The unfamiliar woman with golden locks threw a sweet smile at Brandon as she placed her hand on top of his. Cherry expected Brandon to shrug the woman’s advances off, but he didn’t seem bothered by the woman’s touch and even offered a smile in return as he leaned in to whisper something in the woman’s ear to cause her to giggle with a slight blush on her cheeks.  

Cherry didn’t know what to make off from the scene, but the sharp pain in her chest begged to differ.  

“What do you think, Ms. Graywood?” Inquired Dean, noting the young lady’s sudden silence. Cherry turns away from the scene, but too slowly to be normal. When she speaks, her voice trails haltingly, like her words are unwilling to take flight. There is a sadness in her eyes, the brown globes too glossy.  

“I think that I want to go home.”  

“But we haven’t seen all of his work yet.” Said Mr. Colburn, bringing a frown to Cherry’s face, her vision still blurry as she tried to fend off the tears.  

“I never knew that cheating on a spouse was considered a work.” She sneered.  

This had Dean blinking obtuse at Cherry.  

Cheating? Didn’t she notice the menacing look in her husband’s eyes when that woman touched him? Dean wondered to himself. While Cherry was too shocked to see Brandon with a different woman, all Dean saw was a man withholding himself from ripping each of those acrylic nails off of those woman’s hand. Dean didn’t bother to fix the misunderstanding that Cherry had as he saw Brandon stand up from his seat together with the lady, her arms snaking around his.  

“He’s going to make his move.” He announced with an eager smile, as the revelation was almost near.  

“What are you talking about?”  

Ignoring Cherry’s question, the old man’s eyes silently followed Brandon, who went inside his car together with the young lady to soon drive off, creating a fair distance in a matter of seconds. After the car disappeared on the horizon, the old man’s piercing blue eyes flitted back to the watery brown eyes that still held the look of confusion and pain.  

“How about a quick drive around the city?” Dean offered with a sleazy smile.  

Cherry pursed her lips. “I would like to go home.”  

“Yeah, I agree with you, Ms. Graywood. This weather is indeed nice for a drive.” Dean said whilst starting the engine, driving in the same direction where Brandon had gone off to and Cherry became slack-jawed at the old man who blatantly interprets her words as he wishes. Is it still too late to push him out of the car?  

After a while, they arrived at a barren plot of land outside the city. The only thing decorating the grainy land is the shriveled sprouts of grass and a moldy-looking warehouse. The unease layered on thick, as Cherry had no clue why they were even here. Her arms wrapped around her torso, not knowing if she did that to create a friction of warmth against the chilly breeze or because the wobbly warehouse gave off an eerie feeling.  

Her mind and body were against the idea of venturing any longer and she was about to leave when her eyes landed on her husband’s car parked in front of the small building, stopping her in her tracks. Not waiting for Dean to come out of the car and, as if something compelled her, Cherry’s feet carried her deliberately closer to the warehouse while questions were running through her mind.  

Why was he here?  

Was he still with that woman?  

She wondered if Brandon came here to frolic with this unknown woman out of sight of unwanted eyes, so that no words would ever reach her ears. The thought alone spiked her anger and Cherry decided to catch him in the act and to give him a peace of mind before leaving his sorry-ass behind.  

Her slow strides gained some momentum as she got fueled with conviction, her fist clenching, ready to throw some punches. Arriving at the entrance, she spotted Brandon, her soon-to-be ex-husband, standing in the middle of the room with his back facing her, holding the stranger in an embrace. Seeing those hands adorned with red acrylic nails gliding up Brandon’s back to tighten their closeness made Cherry grit her teeth.  

Cherry couldn’t stand the sight any longer and stepped out of the door frame to sling out a string of profanities.  

“You cheating basta-!” Her voice trailed off mid-sentence, because a loud gurgle noise overthrew her own voice, stopping her in her steps and before she could register what that sound was or where it came from the hand that was clutching her husband’s back went limp and the woman who Cherry thought was cheating with her husband appeared from behind Brandon with a dagger jabbed in her neck as she fell sideways on the cemented floor, blood gushing out of the pale neck, creating a pool around the now dead body.  

Taking a couple of steps back, Cherry let out a silent gasp as the words got stricken in her throat. The dead woman was facing her and Cherry watched how any sign of life left the woman’s eyes, leaving it hollow and the mouth agape with blood dripping out of it, joining the stream of red liquid coming from the neck.  

Her heart was throbbing in her ears, loud and irregular, but she barely heard it, for her mind clouded with fear. Her own body shaking in an odd trembling rhythm.  

“Tch!” At the loud tongue clicking sound coming from Brandon Cherry flinched, her fearful eyes shifting from the dead corpse to her blood dosed husband, ruffling his hair in exasperation. “I was going to kill her in a way that won’t cause a lot mess, but she was so annoying that I couldn’t stop myself and now I have to clean this shit up.”  

