Deep November

eight.

When I'd had a plan and all the fine details worked out, I waited a week to let my nerves settle and then I began to put my plan into action.

The Sunday after I'd decided what I wanted to do, exactly a week after my earth-shattering realization, I got in my car and drove sit on her street.

I waited until she was asleep, and I broke into the house. I was quiet, moving as swiftly as I could while being light on my feet. Armed with a gun just in case anything went sideways, I slowly made my way up the stairs to her bedroom.

All of the lights were off and I'd known from watching the cameras that she was sleeping soundly so when I got upstairs and saw her door was open a crack, I held my breath as I opened it all the way.

This was something unexpected. She had gone to bed an hour ago, I had watched. I had waited. She went to bed at the same time every night like clockwork, tonight should have been no different.

I stepped in the doorway, my eyes taking a moment to adjust to the darkness of the room as I scanned the bed to see that Addison wasn't there. The right side, the side where she slept, was turned upwards exposing the wrinkled white sheets underneath the duvet.

Panic rose up in me. If she wasn't in bed like she had just been less than ten minutes ago, she must not have been asleep. Already my plan was going awry.

This is why I stuck to killing and not kidnapping.

I turned to the other side of the room where the chairs sat in front of the window, and my heart nearly stopped when I saw her sitting upright, completely facing me in the dark, as if she was expecting me.

"So you're here to kill me"

She turned on the lamp that sat on the table between the two chairs. The small light flooded the area and for the first time in the month I'd known of her, we were face to face.

Sitting in her pyjamas, a cryptic smile on her face as she seemingly observed me, I couldn't hide my surprise.

This was the first time I'd been this close to her, close enough that I could close the distance between us with two strides and have her in my arms.

"Why do you think that?"

My own voice sounded foreign in my ears. I didn't have my gun out, I didn't think I needed it with the way she sat in front of me. Nothing about her seemed violent, if anything she had a feeling of peace

She smiled, the yellow light illuminating her face as she shrugged nonchalantly. Her demeanour was relaxed, unworried, ready for whatever was coming her way.

I admired that.

"My husband wants me dead. And you've been following me for a month" her words were simple, to the point. She was matter of fact, because that really was all there was to it.

The way the light hit her face gave her a midnight glow that I found myself in awe of. Everything about her looked so delicate, so graceful, and even through the panic in my chest I found it within myself to be enamoured.

She stood up and walked across the room to the spot where I'd hidden the camera. Without even looking, she reached a hand in and pulled it out.

"I know of this one, the one in the living room, the dining room and the kitchen. Oh, plus the one in my office and the two audio bugs" she tacked on, entertainment lacing her words as she threw the camera down onto the floor and stepped on it with one slipper-clad foot. "Are there any I'm missing?" The smile still lingered on her lips as her eyes bore into my own.

My jaw was practically on the floor, unable to form words to properly reply to her. I'd been so careful, there was no way she could've known the whole month.