Twisted: Brides of the Kindred 23 Read online

  So she’d had no choice but to cede the lucrative sale to Missy—who would probably use the commission to get herself a week at one of those spa yoga retreats she was always talking about or something equally frivolous. Nikki wished she could go away on some kind of retreat but between the twins’ therapy, sports, and school commitments plus the endless laundry, cooking, and cleaning there always was to do, she was lucky to get a minute to herself, let alone a whole week.

  The rest of the day at work wasn’t much better—she got a call from Jude’s high school telling her that he had cheated on his Biology exam and skipped sixth period again and a reminder from the twins’ middle school that both their 504 plan meetings were coming up. Somehow she would have to try and make time in her busy schedule to get to their school or their services would doubtless be slashed.

  Well maybe Gary could help for once, she’d thought, without much hope. He had an hour long lunch break every day—which was more than she could say for herself. Mostly she ate fast food as she rushed from one listing to another, trying to make sure everything looked perfect for the multiple showings Missy did every day. At the very least, he could have a talk with Jude about his bad behavior.

  They needed to do something about their oldest son before his life went completely down the drain. Maybe with both of them working they could afford a private school—ever since he’d started high school, he’d been getting into trouble and Nikki really felt like it was because he’d gotten into the wrong group of kids and they were dragging him down and having a bad influence on him.

  Work worries and kid troubles filled her brain all day as she struggled to get the twins to therapy and make sure that Jude had really gone to soccer practice instead of ditching to hang out with his disreputable friends. By the time she had struggled through the twins’ confusing common core math assignments and made Jude at least attempt his own homework, Nikki was exhausted. For dinner, she simply threw a frozen pizza in the oven and opened a bag of pre-chopped salad. It might not be a home-cooked meal, but it was literally all she could manage at the moment.

  After a silent supper where Gary paid more attention to his cell phone than his family, Jude picked at his food and scowled, and the twins bickered and fought endlessly, she was finally able to get her husband alone.

  “We need to talk,” she began, coming into his “man cave” and shutting the door behind her, to be certain they weren’t overheard.

  “Now?” A look of irritation had passed over Gary’s pudgy features as he craned his neck to look around her—his attention glued to the TV where the Bucks were playing.

  “Yes, now,” Nikki said firmly, planting herself in front of the TV. “Jude’s in trouble, Gary, and I really think…”

  “All right, fine. You want to talk? We’ll talk. Just make it quick—the Bucks are winning for the first time this season and I don’t want to miss the whole damn game.”

  Punching the remote control, Gary muted the game and glared up at her from his Lazy-boy recliner. The one with built in heat and massage features that Nikki had scrimped and saved to buy him as a Christmas present the first year she went back to work after the twins finally entered middle school.

  “Well? Go ahead—talk,” he snarled.

  Nikki was a little taken aback at his open irritation, but it wasn’t like they could put this off—she needed his help with the boys. She went into detail about what was going on with their oldest son and also how she needed some help making it to the 504 meetings for the twins. Gary listened impatiently, his eyes straying often to the muted screen and just as often to his cell phone.

  “Are you done?” he demanded when she finally finished.

  “Well…yes.” Nikki looked at him uncertainly. “Gary, if you’d just talk to Jude—he won’t listen to me anymore.”

  “Hell, Nikki—he won’t listen to anyone. He’s a teenager. But he’ll come back around in a few years.” Her husband gave a snort of impatience. “And as for the twins, we agreed back when we had kids that I would do the real work and you would deal with them—remember? So I’m afraid you’re on your own for that meeting. You’ll just have to work it out somehow.”

  “But I’m working again now too,” Nikki reminded him. “I have been for the past two years and it’s really hard to juggle a job and all three boys and their schools at the same time. I know you make more money than me, Gary, but I really think—”

  He held up a hand to stop her.

  “I’m sorry, Nikki, but I can’t do this anymore. I can’t pretend anymore,” he said. Abruptly, he got out of his chair and started to pace.

