Justice by Oleander - 2012 Watty Awards, Finalist

Chapter 22

© Carey MacLean, 2012

Chapter 22

She wasn’t quite sure what to make of the look of suspicion that presented itself on Xavier’s face.  She knew she had to tell him more about her ties with those men; more that might lead on to additional questions.  With that look of his strewn across his face, she knew she had to take the chance.

“Xav,” she began and reached for his hand which he snapped away from her, as if her touch had burned him.  “I don’t know what possessed me to confront the bastards outside of the hospital.”

She looked down at her hand that now turned to lay palm up and empty; his hands now on his lap.

“I guess it was me trying to move myself past what Carter had done to me.  It’s no excuse.  They knew me from the hospital as their wife’s doctor.  All it took was an accidental meeting one night after work,” she explained.  “I hadn’t planned on confronting the first guy; the others, yes.”

“Mr. Withers,” Xavier said quietly of the first victim.

“Yeah,” she said.  “It just happened.  I was out with the girls and he approached me.  He never recognized me because I had gotten dressed up.  Needless to say, I had a few drinks too many and next thing you know, I had begun to question him about his temperamental character.”

She looked away from Xavier.  She felt guilt overwhelming her as to what her next confession would entail.

“Carter was right,” she said somewhat above a whisper.  “I am a slut.  I slept with the man that put his woman in that hospital bed, an inch from her death.  Mark, Brian and Denton were the only exceptions.  I never played them.”

She did what?  His brain fired off.

He didn’t know what to say to that.  His eyes narrowed on her and he didn’t know what to believe anymore.  Could he trust the words of the woman he loved and proposed to or the new person that he had been watching, emerge before him?

“So let me get this straight,” he began and his tone grew progressively louder.  “My fiancée whored herself out to nearly a dozen men with the initial plan of sticking it to them with guilt as to what they had done to their wives?  Did I get it right or did I leave anything out?”

He watched her as she didn’t agree or disagree with his statement.  It seemed answer enough for him at that point.

“I don’t know you,” he got up to his feet and she jumped up to stop him.

He held his hand out to let her know not to touch him and his stance motioned that he wasn’t going anywhere.

Not yet, he told himself.

“I didn’t whore myself,” she told him with vehemence lacing her words.  “I used my body to gain more information.  I did what women have done for ages; use my body to my advantage.  I did it to make a point with them.”

“And what point was that?”  He shouted.

He watched as she jumped back and an utter look of fear crossed her eyes.  Xavier wanted so much to rush to her, apologize and hold her but his rage didn’t allow his body to move.  His emotions were running on overdrive.

“I was looking for answers in the wrong places.  I guess nothing came from it,” she told him, her gaze averted.  “I walked away feeling cheap and used.  I am no better than a common slut.”

A tear ran down her face and he watched as the strong Mika he had held with so much esteem was slowly crumpling into tiny shattered shards of herself.