3: 3
3
I didn't stop at a pharmacy for bandages or ointment. Pain on my skin was easier to bear than pain in my heart.
I went back to our "wedding apartment," planning to pack up and leave.
For seven years, to play the ordinary girl who matched him, the couture gowns, the designer bags, the jewelry, all of it had disappeared from my world.
I had just stuffed a few wrinkled T-shirts into my suitcase when I heard a key in the door.
Gavin was back.
He saw me packing and didn't look surprised at all. If anything, a mocking little smile touched his lips.
"This routine again? Please."
"Karen, every time you throw a fit and run off, don't you always come slinking back on your own?"
"What is it this time? You want some excuse to make me find you in the little park downstairs, hold you, and coax you home?"
He walked over and looked down at me from on high.
"Fine, throw your tantrum if you want. But I don't have time today to play these hard-to-get games of yours."
"Marci's not doing well. The doctor says she's had a severe shock and needs to rest quietly. I was on my way to the South Side to buy her some pastries and passed by, just to see if you were back. Good to know you're fine. She's going to be in the hospital at least two weeks, so don't bother pulling some stunt to make me come looking for you."
I didn't answer him. I kept putting my things into the suitcase.
There wasn't much. One case was enough to hold it all.
Seven years, and I hadn't bought myself a single new piece of clothing. Gavin had never bought me any either.
When he saw I stayed silent, he finally started to lose patience.
"Karen, you're a grown woman. Why are you still throwing childish tantrums?"
My heart was ash. I didn't have the strength to fight with him anymore.
I pulled up my suitcase and said one last thing to him:
"Keep your Marci in line."
Then I walked out without looking back.
His cursing followed me down the hall, and I treated it as noise I would simply never have to hear again.
By the time I reached the ground floor, the sky had opened into a downpour.
I'd left in such a hurry I'd forgotten my keys, and the stairwell door had locked behind me.
My umbrella had broken a while ago, so I could only let the cold rain hammer down on me.
The cut on my arm hurt more in that moment.
Just then, my phone buzzed.
It was a video call from Marcella.
I answered, and there was Marcella's face, done up in careful no-makeup makeup.
She was lying in a high-end VIP hospital room, without a trace left of the fragile girl who'd fainted earlier.
"Karen, sweetie, Gavin was worried I wouldn't like the hospital food, so he drove all the way to the South Side to get me my favorite pastries."
"Those have a two-hour line, you know. He pushed back an entire senior management meeting for me. Oh, Karen, it's raining where you are."
I looked at her coldly.
"Was there something you needed? If not, I'm hanging up."
Marcella leaned close to the camera and lowered her voice, every word dripping with gloating.
"I just wanted to see what you look like right now. Aren't you furious that I slashed that wedding dress? I'll tell you the truth, I did it on purpose! I just like your things, Gavin included!"
"Those other wedding dresses you bought before? I dirtied and ruined those on purpose too. I didn't want you two to get married, so what? I met Gavin first. What gives you the right to be with him all these years?!"
She turned the camera, showing a velvet jewelry box.
It was the wedding diamond ring Gavin had said last month he'd buy for me.
"See this? Gavin already gave me this ring to play with yesterday."
"Seven years with him, and so what?! All it takes is two little tears from me and he swings right over to my side!"
There it was, her true face at last.
But I felt no anger, only how absurd it all was.
