Page 65 of The Bitter Truth

“I spoke to Anita. She told me about the foreign accounts that I found out are linked to Boaz and some other man named Tommaso Barone. These are the men you had handle the situation with Brynn in New Orleans, right? She told me the story, about how she was buried. Alive.”

“No no no no. He said she was dead.”

“Well, she’s alive, honey. She was still breathing, but Boaz kept piling dirt on her, hoping she’d suffocate. But her friend followed Boaz. Shavonne? She saw the whole thing. She has pictures of Brynn on the floor in John’s house.”

Dominic’s breaths become erratic, and it feels like the walls of the cabin are closing in on him.

“While also talking to Anita, I found out that there is a third account money was going to. Money to a woman and former bully of mine named Michelle Dawson. It’s strange that you’d think I’d be so naïve as to not find out. What, you tell Anita not to worry me about selling hundreds of shares from my father’s company and that would be it? Do you forget who my mother is? She lives to see me fuck up! I never should’ve trusted you! I mean, what the hell was I thinking making a joint account with you!”

Dominic’s jaw pulses. Right now, would be a good time to rip out of these cords, shoot Jo, and salvage the situation. He could lie and say the women attacked him, dragged him and his wife there, then killed her but he shot them before they could come for him. He could make it work. He could.

“You know the story about Michelle. She was the one who created the name Fat Jo.” Jolene stares into his eyes. “She had the majority of the campus referring to me as that. Some people literally thought I went by that name and that I was okay with it. And all this time, Dom, you’ve been seeing her behind my back. All these years. Trust me, I was very upset to hear what you did to Brynn, but this? This shit with Michelle was my last straw.” She chokes on her words. “I’m curious to know if this was her plan? To get you to come after me? To marry me, just so you two could have the life you wanted? I see she has a five-year-old now too. He looks just like you.”

“Jo,” Dominic rasps. “Michelle doesn’t know anything about how the money gets into that account. This has nothing to do with them.”

“Doesn’t it? You’ve been stealing money from me and sending it to her. All those times when you told me you had to take a weekend away, or that you had business during some of the most bizarre times of the years, even the holidays, you were with them. All this time, you’ve had a whole other life. But I thought you didn’t want kids. Or did you just not want them with the fat girl from college? Is the amputee better?”

“Jo, it’s not like that, I promise you,” he pleads. “I love you, okay? I loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you.”

“That’s funny because you never used to play football by the gym until I started going there. Just like a man to pop up when a woman is finally trying to do right by herself.” She scoffs. “Michelle told you to come to me. She told you to use me. I know she did because she confirmed it when I DM’d her. I told her I’d report the money she withdraws from your account as fraud, and she got scared. She told me everything!” Jo picks the gun up again and points it at his face.

“Jo, please! Just let me out of these cords and we can work it all out. I—I won’t send Michelle anything else. I can end it all. I promise you.”

Jolene stares at him a moment, and it’s almost like she wants to believe him. But then she picks up her phone, dials 9-1-1, and puts it on speaker. When he hears the voice on the other end answer the call, Jolene screams to the top of her lungs. “HELP! This is Jolene Baker! I—I need help, please! My husband—he has these girls and now he’s trying to kill me!” She’s hysterical, eyes round, veins popping out of her neck. “Please get here now! I’m in a cabin—uh, I think it’s on Briggs Lane! Please he’s going to—” Jolene ends the call, and she’s calm again.

“What the hell?” Dominic mutters. “What did you do? Why would you say that?” he shouts.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Jo says, pushing out of her chair. It’s like she didn’t hear him at all. “A friend of mine is on his way to this cabin right now. He’s coming because I gave him a call and told him I was worried about you and needed his help.”

“Who is this friend?” Dominic snaps.

It almost looks like she smirks, but he can’t tell in the dark. “You’ll see. Brynn and Shavonne are the women you abducted because they have information that can ruin you. My friend will arrive and see the chaos and blood everywhere, he’ll punch you in the face and knock you out again. Shortly after, the police will knock the door down and find my friend holding me to make sure I’m alive. When I come to, I will tell the police everything that happened. That I was worried, so I found you at this location. I saw what you’d done to those women, how you drugged and chloroformed them, so I called my friend to let him know I was scared and needed his help to de-escalate the situation. I tried to stop you, but you knocked me out and hurt me really badly. You were in the middle of cleaning the bloody mess you’d made with Boaz—the man who assisted you but then turned against you—while I was out cold, until my friend arrived, which caught you by surprise. You two got into a fight, and he won.” Jolene steps around him and moves through the cabin to check the windows. Just as she does, headlights flash through the house.

Rage courses through Dominic and he rocks in the chair. It tips over and he lands on his side with a hard slam. Jolene turns to look at him, watching as he fidgets and kicks his feet while calling her all kind of terrible names. Footsteps drum up the stoop, then the front door opens.

When he sees Samuel Sanchez, he knows.

This setup was arranged a long, long time ago and now it’s over for him.

SIXTY-FIVE

JOLENE

“Jo, hi,” Sam says as he enters the cabin. He’s dressed casually—jeans, a T-shirt, and Nike running shoes. My heart thumps double-speed at the sight of him. I want to sink into his arms, let him hold me for the rest of the night, but we have to finish what we’ve started.

“Hi,” I whisper.

Sam walks past me, his footsteps heavy as he makes his way toward Dominic. Dominic is fuming, breathing raggedly through his mouth as he shakes and jerks in the chair.

“Ah, I hate to see you go down this way, old friend,” Sam sighs.

“Fuck you!” Dominic hisses.

Sam blinks at him, then he sighs and moves around the back of Dominic’s chair to pick it up. When Dominic is upright again, Sam stands in front of him.

“She’s just using you,” Dominic snarls. “Don’t you see that?”

Sam’s head tips before he shifts his gaze to me. “Now?”

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