Page 69 of Borden 3

“I did nothing,” he viciously replied, looking at me now with a thunderous expression. I’d never seen him so angry. “I just saw an opportunity and I took it, alright? That’s all.” His face tightened as he stared at me, catching the step I took away from me. “You don’t believe me.”

My stomach ached. Fear coiled inside of me as I stared at him, but I wasn’t really looking at him anymore. I was thinking of all the blood I’d stepped in. I continued to inch away from him, trembling like a leaf.

“I didn’t hurt anyone,” he said. “I didn’t, Emma. Why are you looking at me like that? You look like THEM!” He shrieked now, livid. “You’re like them, aren’t you? I fucking knew it. You don’t fucking believe me!”

I continued to say nothing. He punched the wall with his bare fist and then he stood up, lugging the backpack over his shoulder. “I fucking hate you, Emma,” he growled, his voice breaking. “I fucking hate you for being like them.”

Then he took off, leaving me completely alone.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Emma

The traffic was bad. Hector sat behind the wheel, drumming his fingers along the steering wheel. He was tense and agitated. He hadn’t said a word since we’d left. He wouldn’t even look at me.

I looked out the window from next to him, staring blankly at the sidewalks and the sky.

Cutting the silence short, I asked, “You’re going to tell Borden, aren’t you?”

His voice was all bite. “Yeah.”

“It’s not something I can talk you out of?”

“You honestly want me to fucking lie to your husband? Is that something you fucking do, Emma?”

I would normally feel enraged at that sort of question, but I was calm. “It’s not that.”

“Then what is it?”

“Borden will go mad.”

“Do you fucking blame him? You went straight to that weird fuck. You put yourself in danger.”

“You didn’t stop me from going in.”

“I expected a room full of fucking junkies.”

“He’ll blame you for it.”

Hector let out a cold laugh. “He’d be right to. I didn’t think…” He shook his head, lost for words for a moment. “I didn’t think I’d ever believe you’d be hanging around someone like that.”

Now I looked at him, curiously. “Thought I was a clean flower my whole life, Hector?”

He shrugged, nonchalantly. “I heard about your story. About your ma and shit. I knew you came up hard, but you had a fucking granny. Heard she gave Borden a hard time, and I’ve been around her, so I fucking know she’s tough as shit. I can’t see a version of reality in which she’d fucking let you out the door with the likes of that guy.”

“What sort of guy do you think he is?”

“Fucking poison.”

“He’s more like tar,” I corrected him. “Once you get him on you, he’s impossible to wash off.”

Hector’s eyes drifted to mine. He took a moment before asking, “How’d you wash him off then?”

“With time. But there are parts still…parts he’s still attached to.”

“I get that,” he muttered under his breath, looking back out at the streets.

“I know.”

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