The Art Of Revenge (Thalia Nash and Brandon) novel Chapter 33

Jessica’s Pov

I’m not sure how many hours passed, but a gentle pat on the back jolted me awake. I turned around, my eyelids tired, to discover Victor holding two mugs of coffee.

I cleared my throat and asked, “Can you tell me what time it is?” I turned to face Josh, who was still unconscious on the bed, sleeping. He looked like he was just taking a nap.

“It’s 1 a.m, we have to go back to the hotel. I can come back and look after him,” he offered.

I responded, “I’m not going anywhere without Josh,” and turned away. I wasn’t in the mood for a debate. Deep inside, there were a lot of what-ifs: what if we traveled to Hawaii, what if I didn’t insist on skiing, what if we just slept the whole morning away. What if…what if…what if…what if…what if…what if, kept ringing.

He said.”Here’s your coffee?”

“I did not ask for any coffee?” I replied, turning to face him. I responded with a shrug and a sidelong glance. I knew he was just trying to be nice, and that he was more affected than I was by Josh’s situation.

It was his son who was resting on the bed, a son he expected to give him grandchildren one day. Then it dawned on me: The heirs of the company? Josh was so set on wanting children that we discussed it even before we married.

Heirs to take over his company? he needed heirs. He put his life on hold, even went to the extent of marrying his enemy’s daughter for the purpose of taking over the company but it turned out that he was not going to have anybody to pass the company to.

It was all in vein, his sacrifices were all in vein.

I was about to burst out laughing, but I immediately swallowed my words and bolted from the room, surprising Victor. I continued to run through the hospital corridors like a madwoman.

Victor pursued me, yelling at me to halt, but I continued running all the way to the elevator. I punched the button, but the elevator was a long way up.

Out of frustration, I began punching the elevator till I felt strong hands gripping my shoulders.

As I dropped into his arms and wept out, he roared at me, “Stop it, Jessica! You’re only hurting yourself!”

I was punishing myself inwardly, knowing that if I had agreed to start trying for a kid sooner, all of my birth control would have been flushed out and I would be pregnant.

But, because I was a selfish sl*t, I insisted on having children at my leisure. I didn’t think we needed to rush because we had time, and I thought he was imposing his agenda and company’s focus on me.

He had gotten his company, and it was time to relax and enjoy the wealth without having to worry about the little brats keeping us awake at night.

That was my interpretation; we had all the time in the world, so why were we expected to hurry?

I also had my way with putting his mother in a care home, I even told him during the celebratory party that I was ready to have a child with him which was a lie.

I knew my body was and still was full of contraceptives, but it was the only way to get his mother out of my new house before she even entered. All of the deception, selfishness, had been for nothing.

I knelt as I sobbed, I could hear other people walking by, most likely staring and laughing at us, but we ignored them and stayed still. Wallowing in our sorrows.

Victor stated, “We have to be strong, we have to be strong for Josh. The most important thing is that he is still alive,” he stated.

“But how are we going to tell him that he will never be able to father a child?” I asked, tears streaming down my face. “How? Do you know how important it was for him to have children?”

Victor answered, “I know how much it meant to him, and I know how devastated he will be. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure what I’ll say to him when he wakes up.” He said, “I don’t want to be the one to tell him the worst news of his life”

Victor was as lost as I was, we were domed, and no amount of money or plotting would be enough to bring us out of the unexpected black hole that we found ourselves in. Money was always the solution.

We always dealt with every problem with our money and influence but it was a different kind of problem that we were facing.

Victor assisted me in getting up and escorted me back to Josh’s room. We walked to the room in silence and sat in silence and just stared at Josh, who seemed peacefully, unaware of the hell that awaited him on the other side.

We were both napping before we realized it, and the only thing that jolted us awake was the door opening as the doctor brought in a detective.

We both stood up and greeted the two. We sat down, hoping for some good news. Hoping, we were hoping for good news. Hope was the only word that I could relate to.

The detective cleared his throat and apologized for everything that we were going through like he had caused it or something.

“Save your apologies; they will not improve my husband’s situation!” With so much venom in my mouth, I spat it out.

Victor interrupted, saying, “Jessica, please cut the man some slack, he means well.”

I cried, “Are his apologies going to give us answers that we want? because I demand d*mn answers of what occurred!”

I screamed. The room fell silent and somehow it felt like there was a big fire in the center of the room.

