rising and she struggled internally to regain composure. The SOB wasn't going to rile her up. He was simply not worth the energy "You've been so disappointing these days. And particularly more so since you became deluded enough to actually come up with those baseless accusations against me. And now this....." She gestured towards the bug angrily ".....how am I supposed to still bear any iota of respect for you right now Jackson? Huh?"

His jaw tightened so hard she was sure it must hurt. "My allegations still stand".

She laughed dryly in exasperation. "I told you so many times yesterday that I had only gone to the pub to grab a drink. I'm not cheating on you, you i***t!!!!!" She was practically snarling into his face. "You actually daring to accuse me of such is purely dehumanizing.....disrespectful....." Each word came with a poke to his chest "......embarrassing.....and most importantly, an insult to all the years you've claimed to know me". She stared him down before finally taking a few steps back and straightening her coat. "We are done Jackson. I can't do this anymore. I won't do this anymore". She didn't stay to register the colour drain from his face. Just as she made to open the door, she was halted by his voice. 

"You aren't leaving me Danica. You know you can't do without me".

She wanted to laugh hysterically at his statement but instead, merely pasted a daring expression on her face and turned to him. "Watch me, Jackson McMahon"

Just as she made to open the door, she was halted again. 

"I'll tell everyone. I mean it Danica". 

She had been expecting this. His trump card that had never failed him. As she slowly turned back to him, her entire being suddenly so cold, she couldn't help wondering whatever had gotten her attracted to this monster in the first place. 

She remembered the first day she had met him 5 years ago, the day she had been detained, the day she had finally given in to the rebellion that had gradually started to trickle into her since regaining her memories 2 years earlier. Her memories. Refusing to believe the fact that she wasn't who she had thought she was, she had thought it best to fully ignore the little wisps of defiance that had crept into her heart. Several times she had been tempted to bully kids, snatch boyfriends, break things....people, and in general, be everything she was normally the opposite of. She had never given in, till that faithful day when she had decided to join her friends in toilet-papering a house. Just this one time, surely nothing could go wrong, she had thought. Till they had gotten caught and had been detained. She would never forget her mother's disappointed voice over the phone all the way from New York as she had told the Sheriff that this was absolutely unlike their daughter. She had disappointed her parents for the first time ever and had felt so ashamed of herself for letting her feelings of decades ago spill over and affect her negatively. She had disappointed herself on that day too. I'm no longer Melaniá, she had reassured herself as she had reproached herself thoroughly for her actions in the confines of her tiny cell.

Her parents had been ready to fly down to Atlanta but the kind, handsome, visiting Lieutenant had reassured them over the phone that everything was going to be fine and had bailed her. He had been 12 years older than her but she had been so flattered by the attention he had given her and the way he had smoothly given her back her ID card and said "Seems like we law enforcers just can't help breaking the law sometimes can we?" when he saw that she was in fact, fresh from the police academy. Her 21 year old self just hadn't been able to handle the coolness. From there, things had gradually progressed between them, he had even worked some connections to get her a job in the station he worked and just a year ago, he had personally taken care of her promotion. He had since then, been her only tether to the world as she had internally struggled to balance her incompatible emotions from 2 lifetimes. He had been her everything and together they had hurdled over the obstacles, including her parent's disapproval at their age difference and the stress of hiding their relationship from their co-workers. And they had been going good. Till he had started the taunts, reminding her at every opportunity that he hadn't forgotten that she had been practically blind the night he had met her.

Pinching herself back to the present, she looked at him squarely in the eye and raised her chin defiantly. Danica would have never done that, but right now, she didn't exactly feel like Danica either. 

"This is the exact reason my temper started growing short with you. You are so manipulative and...." She wrinkled her nose in disgust "......and sleazy to a degree." Her eyes grew hard. "You know what? I'll just let you go ahead and use your trump card all the way. You only have one chance after all. Go ahead Jackson, this is what you've always wanted after all". And with that, she made her way out and slammed the door behind her.

                         •••••••••••••••••••••

Her body shook on the way to her car. She couldn't control herself. But she knew he'd be watching through the window and she couldn't ruin her act of bravado now. Her hands shook as she unlocked the car and once inside, she sighed heavily in relief. She needed a moment to regain composure and Jackson's driveway wasn't the place for it. As fast as the car would allow, she raced out of the driveway in a squeal of tires and only when she was safely away from sighting distance of the house did she stop. She pulled over on the quiet road in the suburban neighborhood and rested her head on her steering wheel. Her heart was beating so fast and her mouth felt parched. 

A part of her knew this was right. She couldn't be with someone who hung her baggage over her head with every given opportunity. And yet a part of her wanted to go back and beg him to take back his words. To beg him not to tattle on her. He wouldn't really tell, would he? At this point he was so unpredictable she wasn't really sure of anything anymore. She would never know if he really intended to. Till he really did. Oh God how impulsive she had been!!! She suddenly wished she hadn't given in to the decades-old wisps of anger and defiance that often brimmed under her skin, eager to be let out. Maybe then she would have been able to end things in a more peaceful manner. But she knew in her heart that there was no peaceful way out with Jackson.

Raising her head from the wheel, she stared blindly down the brightly lit road that meandered all through the neighborhood, trying to calm her racing heart and get rid of the clammy sensation in her palms and feet.

She was going back up the neighborhood, marching straight back to Jackson's house, knocking on the door, catching him off guard when he opens by throwing all of her weight on him. Savoring the c***k of his skull as he hits the ground, his eyes widening, reaching for one of his little bronze figurines, smashing it into........

She snapped out of the imagination with a start and blinked the gruesome images out of her head. She wasn't being herself. She would never day dream of murdering someone in such a gruesome manner........but to her own chagrin, she realized that it didn't take too much effort to imagine herself killing someone.

No, she couldn't be like this again. 

She pulled down the sun visor and checked her face in the mirror. She was ashen but was relieved to notice that her heart no longer beat as before as she slapped some color back into her cheeks. Turning on the ignition, she sighed heavily before pulling back onto the main road and heading for the police station. Work was just the right thing to get her mind off everything. She had an all-nighter to pull.