Forced Marriage: Escaping Her Monster

"Jerlina! Jerlina!" Emma slammed the table with her fisted hand. Her entire face twitched and her reddened eyes widened. "Is that all you care about? What is so special about her?"

Emma shouted and stood up. Jeremy wondered if she would leave but Emma walked to the balcony. It was a big balcony that is twenty feet wide. There used to be nothing there before but now his wife brought some planters with some flowering plants. She wanted him to have something "fresh" to look at. 

He gritted his teeth seeing Emma plucking the leaves of the plant beside the door. She truly has no consideration for anything. Nothing is sacred for her, except…

Well, nothing is of value in the eyes of Emma, except herself, perhaps?

"Is that why you hate her? Because she is special?" Jeremy redirected Emma back to the topic.

"Special?" Emma let out a snort. "how?" she curled her lips and her face had already lost any trace of her crying so filled with despair some time ago. With her stiff expression, and her chin up, she appeared to be filled with pride. 

Jeremy fixed his hair that got ruffled by the sea breeze and took a puff of the cigar. He had a feeling that Emma wouldn't stop there. 

"What is so special about her?" she threw out her hands. "She's average at best. With her thrift store clothes and no makeup look… I am better than her in my studies too. I don't know why she was treated like royalty in that backwood ghetto school! Maybe for those country bumpkins, she appeared as an angel. But even after I was there, they continued worshipping in the altar of Jerlina! Heh!" she shuddered with disgust.

"But didn't I prove her wrong? I proved I am smarter than her…" she mumbled. 

Jeremy coughed as he heard Emma saying that she is better than Jerlina in studying. He then let out a sigh. It seems like Emma wanted to be adored, but everyone treated Jerlina better. And that seems to be the origin of whatever hate Emma has for  Jerlina?

Did she stop and think if maybe, just maybe, Jerlina might be better than her?

Ah, right! Emma does not have the ability to self-reflect. She is a narcissist. There is no one better than her in this whole world- In her mind. 

Yeah, you are a better killer than Jerlina ever will be…

He took a big puff to calm his nerves.

"Not only that…" Emma continued, her eyes ending at the horizon. "She knew she is overrated and yet she loved getting worshipped. She manipulated everyone to think that she is better when she just got everything by fluke. She has the best luck in the whole world. She trapped Gerard… I just asked him for a casual coffee but he was scared of her. It was just a coffee…We've met after a decade and he said he can't because of his girlfriend. I…"

Emma paused. Jeremy was wondering if he should get stunned or not. He has already established that Emma is a psycho and so he cannot find her reasoning to be perfect.   

But how could someone hate another person just because she is liked well by others? And that guy was loyal to her, he should give him that. But…

Nah!

Jeremy opted not to think about Gerard. Gerard loved her, but he was not the best for her. The way he spoke about her as if she is part of him and not a separate entity… It still irks him. Trying to hand over Jerlina- someone with her own thoughts and desires, as if he is the master of her, talking down on her and her company, slapping her, trying to force himself on her, pointing the muzzle at her for whatever reason… 

Not cheating is the basic standard in a relationship. It cannot be attributed as something wondrous and as if he sacrificed something when Jerlina too was loyal.

She's better off without him. And he believes her when she says that she is the happiest with him.

"You killed her baby!" he asked. 

What reasoning could she have for that?

He noticed a little bird-like thing hovering at a certain distance from his balcony. It must be a drone as he hears a low buzzing noise.

Well, who might be watching us?

"You were already plotting to separate Gerard and Jerlina, so why did it bother you if she is pregnant or not? You knew it in your heart that Gerard will never get over Jerlina didn't you? Is that why? You know what? I have doubts if you were the reason he wanted to kill me yesterday. Did you manipulate him like you've manipulated others till now?" he asked minding that someone is recording.

"Was Gerard under the impression that he might get Jerlina once I am out of the picture? I was told that he had a gun. Where did he get the gun? Did you know because of that gun they assumed he was one of my men and shot him?"

If his father is trying to implicate him in Gerard's killing, he will drag them with him.

He hated for thinking like this and despised the Harrison blood flowing in him for being this repugnant, but he had no plans on going down for killing Gerard. The unexpected arrival of those assassins actually ended up being in his favor. 

Emma didn't answer him. He regretted bringing up Gerard when he wanted to know why Emma killed a baby. So he brought it up again.

"I've sent it, you know… proof of everything you did… to the feds. So… Good luck!" he said stubbing off the cigar and watched Emma's face getting pale with panic. 

He did send what he found to the feds. He is not going to protect his psychopathic sister from the brunt of the law. She must face humiliation. That would affect her than jail time. 

Or would she love the attention  of the trials and media coverage?

He didn't know. But he has done what he wanted to do already.

"Why?" she screamed and lunged at him.

"Stay away from my family, Emma. I loved you and all you did was…" he blocked her as she started to claw and scratch him.

'Stop it!" he tried to keep her away from him by holding her shoulders. 

But Emma gripped his shirt with one hand and started to hit his chest with the other. 

"How can you do this? How can you?" she started to scream.

At that moment he could hear from the streets down the shouts asking him to get down. He could hear his father screaming from the top of his lungs to not kill his daughter. Some from the other buildings can see what was happening on his balcony. He could see that this has become a big issue in front of his office.

"Let go," Jeremy grabbed her wrists. 

He is a big man compared to Emma and it won't take a lot for him to overpower her. But he was careful not to do anything rash. Because in his deep heart, he knew he wants Emma dead.

"Heh…" he heard a whisper from his chest and he looked down. The corner of Emma's face was curved to a smirk and he saw the shadows under her eyes getting darker. She looked possessed with evil, or it could be her true form she kept hidden till then. 

"I just wanted to see if she could die…" she spoke each word clearly although she whispered. "Those pills were not meant for the child but her – for Jerlina…Of course, the miscarriage was a surprise even for me and it was fun to watch her in that state of hysteria while I enjoyed myself in Italy…" 

"Move away!" Jeremy's hold on her hands tightened. 

She was saying those words as if she was narrating some story. This is Jerlina she is talking about. Of course, abortion pills won't kill, but the amount she had given her and the utter impassiveness towards Jerlina just because she was jealous… He felt like a million caterpillars is crawling over him wherever she touched him.

  Emma continued with her dark eyes staring at him. "By the way, thank you for your help and your valuable commentaries-"

"Enough!" Jeremy shouted. It is something he still can't get over it till now – his connection to everything that happened with Jerlina.

"Fuck off!" he pushed her away. 

She tried to grab him but he used his strength to push her away. 

"Get lost!" he shouted as he kicked her leg and pushed her away.

With her eyes widened and hands stretched towards him, Emma staggered back. One of the potters tripped her and he watched as she stumbled near the ledge of the balcony.

"Jerry!" she screamed. "Help!"

Jeremy stood there stunned for a second, but then his feet naturally walked towards her.

But....