Cattitude by Edie Ramer

eyes. Every single time.” Speaking about it made him dizzy.
Everyone had admired him, looked up to him. Even his father.
Something Bob had thought would only happen after the earth split
open and fires razed the land.
    Why the fuck did Fletcher have to ruin
everything?
    “My father stepped down and chose me to
succeed him. That’s when I made a huge misstep. Sorcha told me if
we had sex she could make better choices for me. I knew it was
wrong—I’m married, she was engaged to her manager—but I couldn’t
turn her down. I couldn’t pass up her promise of bigger and grander
success.”
    In his imagination he saw it unfold as he
said, as if his lies were true. As if Sorcha hadn’t been polite and
deferential at every meeting.
    “After a few months, she demanded that I
divorce Melanie and marry her. That came as a shock. Up to then she
seemed fine with our relationship and the gifts of jewelry I’d
given her. I tried to be tactful and told her I couldn’t divorce
Melanie because of the children. If we divorce, she gets custody of
the kids. It’s in the prenup. She’d whisk them away to New York
faster than I could hug them goodbye.”
    Unhappiness and sympathy crossed Phil’s face.
He was melting like warm chocolate.
    “Sorcha went psycho,” he continued. “She
threatened to tell Melanie. I told her that I’d tell Melanie myself
rather than be blackmailed.”
    “Good for you.” Phil gave him another pat on
his back.
    “She backed down, but a week later she called
and said she’d had a vision about me. She wanted to meet me one
last time. We’d always met at my office, but this time she insisted
I come to her place in Milwaukee. When I got there, she and her
fiancé were in the back yard. She took one look at me, whipped out
her gun and shot him.”
    Phil gasped. Bob bent toward him, holding
Phil’s gaze with his stare.
    “She set it up so it would look like I did
it, and then she ran. I raced after her. I don’t know what I was
thinking.” He wiped his hand over his face, as if he were troubled.
“I found her car in a ditch but she wasn’t around. I don’t know
what happened to her.”
    “Maybe she’s hurt.” Phil frowned. “Or
dead.”
    “Not dead. She called me yesterday and said
Melanie and the kids will be next unless I pay her one million
dollars.” He lowered his voice, put in it all the anguish he felt,
all the fucked up emotions he’d suffered through for years, never
being good enough, smart enough, lucky enough. Then it all turned
around, and suddenly he was at the top of the heap. The one
everyone looked up to. Even his father. And it had been euphoric,
as if Sorcha were his personal fairy godmother. One sweep of her
wand and he was golden.
    Until Fletcher ruined everything with his
greed.
    “She means it. It would ruin me, but I’d pay
her. God knows I’d do anything for my kids.” His voice vibrated
with sincerity. “But I know it wouldn’t be the end. She’ll come
back again. And again. Until I had nothing left. When that happens,
she’ll kill them.” Tears tracked down his cheeks. It was partially
the truth, part of the reason he’d shot Fletcher. “After that,
she’ll kill me and I won’t care.”
    “Go to the police. Tell them.”
    He shook his head. “I can’t. They won’t find
her. And somehow, some way, she’ll kill Lorna and Danny. I have no
choice. I have to kill her first.”
    Phil’s eyes widened but something besides
surprise showed in his face. Dismay.
    Bob plunged ahead. “I’ll pay you a half a
million dollars to find her and do whatever it takes to get rid of
her forever. I’ll give you twenty-five thousand as an advance.
Right now. No waiting.” He held out his hands, pleading with
everything he had, as though Lorna and Danny’s lives really
depended on it. “For God’s sake, Phil, they’re your nephew and
niece. Don’t do it for me, don’t do it for the money, though I’ll
give it to you anyway. Do it for Lorna and