Page 40 of Priestly Sins
“Gloria. Call me Gloria.”
“Gloria, Henry and I have a special bond. I love him like a brother. I’ll do everything I can to help with this.”
She thanks me and, after a few pleasantries, she leaves.
The dread I feel when I think of Henry, of what I’ve done, of the course I chartered for him is too much. I must do something, but how the hell do I extricate him from this situation without putting my own mission in jeopardy?
“Oh, God. I killed him,” a woman’s voice says.
No preamble.
No “Forgive me, Father.”
No “hello.”
Just “I killed him.”
“Back up a moment. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, you are sealed. Okay, continue. What’s going on?”
In a rush, the whole story comes out, through the hushed words in her cracking voice.
“I’ve had enough. Enough I tell you. I can’t handle any more of Enzo. Or I didn’t think I could anyway,” she begins.
“I’ve had enough fear. I’m tired of being scared. I’m over his threats. At some point he either will make good on them or not. It’s like he enjoys me living in fear. Disgusting man!
“On top of that he’s having affairs. Plural. He’s threatening me while he’s cheating. The PI confirmed it last week,” she continues in a rush. “Apparently my inability to get pregnant is license for him to take a lover or two or five. Five! Cheating bastard!
“I’m over always worrying. I’m over crying all the time for real or because he needs to see my sadness at my challenges conceiving. He doesn’t know it’s not my problem, but still. I am tired of faking the desire to be pregnant when he should never have another human to make miserable, to destroy with his words.
“I’m so over it that I wanted him dead. Still do, in fact. Enzo has stopped acting like I’m his to protect, and I can’t help wondering if he plans to eliminate me. It’s why I hired the investigator.
“I hate that it has come to this. But, anyway,” she continues. “I found his revolver in his nightstand. I don’t know anything about guns but I Googled it to see how they work and how to know if it was loaded. It was. So, I made a plan. Don’t judge me please, Father. You don’t know what he’s like.”
That’s where she’s wrong, but I don’t correct her. She planned the whole thing. I’m trying not to be just a bit impressed and—I hate myself for it—envious.
“His Friday lunch, which is really just an “afternoon delight” ran longer than normal, so I got angrier and angrier. When the door handle jiggled, I assumed he’d had too much to drink, which was just icing on the cake. I grabbed the gun from the nightstand and went to the hall where I could see the front door but not be seen. When he turned to close the door and lock it, I walked straight out and put three into his back. My hands stung and my ears were ringing and I was just so relieved when he fell over.
“But it wasn’t Enzo!” She pauses for dramatic effect.
What I want to say isfuckorthank fuck, but I say the only thing I can. “Go on.”
“It was his employee, Rockwell. You were at his engagement party. Were you a friend of his? Oh, no. Maybe I shouldn’t be telling you this. I didn’t think this through at all.”
“It’s fine. Please continue.” I steady my tone and try to make myself sound calm, even though I’m anything but.
“I dialed Enzo. I didn’t want to and, honestly, I was terrified he would think I was going to kill him but I didn’t know what to do. I told him I’d killed an intruder. I was so scared and didn’t know it was a friend until I tried to drag him away from the front door so I could get out of there.”
She is crafty, lethal, and cunning. She planned the whole thing.
“Enzo made some calls, apparently, and even before he was home, he’d sent cleaners to remove the body and then housekeeping services to handle the house. I mean, I knew he was dirty, but I didn’t know he was this dirty. Who has the resources to efficiently handle a body? Beyond that, who has a team that could do so without flinching?
“So, I killed a man. And I haven’t stopped shaking or sobbing since I pulled the trigger. If it had been Enzo, it’d have been worth it, but now it’s too much. What do I do now?”
My mind is whirling. I want to say, “Finish the job or run the hell away,” but she isn’t asking Sean. She’s asking Father O’Ryan how to be absolved and live with having taken a life she never meant to.
“Are you asking for your penance?”
She pauses.