Out of the Storm - COMPLETE

Chapter 38

Jules

AFTER I SAW that video two weeks ago of Charlie and Anna, I went back to my office after leaving Theo, closed and locked the door before sliding to the floor with tears streaming down my face. The pain, the heaviness of the situation finally rested on my shoulders alone and no one else's. It was so much, I was sure it was going to suffocate me.

It's unclear to me how long I stayed like that. At some point, Anna knocked on the door. "Jules?" She sounded concerned about me, like we were friends or something. But definitely not like someone who was screwing my fiancé behind my back. I sniffed, but didn't say a word. One swallow let me know my throat was raw. "Jules. I know you're in there. I saw you come in, remember?"

Burying my head in my hands, I closed my eyes, hoping to subdue the headache I knew the crying was going to inevitably create.

Knock, knock. "Jules. Open the door," Charlie demanded, like I was a puppet on a string that would do whatever the fuck he asked me to. Had that been me? Before this all started, before I met Theo, was I someone who would have asked how high when he told me to jump? Not told me to jump. Demanded I jump. Shaking my head, I pursed my lips together, the pause between my sniffs getting longer and longer. "Are you okay?"

Was I okay? Like he gave a damn about my wellbeing. That elicited laughter. I couldn't help it. It just started pouring out as involuntarily as the tears had. The giggles continued to come in waves to the point my face hurt, the muscles in my stomach ached. But I never answered the door, nor did I ever give them the satisfaction of an answer. A tit for tat. He'd not given me any. It was his fault, and his alone, I was in this current predicament. There were so many questions, but as sure as I was that my life was fucked over thanks to him, I was equally positive there would be no answers from him. He'd proven that earlier standing over my desk when he refused to answer the basic ones I'd posed. There was no way in hell he would give me the time of day on the complex shit that swirled in my mind.

So, a tit for tat and all that. When the tears took over for the laughter again, I sealed my lips and glanced down at the ring on my finger. At the age of twenty-six, I'd given him thirteen years of my life. He was supposed to be my best friend. And everything hit me like a ton of bricks. I know nothing about him. Not anymore. When had it happened?

Had it been after he won the money?

Nope.

Before that. What a fool I was to actually not see it before. When did he start drinking? When did he start acting so vile? Jerking me around?

He wasn't like this in high school. We went to different colleges. We weren't serious at that point, just best friends hooking up when it was convenient. It was after he got back from studying abroad, after we graduated and decided to see if we wanted to take this further because that entire year we'd not been able to touch each other. We were supposed to be dating other people, but neither of us had made any long term commitments. In fact, we rarely talked about the other people. The moment I saw Charlie get off the plane, I ran to him and jumped into his arms. He picked me up, spinning me in circles. His lips caressed my ear. "I want to fuck your sweet cunt so bad." That was the first thing he said to me. I smiled because it was all I wanted. In that moment, I knew it was all I'd wanted for the last year. Him. But he'd never talked like that to me before. Was it then?

We were inseparable. Of course, he wanted us to move in together, but I knew I couldn't give him that. Not without being married first. I never mentioned the M word because I know how guys get. Life was good, and we were happy. We were happy, right?

Charlie would tell me about how he'd taken up storm chasing while he was away. He never really talked much about the sites. Just about chasing the storms, the high he got from it, how there's a whole underworld of people who bet on that sort of thing, and he'd made a lot of money. Lost a lot too.