Chapter Twenty Five: The Final Act of Desperation

This chapter is a little shorter than others, but sometimes big things come in small packages. ;) Thanks so much for reading!

****Jeff****

I was awoken around seven by a noise and I sat straight up and my heart raced as I frantically looked around the room. I sat perfectly still as I stared at the door, wondering if I was soon going to see Rosamund barge through it. I felt relief wash over me as I heard Maggie making sucking noises from her crib and I smiled as I got up from the bed. As I reached the crib, I looked down and watched her thinking that she had to be the most beautiful baby girl on the planet.

I was about to pick her up when heard my phone notify me that I had a new test message and headed to the nightstand to check it. I prayed that it wasn’t Rosamund and was relieved when I saw that the message was from Mom.

Should be there in the next two hours. Cant’ wait to see you and Maggie!

I stood blankly looking at the text. After the fiasco a couple of hours ago, I had completely forgotten that Mom was coming to visit. What was I going to tell her? How would she respond? I had never heard Mom complain like others that I had married Rosamund, but in the last year I could tell that even she thought it hadn’t been the wisest decision. Would she tell me that now? How would others respond? Would they pity me or would they say they told me so about her?

Maggie made another noise and I looked down at her. It was about time for her feeding and I needed to get her a bottle. I quickly put on a shirt and then picked her up. As I walked out to the kitchen I didn’t hear any indication that either Star or Peter was up and I was again relieved since I really didn’t want to see anyone at that moment. 

I stood in the kitchen as I waited for the bottle to heat up and my thoughts went to Mom and how I wished that she wasn’t coming; all I wanted was to be alone with Maggie and to shut out the rest of the world. I knew that wasn’t going to be possible once Mom got there though; I hurriedly heated up the bottle and rushed to the bedroom, hoping to get some time to collect my thoughts before Mom showed up. Right as I opened the door, I heard footsteps starting to come down the stairs and I promptly closed and locked the door.

****Star****

I started to walk down the stairs and thought I heard Jeff’s bedroom door. As I peeked around the corner I saw the door closing and then heard it lock. To say I was relieved would have been an understatement. I knew how uncomfortable Jeff was going to be around us after what happened hours ago, and to be honest, I was going to be uncomfortable; some of the exchanges that had occurred were more than embarrassing for me. The actual reason why Peter and I broke up hadn’t been revealed, but it was obvious now that it somehow involved Jeff. It had to have been since the three of us knew and he didn’t. But with all that had happened, I wasn’t sure if Jeff had caught on to that or if he was too engrossed in what he had gone through to notice.

I had known from the beginning that Rosamund was bad news; I had even tried to warn him. But I would have been happy to have been wrong about her if it had meant that Jeff was happy. From what I had seen since Peter and I had moved in, they never seemed to be happy though. I knew that Rosamund blamed me for most of that, she had made no attempt at keeping it a secret that she thought for whatever reason that I was a threat to hers and Jeff’s relationship and then marriage. And for most of the last three years, I would have told her and anyone else that she was crazy. . .until Christmas happened and it had been like someone had smacked me across the face.  Even though I was sure Jeff didn’t have feelings for me any longer, I hadn’t wanted Rosamund to use my feelings for Jeff against me, Peter, or even Jeff. I knew her well enough to know that if she ever found out, she would use it to her full advantage; and I had been right. She had tried to blackmail Peter, make me feel  even more guilty than I already did about having feelings for my married best friend, and I knew, if it had come to it, she would have tried in some way to turn Jeff away from Peter and me. 

I sighed and looked into the kitchen as I started walking in that direction and saw the remnants from one of Maggie’s bottles being heated.  As I started to clean it up I slightly smiled as I thought about Jeff and how good of a dad he already was to Maggie.  There was no denying that he had made some mistakes, like all of us had in the last couple of years, but if there was one thing he was doing right, it was being a loving and caring dad for Maggie. As I finished cleaning, I heard Peter coming down the stairs and I turned around to face him.

“Have you seen Jeff since you’ve been down here?” He asked me.

“No, I did see the bedroom door closing though and heard him lock the door. I think he was out here earlier heating up a bottle for Maggie.”

He nodded. “How the hell is he going to get through this?”

I honestly didn’t know how he was supposed to get through this. It was unimaginable that for years he had been grieving a child that never was and that a person that he thought he could trust had basically tricked him into marrying them. “I just don’t know, Peter. What she did, what she put him through for the last several years, I don’t think that’s something that he’s just going to get over; if he ever gets over it. I mean, can you imagine? How does someone trust anyone after that?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m still just trying to grasp that she really did that. Who does something like that?”

