Chapter 85
“Yes, it wasn’t Phoebe who pushed Melody down the stairs. I was downstairs, and I saw everything clearly,” Hank leaned against the wall, sobbing as he spoke.
“Spit it out!” Dexter’s voice was icy, his patience thin.
“That day, I was at your place with Melody’s sister Serena, and there was a scuffle between Melody and Phoebe. Melody just lost her balance and tumbled down the stairs. It wasn’t Phoebe’s doing.” Hank admitted through tears. “I lled, okay? I just wanted to get back at Phoebe. I didn’t stand up for her.”
Dexter didn’t say a word. Instead, he grabbed Hank by the collar and started throwing punches that landed with a sickening thud on Hank’s face.
“Dexter, why the hell are you hitting me. It was you who didn’t believe her in the first place.” Hank, desperate and cornered, yelled back at Dexter.
Another punch from Dexter, each one more furious than the last, as if he were trying to beat the life out of him.
I glanced at Stella. “You think he’ll kill him?”
Stella clenched her fists. “Even if he does, the guy had it coming.”
I nodded in agreement.
Hank was the kind of person who deserved no less. I could never forget what Hank had done to
“Dexter, are you gonna keep…” Hank spat blood as he spoke, a tooth clearly broken. “Why the hell are you hitting me? Don’t think I don’t know about you and Phoebe. You’ve been with her. slept with her, and you deny it! Why? Why is it okay for you to touch her, and when I do, she goes all high and mighty, acting all pure when you’ve had your way with…”
In his panic, Hank spilled everything.
Dexter’s face contorted with rage as he slammed Hank’s head against the wall again. “You touched her?”
Hank tried to flee, but Dexter caught him and pinned him against the wall once more.
“Say it again. What did you do to her?” Dexter screamed, completely unhinged.
From outside, I watched as Dexter took his anger out on Hank, a cold smile playing on my lips.
Did Hank think I didn’t know what he had done?
At the Fitzgerald family gathering, Hank had tried to assault me. I had fled, disheveled, pleading for help. Wasn’t it Dexter himself who had believed Hank’s lies, accusing me of being a slut?
Hadn’t he called me a dirty, loose woman?
I had thought that being reborn would leave me with nothing but hatred, but the memory still made my entire body shake.
With a sudden loss of control, I burst into the room, shoved Dexter aside, grabbed Hank by the collar, and slapped him hard across the face, not stopping there.
“Why don’t you just die!” I raged, gripping Hank’s collar, wishing I could strangle the life out of him.
Hank, already weakened by Dexter’s blows, fell to the floor, looking up at me with a mad grin. “Phoebe, you’re not dead?”
I froze for a moment before kicking him in the stomach.
Hank laughed, a lunatic sound. “Phoebe, I never meant to kill you. I really didn’t.”
His laughter turned to crying, a wailing sob.
I knew he wasn’t regretting hurting me; he regretted that my supposed death had dragged him down as well. He felt his life was ruined because of me.
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Reborn In a Murderer’s Embrace (Dexter and Phoebe)