CH 35
Calvin
He was stalking about in the hallway outside that conference room, because he was more than annoyed, not only with what was going on inside that room, but with himself as well. He’d told himself just this morning as he’d dressed and then stared at himself in the mirror, that he was going to stay calm and be completely rational, and he’d just lost it to his obsession with Marrin and lost his temper once more.
Marilyn Riddley’s words had been correct, and he’d even heard Wil tell him the very same things. She’d not in any way approached him; not once. It was, in fact, all of his own doing. Even when he’d stated to Wil he’d let it go and wait and see if she came to him like all the other women that looked like Marrin did, he’d gone against his own decision.
His obsession with Marrin and her disappearing act seemed to have turned dark and twisted inside him, and he couldn’t, it appeared, contain himself at all while sitting in a room with her right there. He’d glared at the woman, yelled at her and accused her of leaving him and disappearing, then pretending not to know him. He scrubbed a hand over his face. That woman in there was the spitting image of Marrin, but what had been said by her own lawyer was also valid. Marrin had also claimed to have no family to be an orphan herself, and he knew it to be true, but she’d also claimed to know Marilyn Riddley at Wil’s engagement party all those
years ago.
Marrin had gotten her to sign that book for Anabell, so how was it that Marilyn claimed not to know Marrin at all, when Marrin had stated that she’d gone to the same university as Marilyn? There was a connection between the two women, even before she’d disappeared. He sighed now as he thought about those things. Trying to piece the puzzle of the two women together.
Could it be that all those years ago, when he was married to Marrin, she’d kept from him that she had a twin sister? Or was it more plausible that Marrin was in fact Marilyn Riddley herself? Had his wife of three years kept her being and author a secret from him?
Anything was possible, he was only at the house two or three nights a week, and with her knowing there was always a divorce pending, would she have told him everything about herself? He thought about that very thing, as he stood and leaned on the wall out there.
Calvin googled Marilyn Riddley, author, and searched for when she’d become a success. It was entirely possible that Marilyn Riddley was Marrin Reeves, just a pen name. That could explain why their initials were the same. The real question was, why did she do it? If she did it? And how could she just pretend to those that were now around her?
It wasn’t just him, there was Wil and also Anabell. She’d gone to Marilyn’s first ever book signing. Wil had gifted her a trip to New York, and he’d been excited to give his wife what he’d considered the perfect gift Knew it would mean so very much to her.
now
Anabell had met Marilyn. She’d signed the very same book Marrin had gifted to her, and Anabell had reported to Wil that she’d not know who she was. Was it possible that he’d gotten it wrong? Was Marilyn just a freak of nature, a dead ringer for Marrin?
He finally found it. Marilyn Riddley had started her career before his divorce, but while he’d been married to Marrin. Then become popular right around the time they’d gotten divorced, a few months before that
CH 35
happened.
He stood there trying to figure it out. Could Marrin be Marilyn? Maybe a part of his thoughts were right. If they were one and the same, had Marrin instigated their divorce by asking him for a baby, so she could leave and become a full–time author?
Maybe, as her success as an author was taking off, she thought it was simply time to come out to the world, and having him as her husband, could well see people think that her success was not her own, but was due to him baking her, and she simply didn’t want that.
But then, from all he was reading about the woman now, she was dubbed as a recluse, and that was always what Anabell had said as well. Marrin wasn’t like that. She enjoyed her time alone but was happy to be out and socialise and mingle with him. She would talk to just about anyone in her industry without issue, and could be quite animated at times even; she was not introverted or reclusive.
There were no pictures of Marilyn out there on the web, until just now, through this, her first book signing and now his attacks on her. He couldn’t seem to wrap his head around it or make sense of it, somethings fit and others did not. He was just more confused now than he had been inside that room.
He looked up from his phone as he caught movement in his peripheral vision and saw Marilyn/Marrin come out of the conference room. She glared right at him, then just turned and walked down the hall, away from
him
He watched her go, but he had to know the truth. He was going insane not knowing, and there was he knew a way to find out. Birthmarks never changed. He watched her walk into the stairwell and went after her. She was just standing there on the landing, her phone in her hand.
He grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her around to look at him. “There is one way to end this. Marrin has a strawberry birthmark on her lower left ribcage. Show me your ribcage, and if there’s no mark there, I’ll leave you alone for good,” he stated
“I don’t have to show you anything.” She shot right back and tried to pull herself free of him.
“It’ll take like 10 bloody seconds, and I’ll be out of your life. What harm can it do, unless you are Marrin and trying to deceive me?” he grated out and reached for her top
She yelled instantly at him to leave her alone and let go of her, then fought against him as he tried to lift up her shirt to check it for himself. Kicked him in the shin and really tried to stop him, grabbing at his wrist to stop his hand lifting her shirt.
He fended her off and held that hand at bay with his other hand, and finally managed to yank that top up to see her left ribcage and where her birthmark should be. It wasn’t there, at all, though there were many scars that marred her skin all down her side, and he released his grip on her arm at the shock of finding
go
of her right as she really yanked herself from him, and she stumbled backwards away from him.
thing, let
Right before his very eyes, her arms windmilled, and she fell backwards and down the stairs, as a scream ripped out of her. It all happened so very fast. He watched her fall down the stairs even as his brain was registering what was going on. She was not, in fact, Marrin.
She tumbled and fell and came to a crumpled heap on the landing below, and as he stood on the landing above, staring at the unconscious woman’s body laying there, her skirt was all out of place, and he saw more scars on both her legs as well.
2/3
CH 35
He snapped himself out of it and rushed down the stairs as he realised what he’d done, and pulled his phone out, as guilt welled up. Not only wasn’t she Marrin, he’d now attacked an innocent woman, and not just once but twice. Only this time, it was going to be much worse for him. He dialled 911 and asked for an ambulance as he knelt down and touched his fingers to her neck, damned near sagged with relief as he felt her pulse.
His phone rang even while he was still on the line. It was Wil, and he answered it, shunting the 911 call aside for now. “Stairwell now, I’m in real trouble.” And he knew he was. Then he ended the call and returned to the
911 operator.
It didn’t take long for Wil to find him, and take in the scene. “What the hell happened?” Wil gasped out “Is she alive?” he grated out as he rushed down the stairs himself.
“Yes, and the paramedics are on the way.” Calvin snapped at him. “I called them right away.”
“What’d you bloody do Calvin?” Wil stared at him accusingly. He had no doubt this was all Calvin’s fault, not with how he’d been acting of late, and how much he hated those that looked like Marrin.
Calvin sighed now himself, “I tried to check for Marrin’s birthmark.” He answered honestly, there was no point in denying it, and he already knew he was going to have to explain himself to the police. Not to mention her lawyer who was upstairs right that minute trying to mediate a resolution, that would see her drop the charges that were already against him. That was now out the window and he knew it.
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