Over my dead body ~James Barnes~

the start

I moved to New York... and no, not because I wanna follow my dreams or that kind of bullshit. Also, not because I hate my hometown, God I miss Texas. I moved to start a new life and I think I have a pretty good reason for it.

Fuck it let me just say it. My husband is dead, murdered actually. There I said it.

Way to go to start a story Candace, I know. Anyways I'm not gonna keep crying about it and feel sorry for myself because honestly... he was a bad man, and this was gonna happen sooner or later. I'm not talking about him hitting me or yelling at me or other stuff. He was the sweetest person I knew. He just... you know, was hanging out with the wrong kind of people. Making deals that led him to death. He played a dangerous game, and I was convinced that he could get murdered any day. I warned him, multiple times, I even left him once, but I came back like I always did, I even said "yes" when he proposed because I loved him and I'm a pussy.

He came home late almost every day, and every day I expected two cops knocking on my doorsteps, telling me "I'm sorry to tell you this Ma'am but your husband had an accident, he's gone"

You never take those things seriously until one day, it actually happens, and you see two cops knocking on your door. Only they didn't tell me that my husband had an accident and that he's gone. *scoffs* No.... it's actually pretty funny, no they told me "You are under arrest for the murder on your husband, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law"

Yeah... that's not what I expected either. I know that I'm innocent but come on, what the fuck I'm I going to do? It's their word against mine, and they obviously had some fake evidence on me otherwise they wouldn't arrest me. As you can guess, I went to prison for a year. After a year someone came and got me out. Now I don't know who he was, why he did it and how he did it, but God bless him. My lawyer didn't tell me, and I wasn't allowed to talk about it with anyone, because he wanted to stay anonymous, and I honestly couldn't care less about who he was. All I wanted to do was get the fuck out of there.

I spend a year in prison for a crime I didn't commit. How in God's name am I gonna get a job with a criminal record hanging out of my ass. Yea... they may got me out of prison but I still got a criminal record. Nobody's gonna hire me. Before all this shit happened, I worked at a hospital in Texas. I was a doctor, and I loved my job. Now tell me, which hospital is gonna hire a criminal?

I arrived in New York 3 weeks after I got out of jail. I needed to get out of Texas. I needed to forget everything that happened. I left everything behind except my wedding album and I bought a house which is not really close to the city, but I don't mind. Let's just start from here. I thought I escaped a shitty life back in Texas, but it actually all started right when I landed here in New fucking York.

----------------------

"God, it smells horrible here" I tell myself while walking through New York City. I see a small bookstore in the corner and decide to walk in. Typical to walk in a bookstore as "the new girl" in town but hey, it's what everyone does right? And don't worry, I'm not wearing an oversized sweater with a bun in my hair and glasses on my nose, and oh, don't forget the 'light makeup' thing. Just trying to get a good book to read at home. My extremely fire red hair falls smoothly on each side of my face. My light brown eyes reflect in the moonlight. Yea that's about it.

"Can I help you with something dear?" I turn around and I see a sweet old woman smiling at me.

"Hi, I'm just looking around a bit" I smile back and return to the bookshelf in front of me. I can smell her perfume and I feel her breath hitting me in my neck, it's kinda gross not gonna lie. "Alight dear, let me know if I can help you with anything" she says to me while walking back to her desk on the other side of the store.

Jesus Christ what's up with all those dusty old creepy books. I'm walking through every shelf I see, 'Comedy'? no. 'Romantic'? God no. 'Horror/Thriller'? sure, why not. I take a book from the shelf 'Doctor sleep' by Stephen king's. sounds good to me. I mean, 'IT' was good so this can't disappoint me.

"Found something dear?" the sweet lady behind her desk looks at me with a big smile. God her perfume is the worst.

"Yea, I think I'm gonna try this one" I say to her with a smile, pretending her cologne isn't affecting my god damn brain cells.

"I'm glad my store could help you, I don't have many customers"

I wonder why.

"Well people should pay more attention to stores like this" I say to her, I smile and give her some money. the book was 14.99 dollars and I give her a 20-dollar bill. "Keep the change" and I walk away.

Keep the change? Really Candace? You make her feel like she looks poor and homeless who's begging for money.

I'm walking to the nearest coffee shop I can find for some good cappuccino. It's quite empty for a Saturday noon.

"What can I get for you?" a boy asks me who's putting some muffins on the counter.

"A cappuccino with oat milk please" He looks at me with a confused look on his face. "Now that's pure poison that you just ordered"

I laugh at his statement and look at his name tag. Miles. "I'm sure that if I'm getting poisoned, it's because of this coffeeshop, not the oat milk Miles" I wink at him.

"So, you're new in town, right?" he keeps his gaze on my coffee while talking to me. I roll my eyes at him knowing he won't even see it. "Oh, don't come with the 'I've never seen you before, you must be new!" bullshit" I say with a playful smile.

He hands me my coffee and laughs. "No, your bag" he points with his head to my bag with my book in it.

"I'm letting you finish" I say to him since his answer doesn't clarify why he thinks I'm new in this town.

"Nobody shops in that store more than once. that woman smells weird, and her whole store gives everyone in this town the creeps" he shakes his head and sighs. "Poor lady"

"Well in that case, yes I'm new in this town" I say while taking a sip of my coffee.

"What's your name?" he asks me with a side smile. is he flirting with me? or is this just being nice. I honestly don't even know the difference between those two these days.

"I'm Candace Russo"

"I like your name Russo" he smirks and looks me in the eyes.

He's totally flirting with me.

Before I could answer, another guy walks in. He walks towards the guy behind the counter and gives him a kiss on his lips.

"Nice to meet you Candace, well you already know I'm Miles, and this is my boyfriend Louis"

He is gay? hah.... That's what you get when the only person who flirted with you was your husba- dead husband.

"Nice to meet you both, well I gotta go but you'll be seeing a lot more of me"

.......