RAVENS #1: THE DARKNESS

Chapter 20 - Motive

Liam Hastington

For the next two days, I barely saw my wife.

She left so early and came home late. I only saw her when she came home yesterday, and she greeted me before entering the room. The atmosphere in the house changed drastically.

She was acting normal, but she felt distant from me.

She didn't text or come to my office to bring some lunch. She didn't even ask me to feed the turtles anymore. Rocky reported to me that she'd come home to provide them and go back to the office, burying herself with work.

Then, I found that today, she met with Jimmy and John for lunch. Lou reported to me that she's talking about moving out to Tokyo in two months, and John was telling her to move back to SF. Jimmy even joked around about them getting married. I should have said Rocky to kill them by making it look like an accident.

I was busy figuring out why Alyssa decided to avoid me and keep her distance from me.

Marie asked me about Alyssa's condition today, and I told her she was doing well. Marie told me to be excellent, which I did, and she treated me like I was invisible.

When I heard the door open, I was waiting for her to show herself, ready to ask her some questions that I had in my mind. Then I heard that she was crying. She was sobbing and tried to be as quiet as possible. I got up slowly and walked towards the door.

I found her on the floor, crying like a baby.

When she saw me, she quickly got up and wiped her tears.

"You're awake?" She looked confused as she turned to the clock.

"I just got home." I lied. "Where were you?"

"Work."

"Did something happen?" I asked, and she gave me a small smile.

"No. It's just another tough day at work." She walked past me and put her things on the sofa.

"It's the weekend tomorrow." I pointed it out, and she turned to me.

"Yeah. I'm going to get some rest."

"Take a shower and change. We're going out." I said, and she looked at me confused.

"Don't you have work tomorrow? You should rest, and besides, I'm tired, I do—"

"Go freshen up. Change into something comfortable. We are going out." I repeated, and she nodded. I waited for her, and she got ready in twenty minutes. She's wearing a black hoodie and black sweatpants.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see." I grabbed my car key, and we went to the basement. We got into the car, and I brought her to the One World Observatory.

"I don't think it's open." She said as we walked into the building. We walked past the security guards, and Alyssa was confused. I led her to the elevator, and we went up.

"Mr. and Mrs. Hastington, welcome." Kevin greeted us.

"Thank you, Kevin."

"You're welcome. It's all yours for the night." With that, he left us alone, and the room was dark. The only light in the room was from the city lights.

"It's so beautiful." Alyssa walked towards the nearest window. I followed her, "Look down." She looked down and freaked out immediately. She wrapped her arms around my body, scared. I could feel her body tremble against mine.

"How much did you pay Kevin to allow you here?"

"Ten thousand dollars." She gasped, hearing it.

"That's too much."

"We'll have the place to ourselves and give us some privacy." A big smile plastered her face, and she pulled away.

"Did something happen at work?" I asked curiously.

"No. It's just I've been sick a lot and need to catch up with work." She's lying.

"Here, I thought you were avoiding me." As if I had successfully read her mind, she looked at me in horror.

"No. I'm not."

"Seems like it."

"I mean, I know you need some space away from me." What?

"Did I ever say that?"

"No."

"Then stop assuming."

"You look fed up with me after we watched the musical theatre. You looked tired and—"

"You're assuming again, Alyssa."

"How can I not assume? When I asked you if you wanted dinner, you didn't even bother to answer me. You looked scary and angry." She thought I was mad at her. "You even dug your nails into my skin. I knew I did something wrong and—"

"It wasn't you." I cut her, and she looked at me like I was possessed.

"If it wasn't me, then who? There's nobody else there."

"I was planning a murder in my head. I don't like it when someone else is touching you, especially when you have a backless dress." I told her the truth, and she froze. "They were checking you out, and I was this close to sending Rocky to murder them both."

"You're jealous?" Jesus Christ.

"I told you that I want to murder people, Alyssa. You—"

"I heard you, but what's the motive? Jealousy?" She smiled, and I wanted to talk all of those words back. "I thought you were mad at me."

"That's why you need to stop assuming. I told Rocky to drive us to the restaurant, knowing you want to eat dinner there." She gave me a big hug.

"Does this mean you hate me less?"

"Don't provoke me. I'm going to punish you for it."

"Punish me then..."

"Instead of coming to the office with my lunch, you discussed marrying Jimmy again with them." I pointed out, and she pulled away, raising her hands.

"They live in SF, and I live in New York. I was having—"

"Don't defend them. Talk to them again, and I'll hang their corpses on the Empire State Building." She put her hands on her waist.

"You've been talking about murdering and ripping someone else's mouth a lot these days. You're a doctor, yet you talk about murder so easily." She raised her eyebrows, and I shrugged. I walked away from her to the other side, looking down to an empty street.

Suddenly, she turned my body around and kneeled in front of me. She pulled my pants down, taking my cock out.

"I want you to fuck my mouth." Fucking hell.