Page 19 of Love Sick

Joy tugs at the leather restraints around her wrists, but they’re done up tight.

“I didn’t mean to hurt him,” she says, and I know she means Misha.

“What about her?” I spit, disgusted she’s playing the sympathy card.

“If I could take it back, I would.” She bursts into sobs. “Alanna promised me he would be okay. I didn’t want to do it, but he stopped talking to me. I thought if I did it, he’d come back to me.”

“Jonathan?” I ask because I need to know just who this asshole is.

She nods.

He stopped talking because he’s dead…but I leave out that minor detail for now.

“Who is he?”

Joy sniffs back her tears. “I can’t—”

“If you want to get out of here, then you need to trust me because I have no doubt Alanna will kill you.”

Joy senses the seriousness of my tone, and her lower lip trembles. I would feel sorry for her if she didn’t betray Luna in the worst possible way, but as far as I’m concerned, if Alanna doesn’t kill her, then I will.

“Jonathan is my lover,” she confesses sadly. “He has been for many years.”

I know next to nothing about Joy other than she is a lying bitch. But in this circumstance, I believe her.

“Then why were you fucking around with Misha for so long?”

She lowers her eyes, ashamed. “I loved him. I loved them both.”

That isn’t love.

That is greed. And obsession.

My heart begins to ache and I know that’s because Misha is listening.

“Do you know who Misha’s father is?” I ask the question which killed Misha because he believed Joy knew.

All he wanted was answers which he hoped would help him identify what was “wrong” with him. He didn’t understand why Luna never told him. He was forever angry at her for the fact.

Joy nods once again.

“Who is it?”

She never has the chance to answer because Alanna enters the room humming, wheeling in the man of the hour. Horror overtakes Joy when she sees the very dead corpse in the hospital bed.

While me? I’m annoyed my answer remains unanswered.

Alanna positions Jonathan across from Joy and I know this is done with intent.

“W-who is that?” The terror in Joy’s voice only feeds a sicko like Alanna.

Alanna smiles, but doesn’t reply. Instead, she walks over the partition which conceals her wedding dress. She wheels it away, unveiling it with pride.

“That is my fiancé,” she finally reveals, stroking over the beads on her dress.

“Is?” Joy questions, confused why Alanna is speaking about him in the present tense.

Alanna doesn’t bother entertaining her with a reply. “I don’t know what to do with you, Joy. You’ve seen too much.”

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