Heartless People |Book 3|

Chapter 34

"Death ends a life, not a relationship."

—Mitch Albom

LISA

It took a cold son of a bitch to look the love of their life in the eyes and then put a bullet into their skull. I knew from the very moment we spoke about this that I wasn't going to be able to do it. However, I was shocked that she also seemed unable to do it as well. She stared at me, her gun still raised and hot from the bullet she'd fired into the wall behind me, while my bullet remained lodged in the picture frame behind her.

Dropping my forehead to hers, we stood there for a moment as we breathed in each other's scent. Were we weak for not killing each other, or did that make us strong? I couldn't tell anymore. I felt dead inside, but I still had her and that was all that mattered.

"You didn't give me a chance to say, 'I love you too, Lisa Manoban,'" she whispered.

I wanted to smile, but I couldn't. This was the end. Pulling away from me, she turned to the computer. The numbers on the timer were all set to zero.

"We should go," I said to her just as all the data started to scramble, and all the files on the drive were sent off to the various journalists.

"What the hell?" Jen muttered before sitting down.

"Jen, we need to—"

"The files are deleting themselves," she whispered,

My heart took a thumping beat. "What?"

She tried to type, but the system immediately locked her out and the pages, the pictures, accounts, everything that he had on us, erased itself. It was like watching the end of a solitaire game where all the cards were spread out before they disappeared completely.

"Did you do this?" I asked her.

"No. There was nothing I could do. The program was beyond me—"

She stopped when a video screen popped up and all of sudden, there was Scarlet with a large grin on her face and a glass of white wine in her hand.

"Having trouble there, Father?" she snickered. "I wish I could see your face right now. Oh my, you must be ready to explode with rage. You probably want to beat the hell out of me. Stab me a few more times, lock me up in a hole until I behaved accordingly. It's a shame; you have most likely killed me by now. Physically killed me at least. But I don't care, I've been dead for a long time and I've taken your shit for even longer. I may not be strong enough to destroy you, but I damn well will not make it easy for you to obliterate my daughter.

"That's right—if it came down to her or you I will always choose her. You thought you could somehow change that? And I let you believe that I didn't care, I shot her, almost killed her family members, just so I could have this one moment. This one victory. Everything you've ever made me collect on her is here. My life's work—the only scrapbook I have of her—and I'm erasing it. There are no copies to be made, I've code stamped them all to delete when this went off. Do your own fucking dirty work, you sick, stupid son of a motherfucking bitch. Checkmate, Daddy."

My mouth dropped open as she raised her glass to him—to us.

"I'll see you in hell," she said as she drank the entire glass. "Oh, and one more thing, if you're in your office, you really should leave, I've got a few explosives ready to go off in that goddamned place. If you make it, tell my baby I said hi...and that I'm sorry I had to hurt her."

With that, she was gone, and I wasn't sure how to react. Jennie sat back in shock, as her eyes roamed the computer screen while the files kept on deleting themselves and everything was wiped clean. She went to click on the video again, but a sudden and violent explosion went off, causing the windows and the walls around us to crack.