Brandon gave a dirty side-eye at the lifeless body as if he wanted to stab it another hundred times and Cherry felt the small hairs on her neck rising at the detached look on Brandon’s face. Her brain had difficulty understanding that the person standing there was the same person who would whisper words of love every night in her ears.  

“You better not damage the organs. A client of mine needs it.” Came the boisterous voice of Dean from above Cherry’s head as he now stood behind her. Both Cherry’s and Brandon’s head whipped around at the obnoxious old man. Cherry who had her hands covering her mouth to stifle down a scream as not to alert Brandon of her presence; Brandon who at first held a look of annoyance, ready to chew the old man out only for his expression to blanch when his eyes fell on his wife who shouldn’t have even known that this place existed and Dean who looked at the stunned couple with a gleeful smile.  

“Aren’t you happy to know what he really does for work?” Dean asked, his eyes glancing down at the young woman. Her face lacking luster as if ready to collapse.  

“Is this a joke?” her voice came out even and measured as she tried to calm the panic. Maybe this was all a sick joke that those two came up with and maybe the woman on the ground was a payed actress- yes that must be it, Cherry thought to convince herself.  

Sparing Cherry with a blank look, Dean tilted his head as he shook his head. “I’m afraid not. You see, I’m the type who doesn’t make jokes.”  

But you smile all the time! Cherry yelled at the man in her head.  

The panic came back tenfold and she could feel her fingertips becoming cold. Her heart ricocheted against her ribcage as she took gingerly a step back from the old man. The longer she stood there, the louder the thumping of her heart became, turning ear-deafening until…  

“Cherry.” The voice of her husband that filled the silence made her heart pause, and she held in her breath, refusing to turn her head around as she felt like she was going to puke if she did. Brandon’s voice came out carefully, as if assessing the situation and the state of Cherry’s mind.  

Before he could take a step towards where she was, Cherry bolted out of the warehouse.  

“Cherry!” Brandon yelled as he ran after his pregnant wife but when he got to where Dean was standing, hearing the old man chuckle, he send him a threatening glare before grabbing him by his collar and pulling him towards him, snarling. “Why the fuck was Cherry here!?”  

Dean cocked his brow, amused at the enraged Brandon. “Do you think that you’ve got the time to deal with me now?”  

“We are in the middle of nowhere. I’ll catch on to her in no time.” Brandon retorted, his eyes darken in color as the murderous intent in him grew and his jaw tightened.  

To that, Dean hummed before saying, “I suddenly realize that I’ve left my car keys in the ignition key.”  

Soon after Dean said those words, the sound of an engine roaring had Brandon enlarge his eyes before shifting his attention from Dean to Cherry driving off in Dean’s car.  

“Shit!” 

Brandon cursed under his breath before releasing the old man and making his way to his own car to chase down his wife. Watching the two cars racing down the road, Dean corrected his collar that got gnarled from Brandon’s rough treatment. Pulling out his phone, he called one of his underlings. When they picked up, he said in a commanding tone,  

“Come and pick me up. I’m at the warehouse-” A lone raindrop from the sky landed on Dean’s nose, stopping his speech mid-sentence as he gazed heavenwards before adding with the corner of his lips tugging in a curl, “Also bring an umbrella I think a storm is coming.”  

The drizzle of rain soon transformed into a waterfall that beaded against Cherry’s windshield. Her sight was bleary as the wipers couldn’t keep up with the raging storm, but her feet never left the gas pedal as she could see Brandon on her tail through the rear-view mirror.  

“I need to get away quickly, go to the police and, and, and- God!” Torrent of grief coursed down her face, followed by her fist meeting the steering wheel. “Just why!?”  

Her heart torn from the truth, sobs wrecking her body, making her silently wish that this was all a dream. How she wished she could just rewind time and stay oblivious to all, but that would never happen. She was going to doubt Brandon and eventually, the truth would have come out. Brandon is a killer and there was high likely chance that he was going to kill her next now that she knew, but she couldn’t let that happen.  

She placed her hand on her belly. This child- she needed to protect her unborn baby.  

Sniffling, Cherry used her hand to wipe away the tears and in doing so didn’t notice the car steering to the other lane and from the bend a truck drove up. The driver humming his favorite country song only for his face to contour expeditiously in a horrid expression on seeing the car coming from the opposite side on his lane and with a haste he steps down on the brake while honking like a madman.  

The foghorn honking snapped Cherry out of her solemn daze. Coming face to face with the glaring headlights of the truck, she gave her own share of a shrill scream. Squinting her eyes shut, she stirred to the right recklessly, saving herself from a collision, but drove herself over a cliff. Cherry’s heart lunged itself in her throat when she couldn’t hear the tires making their monotonous hiss over the rain-washed highway anymore as she now flew in the air, the car turning upside down, before crashing to its doom.  

Brandon, who watched this all happen with red-rimmed eyes, cried out in despair,  

“Cherry!”