  “Do what? Pretend what?” Nikki had a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach but she told herself her husband of sixteen years must be kidding around. Or maybe he just needed to blow off some steam.

  What about me? Don’t I ever get to blow off steam? she thought resentfully. But of course she didn’t—she was a mom and a wife and her needs always came last.

  But then her husband’s next words blew everything else out of her mind.

  “I can’t pretend to be invested in this relationship anymore,” he said, frowning. “It’s too much work—too much pressure. I can’t live like this anymore.”

  “Too much pressure? What are you talking about?” Nikki demanded. Suddenly all the stress of the day had come down on her and she heard a stream of words—words she usually suppressed—pouring out like a torrent of dirty water.

  “I do all the work around here, Gary!” she exclaimed. “I take the boys to school and pick them up and take them to therapy and soccer practice and make them do their homework and do their laundry—yours too—and make dinner and make sure everyone gets to bed on time and all while I hold down a full-time job! All you do is go to work and come home to eat dinner and lounge around your man cave drinking beer until it’s time to go to bed! All I’m asking for is a little help parenting your sons. Is that so much to ask?”

  Gary had given her a nasty look, but he hadn’t said a word. Instead, he went across the room to his roll-top desk and opened a cabinet on the side. He pulled out a thick sheaf of paperwork and handed it to her silently.

  “What’s this?” Nikki had taken the papers uncertainly. Looking down at the top sheet she read, “Petition for Dissolution of Marriage with Dependent or Minor Children and Relocation.”

  The coldness in the pit of her stomach was growing but she still didn’t understand, couldn’t let herself understand.

  “What is this?” she asked again, looking up from the papers. “What are you trying to tell me?”

  “Isn’t it obvious, Nikki? I want a divorce.” Her husband waved at the papers. “I know this is bad timing—what with tomorrow being your birthday and all. I was trying to be considerate and wait until after it was over, at least. But I just can’t take it anymore.”

  “But…I don’t understand.” Nikki shook her head. Now the coldness had been replaced with the feeling that she’d been punched in the gut with a lead-weighted glove. “It’s not like I deny you sex,” she pointed out. Although come to think of it, Gary hadn’t been interested in making love with her in months. “Is there another woman? Is that why you’re doing this?”

  “Of course not!” Gary denied, but his eyes slid past hers and he refused to look at her when he said it. “Although if there was, you could hardly blame me,” he went on defensively.

  “What?” Nikki put a hand on her hip. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I mean, just look at yourself, Nikki—you’ve really let yourself go these past few years. What size are you now? Sixteen? Eighteen? Extra-extra large?”

  “Extra-extra large?” Nikki exclaimed—she was still fighting to believe what was going on here. And the fact that Gary was calling her fat was really rich—he had a prominent beer gut himself, mostly from laying around in his recliner drinking beer while she did literally all of the housework.

  He scowled and waved a hand in the air.

  “I don’t know—I don’t
know women’s sizes. I’m just saying, you could stand to lose a few pounds. And it wouldn’t hurt if you got your hair dyed once in a while too. You’re really going gray up there…” he pointed to his own balding pate. “And it’s just not attractive.”

  The irony of her balding, pudgy husband telling her that he didn’t find her attractive anymore wasn’t lost on Nikki. But the fact was, she was still so shocked and hurt that he had handed her a sheaf of divorce papers, she barely knew what to say.

  “Plus, you’re always nagging me,” Gary went on, scowling. “I can’t take it anymore. So I’m sorry, but I think I need to leave by the end of this week. We can hash the details out in court later. You can have custody of the kids, of course,” he added, as though he was doing her a huge favor. “I won’t contest that. But we’ll have to sell the house—I can’t afford the mortgage on this place and my new apartment too.”

  “New apartment?” Nikki felt numb. “You mean you already found another place to live?”

  “Just planning ahead.” He shrugged. “Don’t worry—I’m not leaving tonight. I’ll need at least a day or two to pack up my things.”

