Page 77 of Good Girl

“Sorry, I was asleep—” My offered words died as I opened the door and I came face to face with the man on the other side. Seeing him was such a sudden disconnect from everything that had happened that I just stood there for a moment, holding onto the door.

“Jonathan? What the hell are you doing here?”

Without a word, Jonathan surged forward and used his bulk to shove open the door. I stumbled back as the wood slipped from my grip and Jonathan pushed his way inside. Every alarm bell in my mind screamed wildly as Jonathan pushed me backward into the lounge despite my protests.

“Jonathan, what the hell— you can’t be in here, what the fuck?”

“Surprised to see me?” Jonathan spat as I stumbled to a stop a few feet away from him. His hair was wild, sticking up in all directions, and his stained shirt was buttoned up crookedly. He licked his lips and sniffed harshly as his thin lips twisted into a smile. “Happy to see me, or are you too good for me now that you’re a whore?”

The words cut through me like ice, and I wrapped my arms around my middle.

“Jonathan, what are you even doing here? How did you even know to come here? What on earth?”

“You think I’m not smart enough to work it out, huh?” Jonathan tapped two fingers to his temple. “You think I don’t know what’s going on?” As he turned and began to rapidly pace in front of me, something black glinted in his left hand and my heart screeched to a halt.

“Jonathan... Why do you have a gun?”

He paused and glanced down at the weapon, a small black handgun, then back up to me. “It doesn’t fucking matter, Charlotte. It has nothing to do with anything but you! Oh,you.” His arms raised, becoming animated as he spoke, and I was rooted to the spot, transfixed with the gun in his hand.

“Then–then explain it to me,” I managed shakily, “because I have no fucking clue.”

“Ilovedyou, Charlotte, y’know? I loved you and you...” The gun waved in my direction, and I forced myself to take a small step back. “You ruined my fucking life.”

“I–I did?”

“And you’re not worth it. I mean, look at you... you paint yourself so prim and perfect. This bitch that can do no wrong, but you and me? We were supposed to be together forever, you were the only good thing in my life, and how fucked up is that becauselookat you.” His laugh barely reached me, his words nothing more than droplets in the ocean of self-deprecation I’d already flooded myself with over the years.

Nothing seemed real with that gun in his hands.

“And then you dumped me and you spewed all those lies. Did you ever stop to think about what would happen when other people heard the shit you spread?” Jonathan’s pacing ended abruptly, and my heart leaped into my throat when he pointed at me with the weapon once more.

“Lies?”

“Telling your mother that I tried to force myself on you, that I kept trying to sleep with you when you didn’t want me to. You told her I was this terrible, awful person who controlled who your friends were and never showed any interest in you as a person, and what did Mother Dearest do? She told her gossiping little friends, and your lies became truth in people’s eyes.” Jonathan’s eyes narrowed, and a dark shadow passed over his face. “You went to the city, and I had to live with those lies.”

Lies? I couldn’t understand how he was able to stand there and act like none of that happened in our relationship. Had he honestly warped his view of things to ignore his actions?

“Jonathan,” I tried. “That’s whathappened. I didn’t lie. You were awful to me, and I’m sorry that people learned that, but I’m not ashamed of standing up for myself and—”

“But you’re a liar!” Jonathan yelled suddenly, and fear silenced me. “You’re a fucking liar, but you know, I decided to forgive you. I went looking for you to see if we could talk, if I could get you to take back all your filthy lies, and what happens? That new man interrupted us.”

“Matt?” Back at the supermarket when I bumped into Jonathan, it wasn’t an accident? As it dawned on me that Jonathan had intentionally been looking for me, my stomach began to twist. “Jonathan... that was never going to happen, we were—”

Jonathan surged forward, and to my horror, he suddenly stuck me hard across the face. “Shut up!”

Pain exploded over the left-hand side of my face, and I clutched at my cheek as I stumbled backward, tears flooding into my eyes.

“Shut up, shut up,” Jonathan snarled again, and he bore down on me with such hatred in his eyes that all other thoughts fled my mind.

A cold realization swept through my mind.

He was going to kill me... wasn’t he?

“You were supposed to bemine, Charlotte. We’d get back together and you’d tell everyone you lied and we... things would go back to normal, but no, that bastard got in the way. I saw you leave on his fucking bike and I thought, there’s no fucking way you’ve got someone else. Imagine my disgust when I learned he was ateacher.”

“You organized lunch,” I realized weakly, “not my mother.”

“She was desperate for it,” Jonathan sneered. “See, it didn’t take me long to persuade her that you were a liar. I just had to bide my time, and she was sohappyto see me giving you a second chance.”

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