I turned to the investigator and asked if he knew something I didn’t know of or if there was a breakthrough in the case.

“Mrs. Nelson, we’re still looking into what caused the skiing accident; so far, all we have is supposition,” he replied as my face wrinkled and I felt like killing him.

I took a deep breath in and clutched my chest, urging myself to relax as I closed my eyes.

“From the witnesses, we discovered that your husband was a first-time skier?” he said. “Could you please confirm?” he inquired.

“Pay attention to what comes out of your mouth next!  I’ll say it again: Watch what you say next because I’m going to sue your department!” I became enraged and yelled at him.

“Threats will not help us solve this case, Mrs. Nelson. We’re trying to rule out the possibility that your husband was inexperienced,” the detective clarified, forcing me to roll my eyes.

“My son used to ski when he was younger, but he wasn’t very good at it,” Victor remarked.

“When was the last time he skied before the accident?:”

“What is the significance of that?” I screamed at him.

“Please, Jessica, let the man do his job,” Victor said, “I believe it was a few years ago, more than five years ago.”

The ineffective investigator took out his writing pad and scribbled something down. All of the meaningless information he was taking down had already been taken down by the inept sheriff the day before.

That is to say, the fools did nothing all day yesterday. My heart hurt and I wanted to skin him alive. I could tell he had a lot of silly questions in mind when he looked up at me and we locked eyes, but the look I gave him made him reconsider some of them.

I wasn’t sure if he was asking a question or making a statement when he posed for a minute before saying, “Some witnesses reported they saw you teaching your husband before you both began skiing on the main strip?” he stated.

I responded, turning away.

“You aren’t assisting us, Mrs. Nelson. Remember every little detail is very important ” he said.

“Yes, we were practicing; before we go uphill, everyone at the resort does a little warm-up at the dummy track! What exactly does this have to do with my husband’s ski accident?” I asked confused. The man in front of me was asking all the stup*d questions in the world.

“He was nervous, therefore we assume he wasn’t ready to ski…”

“Shut up, my hubby is a natural when it comes with skiing; he skied four rounds before that foolish accident. He never complained or appeared to be in any kind of trouble or distress” I replied.

Josh would have signaled me to stop if he was having any trouble skiing. I remembered him being extra careful not to make any mistakes and not struggling. If anything I was the careless one.

“Mrs. Nelson, please relax, I’m only trying to run that angle.”

“You’re approaching the problem from the wrong direction!” I replied in a serious tone. I was always intimidating, and difficult to work with that was the persona that I crawled in whoever I was in such situations I started strolling around the room, it felt crowded.

“You’re running the wrong angle!” I added again.

“Are there any other aspects you’re considering?” Victor inquired. I came to a halt and stared at the investigator, waiting for a proper answer which I doubted he was capable of producing.

“Well, we don’t want to alarm you, but in the event of an accident, we search for tempering or the resort’s safety.

Was it safe to go skiing on the ice or where the equipment you were using safe to use?” he declared.

“So it’s possible that someone messed with his skii board?” I enquired.

But to my shock, he asked “Is Mr. Josh covered by a life insurance policy? We’d like to look at the will.”

For a split second, my heart stopped, and I didn’t need an interpreter or a lawyer to tell me what the fool meant.

I laughed and sat down, combing my hands through my hair. My nightmare grew into hell, and then into a freak display of dread.

But, if you think about it, the story would be;  billionaire marries a hot girl, she takes him to a ski resort, and she sets him up to die and grab his fortune. The dumb scandal would make a nice headline in most tabloids.

Victor stood up and added, “Jessica do not say a word,” he said and turned to face the detective “You’ll have to talk to our lawyer about that perspective if you want to discuss it or explore it any further,” he added.

“We have to cover all angles, Mr. Nelson,” the investigator insisted.

“Are all of Canada’s law enforcement this stup*d or you were all born stup*d!” I spat out.

The investigator stood up, he knew I would go whole day and night insulting him.  He said his goodbyes and walked out of the room, but we all ignored him.

I could not believe the audacity, the fool had the nerve to put me on his suspect list. The door opened and the doctor entered the room but to my shock, Victor landed a blow on his face almost knocking him to the ground before he could sit down, he stated.

“That’s what you get for rendering my son sterile without my consent,” he said. The doctor’s face was covered in anguish as he grasped his head in amazement.

I was stunned as well, thinking I was the one who was losing it, but Victor had been suppressing his rage for hours while I was unleashing it through yelling.