  “But…but what about the boys?” Nikki managed to get out.

  “I’ll see them every other weekend.” Gary sounded like he had the whole thing worked out. “They still need a father’s influence, after all. Other than that, I’ll be out of your life and you’ll be out of mine.”

  “But…but I…” Nikki didn’t know what to say, what to think. She’d known that their marriage was getting kind of stale, but she had never expected this. It was like Gary had sucker-punched her right in the gut and she couldn’t get her wind back.

  “That’s all I have to say right now.” And before she knew it, he was pushing her out the door. “Like I said—we can work out the fine print later.” Then the door of his man cave closed firmly in her face and there was a clicking sound as he turned the lock. Then the TV unmuted and the sound of the Bucks game was blaring through the door, just as though nothing had happened.

  Nikki had felt stunned…in shock, and the feeling had persisted through the sleepless night and into the morning. She had signed the divorce papers numbly and left them where Gary could find them—it had seemed the only thing she could do.

  At breakfast, Jude’s sullen silence and the twin’s bickering had washed over her as she watched her soon-to-be-ex-husband leave the house with a spring in his step. He was even whistling a jaunty little tune and he had the look of a man who’d had a burden lifted from his shoulders.

  Was that all we were to him? A burden? Nikki wondered numbly. She found herself going after him—wanting to confront him and demand an explanation. But as she followed him out onto the front porch of their house, she saw him put his cell phone to his ear and heard him say,

  “Guess what? I finally told her! That’s right—we can finally be together, babe. Just like I promised you. I know—I love you too.”

  Then he was gone, climbing into his late model Mercedes and speeding down their residential street even though their Home Owners Association had posted strict speed limit signs that admonished residents to go no higher than 20 mph in the neighborhood.

  Somehow Nikki had gotten the boys to their various schools but after that, she found herself on the interstate instead of the road that would take her to work. She would probably get into trouble and Missy would tattle on her and she really couldn’t be risking her job now that she was suddenly going to be a single mom but somehow she couldn’t make herself go into Rosy Ray’s Realty and deal with clients and customers and the smug, skinny Missy right now. She needed to be alone…she needed to think.

  And right now, what she was thinking about was killing herself.

  Nikki took a step into the chilly surf…and then another, letting the cold, foamy waves wash over her bare feet. It was March but this was Tampa Bay, which meant prime beach weather was just around the corner.

  She had taken off her basic black working-woman blazer and left it in a heap along with her purse and shoes a few yards back in the softer sand. She looked out to sea, watching as the seagulls wheeled and called above the restless ocean.

  This is crazy right? I shouldn’t do this—shouldn’t off myself. Who will take care of the boys if I do?

  But she knew the answer to that—if she was out of the picture, Gary would be forced to become a more hands-on father to his kids. Maybe then he would realize he couldn’t just run off with another woman and abdicate all his parental responsibility because he was “tired of all the stress.”

  “You don’t even know what stress is, you son-of-a-bitch,” Nikki muttered angrily. “You have no idea what it’s like to wait on everyone hand and foot and try to work and get all the laundry and cooking and cleaning and homework done all at once! You have no clue what it’s like to worry about our kids because you always just leave them to me! You don’t know and don’t care how much I do for you—none of you do!” she added, including her boys in the mix.

  But then again, they never would understand how much she did to keep their lives running smoothly if things went on like they were now. They would all just go on taking her for granted and doing whatever the hell they wanted without even being aware that she was always there cleaning up their messes behind them.

  Nikki sighed heavily.

  Killing herself definitely wasn’t the answer. But it would be nice if she could just disappear for a little while—just long enough to let the ungrateful males in her life know what they were missing. Maybe if she wasn’t always there to rely on, Gary would be a better father and Jude would stop screwing around and the twins would settle down and Missy would have to do her own paperwork and couldn’t steal Nikki’s listings and—

  Her thoughts cut off abruptly when something sharp jabbed into the sole of her bare right food.