“I’m really starting to wonder if she’s insane. I just don’t see how anyone can do something like that and be right in the head. I mean, did you hear her trying to defend herself? It was like crazy ramblings. And did you see the way she looked at me, with that crazed look in her eyes? Something’s not right in her head.”

“I think you might be right. You should have heard her on the rooftop last night. She actually thinks that it’s completely normal to have a marriage where both people sleep with other people and then when I didn’t agree to it, she tried to blackmail me. I don’t think I’ve ever known someone so manipulative or conniving. The fact that she thought that I would sleep with her when she’s married to one of my best friends is just. . .”

“Crazy?”

“Yeah, crazy.”

We stood there for a couple of minutes not talking before I heard my phone buzz. I picked it up and looked at the message that had been sent and I almost dropped my phone. “Oh shit, Peter!  His mom’s coming today. . .” I looked up and his eyes looked like they were going to pop out from their eye sockets.  “Bridge just texted telling me that she’s with Amanda. She wanted to surprise Jeff. . .”

“Uh. . .What should we do?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, shouldn’t we tell them what happened?”

I stared at Peter in disbelief. “This is Jeff you’re talking about, you know? You really think he would want us to interfere and tell his family. . .?”

He looked down at the floor and sighed. “You’re right. So we’re really going to let them just walk in here without any warning about what happened a couple of hours ago?”

“I’m not telling them. If you want to text Bridge back, be my guest.” I scooted my phone closer to him and he held his hands out. 

“No, I know you’re right; Jeff would be pissed if we did that.”

I looked at my phone again and let out a loud breath. We had less than two hours before Amanda and Bridge showed up and the house was in disarray from all of the packing that Peter and I had done; packing that I guessed was about to become unpacking.

“Hey. . .” He looked up from the spot on the floor that he had been staring at. “Can you help me clean up a little?”

“Sure.” He nodded and we started the process of straightening up the downstairs. The biggest messes were on the second and third floor where all of our boxes were. We straightened up a little downstairs and then tried to organize the boxes as best we could. I knew that the guest room needed to have clean sheets and towels needed to be laid out for Amanda and Bridge. Once those things were done, we then went our separate ways, me to get cleaned up and him to go running. The remaining time seemed to fly by and soon the doorbell was ringing. 

I stood at the railing on the second floor and looked down at the front door, waiting for Jeff to come out of his room to open it. But there wasn’t any noise that indicated that he had opened his door and as the doorbell rang again, I started to wonder what I should do, I didn’t want Amanda and Bridge to stand outside for very long . . .I started to slowly walk downstairs and when I placed my feet on the floor from the last step, I looked over at Jeff’s door, waiting and wondering if he was going to let them in. The doorbell rang a third time and there was thudding afterwards and I decided to give in. I hastened my pace and reached for the lock and turned it to the left. My hand had just started to reach for the knob when I was startled by the door being flung open, barely missing me as I quickly jumped back. I lifted my eyes and expected to see Amanda and Bridge, but instead, I was face to face with Rosamund.

“Where’s Jefferson?!” She hissed and I couldn’t get over her appearance. I had never seen Rosamund look anything but perfect. The person standing in front of me was a mess, her hair was all over the place, she had no makeup on, and she had a crazed look in her eyes.

“WHERE’S JEFFERSON?!!!” She screamed at me and I started to slowly back away from her. I was in such shock that I couldn’t say anything; all I could do was walk backwards. “YOU STUPID SLUT!!!! WHERE THE FUCK IS HE??!!” She turned to look at the bedroom door and even though I was sure Jeff could take care of himself, I had the uncontrollable urge to protect him and Maggie from her. I started to step in front of her to block her way and that’s when I noticed the gun in her hand. . .

****Jeff****

I heard yelling coming from the family room and couldn’t figure out why. I figured that the doorbell had been Mom but I wasn’t ready to face her yet and I had hoped that someone else would let her in. There had been soft footsteps on the floor and I knew that it had been Star that had gone to answer the door and I was sure she would be okay with sitting with Mom while I tried to muster up the courage to face her.

Instead of pleasant exchanges, I had heard screaming from a voice I didn’t recognize. I looked over at Maggie who was still sleeping and walked closer to the door. . .”YOU STUPID SLUT!!! WHERE THE FUCK IS HE??!!” The moment I heard the second round of yelling, I knew who it was.  I looked back at Maggie one more time before I opened the door to let Rosamund have it. Instead, I was met with the sight of Rosamund pointing a gun at Star’s face.

