Page 11 of Love Sick

Rage runs through me, and I know it’s not just mine—but Misha’s as well.

When I first met Joy, Misha didn’t say a word. I could feel his disgust—I just didn’t understand why. But now I do.

“She spoke about you with nothing but love and you thank her by throwing her ass into an asylum and betraying her. Oh, I forgot to add, and killing her son.”

The color from Joy’s face drains and she wavers on her feet. “It was supposed to be her!”

So Mishawasright. Joy did think Luna was the one driving the car. The guilt she must feel for that oversight which killed her lover.

“Joy, enough,” Alanna warns, shaking her head.

She knows I’m taking this all in and making sense of a fucked-up situation which she wishes me to remain in the dark about.

“Why?” I ask Joy, needing answers. I need to know why she’d work with Alanna when she can see she is clearly insane.

“Don’t you dare,” Alanna cautions Joy, but it’s apparent by the tears streaming down Joy’s cheeks that she can no longer live with what she’s done.

“I needed the m-money,” she confesses, her lower lip trembling. “I was going to lose my house. I was going to lose everything. But Luna…she’s always had it all. The perfect looks. The perfect life. She’s worth a lot of money and if anything were to happen to her…then that money would be mine. She left everything to me…after Misha, that is. I didn’t want him dead. You have to believe me! I wanted to share everything with him! I wanted to be with him. I loved him! Please, believe me!”

Misha’s pain and betrayal lingers on my tongue—it tastes of bitter lemons.

Alanna sighs, annoyed by Joy’s weakness, it seems.

“So all of this was for money? You destroyed your best friend because you’re a greedy bitch?” I scream, suddenly thankful I’m restrained because I would have no qualms killing Joy with my bare hands.

But the plot…it thickens when she shakes her head slowly, her mouth downturned.

“The money wasn’t for me…it was for him. So we could be one big happy family. He loved me!”

“Misha?” I ask, but that makes no sense. He was the one who would inherit it all if Luna died. Was Joy worried she wouldn’t see a dime of it?

I don’t understand.

Joy slumps into the seat and begins to sob. “For Jonathan.”

I open but soon close my mouth because I have no idea what to say.

“He needed it.”

“How do you know Alanna?” I ask, but I think I already know.

“She is his doctor. She said she can save his life with a new heart.”

Oh my motherfucking…fuck!

Before I know what’s happening, Joy blinks once, before a trickle of blood seeps down her forehead and into her eye, before slithering into her parted mouth. She looks like a fish starved for oxygen, and that’s all thanks to Alanna hitting her in the head with a hammer.

Joy loses consciousness and slides onto the floor with Alanna standing above her, specks of Joy’s blood coating her face.

“She talks too much,” she simply says with a carefree shrug.

I watch in horror as she places the hammer onto the table, before gripping Joy by the ankles and dragging her from the room. She whistles a tune as she does so, leaving a trail of smudged blood on the white tiles.

I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it with my own eyes. I still don’t. But I heard Joy loud and clear. She knows Jonathan and there’s no doubt it’s the same Jonathan Alanna rode like a pony into next week.

I don’t know what’s going on because although I’ve been given answers, I am left with more questions.

Alanna returns, and when I see the syringe and bottle in her hand, I shrink back, shaking my head violently.

---