  “Ow!” Nikki hopped up and down, grabbing for her hurt foot instinctively. “What the hell?”

  Looking down, she saw something strange half-buried in the shifting sand where her foot had been planted. A smooth, flat rock, about as big as a large M&M candy winked up at her. Nikki frowned. It might have been a trick of the light, but she could have sworn that the stone was purple, and glittering with shimmering, iridescent rainbows like the shifting pattern on an oil-slick after a rainstorm.

  What is that? Some kind of jewel?

  She reached for it instinctively but just as she was about to touch it, she felt a strange tingling emanating from it that seemed to have nothing to do with the chilly waves rushing over her fingers.

  Dangerous! Don’t touch it! whispered a little voice in her head. Leave it alone, Nikki—it’s bad news!

  But just then another rushing wave dislodged the shiny purple stone and it started to wash away with the surf.

  “No, wait!” Nikki exclaimed out loud. Reaching for it again, she grabbed the stone and clasped it tightly in her palm, heedless of the strange tingling it gave off. It was probably just a by-product of the icy water, anyway, she told herself.

  But rather than fading, the tingling began to grow until it spread from her clenched fist, up to her arm and then into her shoulder. Soon, Nikki felt like her entire body was vibrating like someone getting a violent electrical shock.

  Frightened now, she tried to drop the stone but found she couldn’t—her fingers were clenched tight around the strange purple stone and they wouldn’t let go. She had the feeling of her muscles contracting involuntarily—the way they do when a strong electrical current runs through your body. She couldn’t even fling the stone away—it was like it was stuck to her hand and her fingers were glued shut around it.

  “Hey!” she gasped, shaking her arm and trying to get her clenched fist to open. “Hey, what is this? What—”

  But whatever she had been about to say, the words were torn from her lips and became nothing as she was suddenly hurling through a vast, black void she’d never seen before.

  Flashing lights flew past her and Nikki had the sensation of
traveling at tremendous speed. A speed so fast, maybe, that it violated the laws of physics. But that wasn’t possible, was it? How could she possibly…

  And then suddenly her head was under water and she was drowning…gasping and choking and clawing to the surface as she tried desperately to breathe.

  Well, so much for killing yourself, a dry little voice in her head remarked. Clearly you don’t want to drown, anyway.

  No—of course she didn’t want to drown! Nikki sat up spluttering, and pushed a sheaf of her soaked hair out of her eyes. Then she looked around, trying to see where she had landed after the strange, rushing trip. Had she somehow tripped and fallen into the ocean? She was certainly all wet.

  There was a sharp, coppery reek in the air and the strange rock was still clutched in her hand. As she lifted it, a trickle of crimson ran down Nikki’s arm.

  Wait a minute—crimson? What kind of liquid was this? She hadn’t fallen into the ocean as she’d first suspected—that much was clear.

  Her eyes widened as she focused on her immediate surroundings and looked down at herself.

  “Oh my God,” she gasped in a low, trembling voice.

  She was sitting in a kind of bathtub—a bathtub filled with blood.

  Chapter Two

  “Oh my God—what the hell?”

  Nikki stood at once and then saw that not only was she covered in blood—she was also completely naked. The blood was everywhere—matted in her hair, dripping from her body, grimed under her fingernails like thick red paint…

  “Ugh!” She felt like she might be sick. This is horrible! Where am I? And how did I get here?

  Also, whose blood had she found herself soaking in? But she didn’t want to think about that—it was too horrible to contemplate.

  She looked around the room and saw that she was in some kind of an opulent spa-like chamber. There were lapis lazuli and golden tiles worked in intricate patterns on the walls and soft, golden light coming from the ceiling. The tub she was in was imbedded in a kind of spiral structure, like a seashell laid on its side. The wide spiral arm of it was divided into triangular wedge-shaped pools or tubs. They were all about five feet long and three feet wide at their widest point and all of them were filled with different colored liquids.