His Dark Obsession

Chapter 52: A Fickle Man

"Elise?!" As Ian spoke that name, Tara was immediately reminded of the time she had heard Brooke mention Jake's ex-girlfriend.
Tara came up to stand behind Ian as the blonde woman confirmed Ian's suspicion, "I thought you wouldn't recognize me, Ian, after all, I am no celebrity like you and we have never met before."
"Did you kill him?!" As Ian asked Elise this question, Tara could see him barely in control of his rage.
"Yes. I did." Elise didn't even blink as she made the admission, the nonchalance with which she admitted to being a murderer, revolted and horrified Tara.
"Why?" The pain and anguish in Ian's single-word question was undeniably obvious.
"Did Jake show you pictures of us from our trip to Palm Beach? Boy, you have a good memory! I could never remember someone I had seen only in photos. I kept telling him that he needed to introduce us but since I was not in the city most days, we never crossed paths. And well, Jake and I only publicly dated for six months!" When Elise said 'publicly' she stared at Tara in particular, which bothered her a little. Tara had no idea what Elise meant by that statement of hers.
"Elise, why did you kill Jake?!" Ian repeated his question.
"I don't know what you think your friend was, Ian...but he was no paragon of virtue!"
"Why...did...you...kill...him?!" Tara put a hand on Ian's shoulder to calm him down as he cocked his gun and pointed it at Elise's head.
Elise continued her monlogue, completely unfazed by the weapon, "You know, he broke up with me briefly on suggestion of his family, and I think you as well, Ian." She tilted her head to the left in derision, letting Ian know (in her own way) that what he did was low. "But we had the kind of physical and mental connection that one can't stay away from long. And well, he came back to me, Ian. He came back! He and I had been secretly dating when he met this woman," she pointed at Tara as she said this, "but he never broke things with me. Never. Even when she and Jake were living together, he would drive to Montauk every chance he got, he would also come to my apartment in the city, whenever I was there. And he and I would fuck, fuck like crazy! He told me this bitch didn't compare! She didn't know half the ways he liked to get off! She was just for show. A woman his family wouldn't quickly disapprove of! But let's be honest, he had bitches for mother and sister. All they ever wanted was to control his money, and they did that by controlling his life...and one day he comes and tells me that mommy isn't much happy with Tara either! And I...I tell him the truth! His family didn't give a rat's ass about his emotions and feelings, he was their bloody cash cow! And for once, he didn't disagree. He told me he was going to break up with Tara soon!" Elise let out an exasperated sigh as tears fell down her cheeks.
And then she continued with a tone of thinly veiled contempt, "I had heard him mention you so many times, Tara. The day he decided he was going to break up with you was the day I decided to pay you a visit for the very first time. I wanted to see you in flesh. I wanted to gloat in front of you. When I entered your flower shop that day and made up a story about my sister having delivered a baby, all I had actually wanted to do was to scratch your eyes out. When I had left your shop and was buying grocery from across the street, I saw Ian, of all people, going into your store - I just knew something was up! I stayed there long after I had done all my shopping - waiting, and then you came out holding hands with him and saw him off with a kiss on the lips and my doubts were confirmed."
"That day I had to be in Montauk because of my nana, I called Jake after reaching her home and I told all and some more -- how you and Tara had been double crossing him, seeing each other behind his back and he was so mad! He told me to come by his apartment and he told me he was going to confront Ian."
"This is the day you murdered him! But why did you murder him if he wanted to be with you and leave me?!" Tara asked in horror.
"When I went to his apartment that day, he told me he had thought things over and had decided to give you another chance. He said he had not been faithful to you up till that point as well and he wanted a clean slate moving forward. He said even though he had confronted Ian at the office, he was going to forgive him because of all that they had been through together! He said he wanted to make you his wife! He said, him and I wouldn't suit and that his family would never accept me but they might learn to get along with you! He said his family would never understand my family history!" Elise burst into hot, angry tears. And then controlled her emotions to tell further, "So you can see why I had to kill him. He was never going to find me good enough! He could fuck me, but he would have never have made me his wife! He didn't think twice before forgiving you for cheating, Tara. He also forgave you, Ian, for betraying his trust but he couldn't find it in his heart to forgive my past; he would have never found me acceptable, even after all that I had done for him. He was a selfish, self-serving, manipulative asshole and he got what he deserved!"
"How can you say he didn't think of you? Didn't he pay your grandmother's medical bills? Doesn't that show he not only cared for you but also your family?" Tara reminded Elise of Jake's kindness.
Elise scoffed, "Are you seriously this naive or only pretending to be? The rich give money to charities to evade taxes, it's all for show! He had no personal interest in my grandmother. She just happened to be on the list of people the charity had selected to help out. It was how we had met. He had come along with the city's top reporters to get his photographs taken with a few patients and he came in to our room as well. You should have seen Jake Cada in front of the cameras. He had the ability to woo a room full of people with his charm but I know now, it was all for show! He was a fake and spoilt rich man, posing to gain accolades!"