“OH!? Have you decided to join us? Well, how nice of you.” She hissed.

“Rosamund. . .” I swallowed hard and glanced at Star who was staring straight ahead at the gun pointed at her. “Put the gun, down.” I calmly said but nothing about me was calm. I knew Rosamund was capable of doing some crazy things when she felt desperate, but this was a whole new level of crazy.

She chuckled and got a disgusted look. “Now why would I do that?! This bitch has made my life a living hell for the last seven years! She’s the reason we’re not together anymore, she’s turned you away from me and seduced you!" 

“Rosamund, put the gun down and we’ll talk. Just you and me.” I tried to reason with her.

She laughed from deep in her throat and glared at me. “You had your chance to talk. You could have done that for the last three years we’ve been married, but instead, you pinned for this slut!” She turned and looked at Star and inched the gun closer causing Star to backup. “Ever since high school I’ve had to watch you two pretend that you don’t have feelings for each other! What a couple of idiots you are!!! Thinking you could fool people, fool yourselves!!” Star reached where I was standing and Rosamund stopped moving forward. 

“Maybe I’m the idiot!!! I actually believed that I had won!!! That Jefferson had chosen me!!! But that couldn’t be further from the truth, could it, Star?” She hissed.

“Rosamund. . .” Star started to speak but Rosamund cut her off.

“SHUT UP YOU FUCKING SLUT!!! 

The sound of the door opening caused Rosamund to back up and I prayed that it wasn’t Mom. As the door opened and they entered I closed my eyes and felt my heart sink when I not only saw Mom, but Bridge too.

“Well. . .Isn’t this a lovely family reunion!” She spat out. 

“Jeff. . .what’s going on?” Mom asked.

“Oh, we’re just having a little discussion about people butting into things that aren’t there’s. Weren’t we. . .Star?” She nastily glanced over at Star, but she was hanging her head. “WEREN’T WE?!” Rosamund screamed at her and Star jolted her head up and swallowed hard. Star looked her in the eyes and there was a look in them that I had only seen a couple of times in all the years I had known her; hatred.

“Oh, what’s wrong, Star? Do you hate me?”Rosamund smirked. “Welcome to my life the past seven years!!! I couldn’t even name my own child what I wanted to because of YOU!!!  It’s always YOU!!!! Does he confide in me? NO! He confides in YOU!!! Does he steal glances at me? NO!! It’s YOU!!!! Does he love me? NO!!!! HE LOVES YOU!!!!”

“Rosamund, you need to calm down.” I tried again to reason with her.

“Of course you want me to calm down!!! You’re worried about your precious Star!!!! ALWAYS STAR!!!!!” 

I watched as Rosamund placed her other hand around the gun and I had no doubt in my mind that she was going to shoot Star. From that moment on, it felt like everything was moving in slow motion and fast forward at the same time. The moment I realized that Rosamund was going to shoot, I moved towards Star but it felt like my whole body was weighed down and that it was taking my hands forever to make contact with her arm. Right as I had started to push Star out of the way, I heard the gun fire, someone yell ‘NO!’ and I prayed that I had kept Star from getting shot. Once I landed next to her on the floor, it felt like someone had hit the fast forward button and everything felt like a blur.

I saw Peter come up from behind Rosamund and knock the gun out of her hand and the gun skid over to where Mom and Bridge were standing. Bridge quickly bent over and picked up the gun while Peter knocked Rosamund to the ground and held her down. I turned my head then to look at Star; she was lying still and faced slightly away from me. She soon started moving and I let out a sigh as I watched her slowly turn towards me. As she continued to face me, I started looking from her head to her toes, trying to see if she was okay and the bullet had missed her. As her eyes met mine, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief as I realized that she was okay, but my relief was soon replaced with confusion as her expression became one of horror.

****Star****

 

I watched as Peter knocked Rosamund to the ground and then thought about Jeff and how he had just saved my life. I immediately worried that he had been hit by the bullet and started to turn to look at him. 

His legs came into view and I saw that he was moving, which made me feel hopeful, I didn’t see anything on his torso and started to think that he was okay, until I saw his face.

There was blood on his jawline and I was instantly trying to make sure he was okay.

 “Oh my God, Jeff!!”  I sat up and scurried closer which caused him to sit up.  He looked at me confused and I grabbed his face to turn it so I could get a better look at the bloody mess. There was a large gash from where the bullet had dug through his jaw and I gently touched around it with my hand and pulled it back when he winced. He slowly started to open his eyes and then glanced down at the blood on my hand.

