Page 19

CHAPTER 19

Butterfly Man

Saldana’s head whips backwards, her consciousness kicking back in. A strange noise comes out of her nose as she blinks herself awake. Her body jerks, threatening to knock down the chair I’ve tied her to. “Where am I?” Her gaze darts around the upper floor of my loft, and when it hits my face, she flinches with a gasp. “Who are you? What do you want from me?”

I clasp my hands behind my head and lean back in my seat. “Your husband is cheating on you with the maid, so you decided to have an affair, too, with me.”

It takes her a while to respond. “W-w-hat?”

“That’s what the neighbors would say to the police and the press. You were having an affair. I made sure they saw we were intimate when we left your house, and in your car that you let me drive while your lips were pressed to my neck.”

“What the hell are you talking about? My husband isn’t cheating on me. I don’t know you. I didn’t let you drive my car, and I didn’t... You…” Flashes of memory seem to be coming back to her. “You kidnapped me! Help! HELP!”

“God, you even sound like a donkey. Don’t bother yelling. This place is soundproof. No one can hear you. Anyway, I deleted all your security system footage of my drugging you and taking you, your phone and your laptop from your house, so no one is gonna believe your story. The affair scenario, on the other hand, is tight. And your husband is definitely cheating on you, Katie.”

Anger colors her pale skin before she blubbers ugly. Then, suddenly, she stops, and her eyes widen. “Why…why would the neighbors talk to the police or the press?”

Realization hasn’t fully dawned on her yet. I smile.

“No, no, please. Why?” she sobs. “I don’t know you. I haven’t done anything to you. Why would you want to kill me? Please, don’t. Please.”

“You don’t know me, but I do, Katie. You’re a thief, a hoax, a filthy imposter that doesn’t deserve the air she breathes. While you haven’t hurt me directly, you’ve hurt my little bird, and that is unforgivable.”

“A thief? Little bird? What the fuck are you talking about?”

I jump to my feet and jab the air between us with my index finger. “You know exactly what I’m talking about!” I pull the book Birdie was going to send her from under my hoodie, open the marked page and read the stolen words. Then I recite the original from Birdie’s book. “Is that enough to refresh your memory or do you want more? There’s plenty where that came from.”

Sniffling, she shakes her head. “I…I don’t—”

“Don’t bother lying to me. I know you’ve been stealing Bridie’s words for years.”

“No…you got it all wrong. She’s…she’s the one stealing from me.”

My head falls back as I laugh wholeheartedly. “Like that’s even possible.” Then I draw out my gun.

“All right! I’m sorry! Yes…I’ve been…borrowing from her books. There, I said it. But…but that’s between me and her. Why are you…” She starts crying again. “Who are you and why do you care?”

“Why do I care? Why do I care if a parasite like you hurts my little bird?” My footsteps echo harshly against the hardwood floor. I bend over and cup her chin to hold her face steady. I look her in the eye as she shudders. “Oh, my dear, you don’t understand. Birdie isn’t just the love of my life. She’s the center of my universe. Without her, I’m nothing. I’ve woven myself into the fabric of her existence. I’ve spent my years studying the curve of her spine, the rhythm of her breath, the secrets hidden behind her eyes. She’s mine, and I’ll protect her fiercely.”

“Are…you…her husband?”

“Her husband?” The word tastes so delicious, so fulfilling yet not enough. It’s a warm blanket of reassurance, but Birdie sets my soul ablaze with a need to be so much more than just a figure of stability and commitment. She deserves a love that defies confinement—one as wildly boundless as her spirit. A vast, perpetually evolving frontier awaiting exploration without boundaries or limits.

I want to be her safety and her adventure. I want to be not just her partner—a word too frail to carry the immensity of what she means to me—but her inspiration.

I want to be her pain, her darkest of sufferings that I crave with a hunger that defies reason. I want to make her bleed and yet be the fragile beating of her heart that keeps her alive.

For Birdie, I want to be everything. A husband is just a starting point. From there, I’ll spend my life aiming to be her muse, the force that stokes her inner fires and emboldens her to burn at maximum brilliance.

My fingers leave red marks on Katie’s face as I take my hand off her chin. “It doesn’t matter who I am. What matters is that Birdie’s pain, no matter how big or small, resonates through my veins, echoing in the dark corners of my mind. Every bruise, every tear, every gasp—it’s etched into my soul. When she bleeds, I taste the metallic tang on my tongue. When she trembles, it quakes my being. Do you know what that means?”