"You hadn't known him for that long...maybe if you had waited and tried to make him see your side of things, we wouldn't be standing here today!" Ian spoke in seething anger.
"Don't try to be such a know-it-all, Ian. I hope you are not the sort of person who finds no faults in people close to him and always chooses to blame others. You have no idea how Jake made me suffer when we were a couple! He would be photographed with other women coming out of bars...,one night I found him kissing his former flame at a party. When I hurt myself to let him know how much he was hurting me, he labelled me crazy! He didn't know how to love a woman, he just knew how to love himself!"
What Elise had done was unforgivably cruel. She had built up the agony and torment inside her mind to such an extent, that she had made murder a possibility. Tara wished she had gotten psychiatric treatment in the past, but instead, her family had become her enablers, her accomplices.
"He was not what you are making him out to be, Elise! He was always sincere with his family and friends. He was my brother! You chose to kill a man to satify your idea of how he should have been? Who do you think you are to have made that kind of a decision?" Ian's resentment and anguish reflected in his words.
"I will not explain myself to you, Ian. I thought if you knew my side of things you would be able to see why I did what I did, but I see, you are like all men! Men don't give a shit about the women in their lives, they treat them like possessions and whenever they feel their need, they expect them to come running along, and at all other times, they don't mind a woman in a corner, without a voice, without a say! At all other times, women are like that old and dusty showpiece on a mantel, that one doesn't even bother to wipe clean!"
"Tara, you get me don't you? You know what he was! You must have felt he wasn't sincere with you. You must have. Why else would you have gotten together with Ian? You must have felt deep within you that what you and Jake had wasn't special to him?"
"Jake and I weren't right for each other, Elise. You think I should resent him for being a cheater, but I don't! I became involved with Ian because I wanted it, because I felt that what Jake and I had wasn't what I wanted. I thought our relationship wasn't special enough. It just felt like he wasn't the right person for me. Maybe Jake also realized that I wasn't right for him, and that is why he stayed together with you, even when we were dating."
"He treated me like trash by staying together with you. A little affair on the side was never something that I wanted! And he wanted to be with you even though he knew what you had done! What is that? Some upper class bullshit where people are more interested in appearances than what is real? Both of you stole him from me! And you both deserve to die!" Elise jumped on Ian with a hellish scream and Ian fired at the same time. The bullet hit Elise in the shoulder as she and Ian landed on the ground, fiercely struggling to get hold of the gun.
"Ian!" Tara screamed and ran to grab Elise from the waist to push her off Ian. The door of the basement opened at the same time, and Tara paused mid-run. Ida stood on the top of the stairs, holding a rifle aimed at Tara. "Ian, I would suggest you leave my granddaughter alone or I am going to shoot your girlfriend!"
Ian stopped struggling against Elise as he heard Ida mention Tara. Elise smiled and snatched the gun out of his hand, Elise got off Ian and both of them stood up.
Ida climbed down the stairs on agile steps, quite unlike their last meeting when she had feigned finding it difficult to open the locks on her door.
"I might be old but I am an excellent shot. Nobody should make the mistake to move. Hands above your head, both of you. Elise, my dear you come stand next to me."
When Elise joined Ida at the foot of the stairs, Ida noticed Elise's gunshot wound, "You have been hit!" She gave Ian and Tara a look of extreme disdain and revulsion, "How dare you! Her mother and I didn't spend our entire lives making sacrifices for these kids so that some inconsequential nobodys would come and try to ruin things for us! I say, Elise, isn't it time we send them on their merry way? They seem eager enough. I know you have been wanting to get rid of this she-devil for some time now!"
Elise pointed the gun at Tara's chest, "You have proved too much trouble, Tara. Now, say your goodbyes to Ian as you prepare to meet your ex-boyfriend in hell!" and as she said this, Elise pulled the trigger. Tara's life flashed before her eyes in the moments after the bullet left the gun; Ian jumped in front of her at the same time -- the bullet hit Ian, and then he crashed to the ground.
"Ian, no!" Tara's breath caught in her throat. She immediately crouched down to Ian's side and covered his wound with her hands in an effort to stop the bleeding. Tears of helplessness trickled down her face.
Elise lifted the gun again and pointed it at Tara once more. Suddenly, the basement filled with intense flashes of light everywhere.
"Elise and Ida Boyd drop your weapons. You are surrounded." Four police officers soldiered down into the basement carrying loaded weapons pointed at both Elise and Ida. One of the police men bent down next to Ian and spoke into the radio, "I need an ambulance here asap, man down!"
When the ambulance arrived and Ian's gurney was transferred on it, Tara also climbed in and sat by his side. The paramedics tied a tourniquet around Ian's right arm, right above the side of the shoulder with the gunshot wound. As the ambulance rushed to the hospital, Tara shed silent tears; she kept praying in her heart, "Lord, please, let him be ok. Please! I want him to be ok. I can't imagine a life without him...."