“Jeff!!!” I heard Amanda yell from across the room and then saw that Bridge had called 911. Amanda rushed over to him and knelt down to look at his face.

“Get off of me!!!” Rosamund demanded to Peter and I glanced over at them to make sure that Peter had a good hold on her.

“Shut up!!!” Peter yelled at her and I turned my attention back to Jeff and Amanda. 

She was looking at his face while turning his head in an attempt to make sure he didn’t have any other injuries. As she kept inspecting him, I turned my attention back to Jeff and he was already looking at me. I couldn’t read his expression at that moment, but he soon seemed to be annoyed from his mom handling him.

“I’m fine, Mom.” He tried to reassure her.

She nodded. “You’re not badly hurt, but you’re going to need stitches.” She said as she looked again at where the bullet had dug into his jaw. “I’m going to get Maggie. . .” She said after she was satisfied that Jeff didn’t have any more injuries. It was then that I realized that Maggie was crying. I didn’t know how long she had been, but the ringing in my ears wasn’t helping me to hear much. I felt a hand on my arm and turned to look at Jeff and his bloody face.

“Are you okay?” He wondered and looked at me concerned.

“I’m fine. . .”Thanks to you I thought. I couldn’t believe that he had risked his own life like that. People said stuff like that all the time; vowing to risk their life for their family, friends, or anyone they cared about; But to actually do it was something completely different. He had actually saved my life. I looked at his face again and knew we needed to place a towel on the massive cut. I stood up and he tried to also, but I argued with him to stay down while I got a towel. I grabbed one out of the drawer and knelt down next to him as I place it on his jaw. He reassuredly smiled at me as he took one of his hands and took over holding the towel there before we were interrupted by Rosamund.

“GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF OF HIM, SLUT!!!! HE’S MINE!!!!” She started screaming and trying to get away from Peter. “THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!! I SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN RID OF YOU A LONG TIME AGO!!!!!”

We all heard a noise in the doorway and looked towards it to see several police officers cautiously entering the house. They had their guns drawn and we’re trying to figure out the scene in front of them. As Bridge started to explain what had happened and handed them the gun, Rosamund became more frantic. “You should arrest her!!!” She motioned towards me with her head and the police looked confused. “She’s the one that caused all of this!! None of this would have happened if she had just left us alone!!!!”

As Rosamund continued to scream, two paramedics made their way over to Jeff and started looking at his jaw while two police officers began to walk over to Rosamund. Peter cautiously got off of her as the two officers pulled her up to stand and she continued to scream. “WHAT THE HELL!!! GET AWAY FROM ME!!! I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING WRONG!!!! IT WAS ALL HER!!!!” She looked over at me but the two officers didn’t even look over at me. 

They quickly escorted her out of the house while one of the other officers came over to talk to me and then to Peter. In the middle of them taking our statements, the two paramedics convinced Jeff to go to the hospital and get stitches for his face. Amanda decided to go with Jeff and Bridge, Peter and I took turns caring for Maggie while they were gone. Once the police had taken all of our statements, Bridge, Peter and I staggered into the living room and stood there in complete shock.

“Are you okay?” Peter asked me breaking the silence and touching my arm.

I nodded. “I’m fine.” I lied not wanting to tell him that I was mortified by what had just happened. It was bad enough having a loaded gun in your face, but thinking about what could have happened. . .I just wanted to block those thoughts.

“What the hell was that?!” Bridge asked. “From what I heard I know that Jeff and her had a big argument but. . .what made it turn into that?”

Peter was the first to answer. “I’m guessing that was Rosamund’s final attempt at. . .getting Jeff to take her back? I’m not sure. . .”

“I think it was her final act of desperation.” I added. “Maybe when she realized that there was no way that Jeff was going to believe her anymore, and that he was really serious about divorcing her, maybe something snapped.” I shook my head. “I don’t know. . .”

“Something must have snapped.” Bridge commented. “I mean, we all know that she’s crazy but that’s a whole other level of crazy.” Peter and I nodded and as we stood there in silence, even though I was trying to block them, the events from the last couple hours played over again in my mind.  I knew that there was no explanation for what Rosamund had done but some of the words she said haunted me. She blamed me for what happened between her and Jeff; and while it was clear that Rosamund had created enough problems between them, I wondered if maybe on some level she was right. Had I played some part in their marriage falling apart . . .?