“You’re a psycho,” she whispers.

I wave my gun at her. “I don’t like that word, Katie. It brings back bad memories.”

“I’m sorry! Please, please don’t kill me.” Despair drops from her voice. “There must be something I can do. I’ll apologize to Birdie. I’ll rewrite the books. I don’t deserve to die for this.”

“Oh, you deserve to die. Anybody who touches her, anybody who ever hurts her, will die. Isn’t that your favorite trope that you put in the books you steal from her? Touch her and die, hurt her and die, it’s my favorite trope, too.”

Her sobs become whimpers. “Please, I’ll do anything. HELP! HEEEELP!”

I roll my eyes. “I said no one can hear you, you dumb bitch, well, except me, and I don’t wanna hear that noise ever again, so, here’s the deal. In order to spare my ears the ugliness of your voice, I’m willing to make you an offer.”

“Really? What offer?”

“If you do the right thing by Birdie and confess right now on social media that you stole her work, I’ll let you go home to your cheating husband.”

“What? But—”

“Didn’t you just say you’d do anything or was it another lie?”

“This will destroy me forever.”

“I’m giving you a chance to do the right thing here to save your own life, but you don’t want to. Katie, Katie, Katie, what the fuck? Just so you know, I’ve been recording our conversation from the start, which means I already have your confession. I’m in possession of your phone, laptop and all of your social media accounts and passwords. I can simply hit post on your behalf, and then…”

“No! Please, I…” Her head lowers in defeat. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

“I knew you’d come around.” I get her phone out of my pocket and let her face unlock it. “Once we have a sincere confession and apology, I’ll let you do the honors of posting it on all of your accounts.” I set a small table in front of her, plug in a light ring and put the phone on it, ready for recording. “Trust me, you’ll feel so good afterwards. Guilt gives you wrinkles, you know that? You don’t need any more of those.”

Her forehead, the corners of her eyes and the skin around her lips crease, proving my point. “You’re a monster.”

“That attitude isn’t gonna help, Katie. There’s only one monster here, and it’s you. Be a good girl and take accountability for your actions.” I look at her face through the screen. “Now, we need to work on your face. This needs to be genuine, coming from your heart. If you look coerced or forced, no one is gonna believe it, and you want them to believe you, right?”

More whimpering. No answer.

I glare at her. “Right?!”

Her eyes squeeze, and her body shakes with tears. “Y-y-es.”

I grab a tissue box from my desk and put it in her lap, and then I clean her face. “I’d untie you, but I don’t trust you, Katie. I’ll just have to do everything myself.”

“People will see my arms tied back in the video. They’ll know.”

“That’s why we’re only getting a headshot, and don’t worry about the backdrop. My library doesn’t look like yours, and people might notice, so I’ll replace it with the background from your older videos. I have the right app for it.”

“You thought about everything.”

“I like to be thorough, especially when it comes to my queen. You don’t know how much she means to me.”

Something flicks in her eyes other than fear and despair. It’s jealousy. It’s not enough that she envies Birdie’s success so much that she copies Birdie’s life. Katie is jealous that Birdie has someone like me in her life. A man who would love her to the point of obsession instead of a cheating bastard, a man who would look after her in every way possible, who would literally kill for her just to see her safe and happy.

If I were written in a book, I’d be a red flag. A character readers would say they’d swoon over in fiction but disdain in real life. But the truth is, secretly, I am their darkest desire they wish to come true, and if I were their reality, they’d all turn color blind.

“Speak directly to the camera,” I instruct as I adjust the phone camera to capture only her head and shoulders. “Don’t let your gaze wander around or look at me, understood?”

She gives a terse nod.

I record her confession. She’s blubbering and sniffling, blaming the whole fiasco on imaginary drugs she’s been using, and then she apologizes and promises to go to rehab.

“There, I did what you wanted. Now, untie me and let me go,” she says.

“You deviated a little from the script, but I’ll allow it. Actually, the drug abuse part helps a lot.”

“Helps with what?”

I smirk at her and proceed with editing the video and posting it on her accounts. Then I switched off her phone.

“Helps with what?!” she repeats angrily.

“The next step of your redemption, Katie.”

“What next step? You said if I did the video, you’d let me go home.”

“True. I am sending you home, where thieves like you belong.”

She blanches. “What?”

“Hell, Katie. You’re going to hell.”