A COLD WINTER NIGHT

Chapter 27 - This Isn't Our End

Adam's eyes grow big, and he just stares, hard. He's frozen, immobile, shocked. I am afraid to speak. Afraid to move. I don't know what else to say right now so I stay quiet and just wait. I wait, hoping that any moment now, he will say something because God knows that I cannot. Not yet.

"How long?" his emotionless voice asks.

"How long what?" I ask.

"How long have you been in love with him? When did you two meet? Where?" he wonders.

"We met on the anniversary of the night you and Danny disappeared," I say.

"The night you were going to end your life?" he asks. I nod my head.

"He was homeless. I found him freezing to death in the dead of winter out on some bus stop bench and—"

"So, you took a strange homeless man home and what? Cleaned him up and fell in love with him?" he questions under a hurt and angry tone.

"I didn't fall in love with him right away but soon after," I say. "Jakob... He was there for me. He was there for me when you weren't. I was so messed up. I was so depressed and constantly thinking of ways to kill myself just so I could be with you because I thought you were dead. If I hadn't had met him when I did, I would be dead right now. You would no longer have a wife. Nor would you have a brother. Both Edvin and would be dead," I say, now crying.

"Please don't be mad at me," I beg him, now sobbing hysterically. Jakob just stares at me for a long moment, not speaking and that somehow makes me cry even harder, because I don't know what he's thinking, and I always know what he's thinking. I used to be able to read him so well and now— I don't even know.

"Clara..." he finally speaks.

"Your father captured him and held him prisoner. He escaped and was on the run for a very long time and then I found him. I found him and took care of him, just like he took care of me," I explain.

"Oh, I'm sure my brother took care of you. I'm sure he took damn good care of my wife in my absence," he grits. My crying then grows even worse. I feel so guilty. I feel horrible but the worst part is, I don't regret it. I don't regret falling in love and being with Edvin whatsoever and if that makes me the bad guy, then call me the villain, because that's how I feel right now. I feel like the villain. I feel like I'm evil.

"It doesn't add up," he states. "It's too much of a coincidence, don't you think?" he questions. "I go missing and then a year later, my brother shows up, claiming my wife," he says. I try to stop crying just enough to speak.

"It is a coincidence," I tell him. "But it's the truth. That's what happened," I say.

"That's what my brother told you happened," he says. "And you ate it up. "You ate it all up because you are just so damn trusting Clara," he says and now I'm bawling again.

"What else did he tell you? What did my brother fill your mind with?" he asks, and I don't like this. I don't like the way he's acting as if Edvin is the bad guy because he's not. Edvin is good. He is the epitome of good.

"We've spent months together. He's told me so much," I say.

"Oh, I'm sure he has," he says.

"Why don't you trust him? What has he done to you?" I wonder.

"What has he done?" he questions with a humorous smirk. "Well, he stole my fucking wife from me. That's what he has done," he states.

"He didn't steal me from you. He didn't know who I was when we met. He didn't know that I was your wife and I never let you go, Jakob. I never let you go. I promise you," I tell him.