Loving You Too Long

Loretta looked at Nathan with a furrowed brow. “Trapped you?” she asked disapprovingly. “Who trapped you, Nath? You’re the one who walked right into the trap yourself,” she scoffed. “Don’t blame me if you’re too cowardly to admit your mistakes, so you chose to get trapped with me,” she said with an empty laugh. “But honestly, I’m also grateful that you fell into my trap. Because, truth be told, I was afraid you’d turn brave and choose to turn yourself into the police back then,” she said with a shiver. “I can’t imagine what would have happened if you chose to report yourself. We could both end up in jail, but of course, my punishment would be longer and even more terrifying than what you’d get,” she replied, making Nathan furrow his brow.

Nathan observed Loretta pacing in front of him, her expressions changing.

“If only that wench Haisley didn’t show up!” she cursed without looking at Nathan. “I think right now, you would still be Nathaniel Chayton, the coward,” she said with a mocking gaze at Nathan. “What did she actually say to you that made you lose your cowardice and decide to report yourself to the police after all these years, Nath?” she asked with a soft tone filled with curiosity.

Nathan simply stared at her, with no intention of giving an answer. Because he, too, questioned himself about what Haisley had said that made him brave enough to make a difficult decision and be willing to bear the risks he had been avoiding – imprisonment and being bound in marriage.

Realizing that Nathan was not responding, the woman quickly walked back towards him and gripped Nathan’s face with her long, sharp-nailed fingers.

“What did she do to you, you bastard!” she yelled in frustration. “Did she sell herself to you? Did she open her legs in front of you?” she accused angrily. “Tell me! Did she really do that?” she asked, then answered her own question. “Of course she did. Isn’t that what you men need? Something between a woman’s thighs!” she demanded, laughing again. “Even though I offered myself to you, you were never interested at all,” she continued with a resigned tone.

“My body goes numb when I’m with you,” Nathan replied flatly.

This clearly enraged Loretta even more. The woman straightened her back and punched Nathan in the same spot she had hit before, with a force stronger than before.

“No man has ever rejected me like you, you jerk!” she cursed again. “All men want me because of my body, and because I can give them satisfaction,” she said, unwilling to accept Nathan’s statement.

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen to me,” Nathan replied, spitting out blood from his bleeding gums and torn lips. “Even though you pretend to be an innocent girl, you still can’t arouse me. It makes me wonder why you didn’t get tired and leave me after all this time,” Nathan said. Yes, that question suddenly popped into his head. Why? “Don’t tell me you love me?” Nathan asked mockingly.

The woman then laughed. “No. Love has never been in my dictionary,” she replied loudly. “I’m not that good of a woman to fall in love with you. I’m not your foolish Haisley who persisted in loving the coward Nathaniel for years. I’m not as naive as she is.”

“Then why?” Nathan asked, curious.

“Tell me, you both have given me many benefits. You and Gilbert. Don’t you realize that?” Loretta asked with a mocking expression. Nathan looked at the woman with a deepening frown. “Do you know who Ramon is?” She pointed to the man who had been sitting quietly, observing their conversation with a constantly burning cigarette in his hand. “We’ve been working together for a long time,” Loretta said proudly. “Do you think this is my first time in America?” she asked, a question to which Nathan silently responded ‘no’ in his mind. “Yes, after hearing my fluent speech, I’m sure you already knew,” she answered her own question. “I’ve been back and forth to this country for seven years. Isn’t that long enough?” she asked with her sardonic smile. “Ramon is my ally. We work together to sell what you might call contraband.”

“You’re a dealer?” Nathan asked incredulously. The woman widened her smile even more.

“What do you think?” she retorted.

“How could you?”

“Why not?” Loretta countered. “Doesn’t the saying go, ‘There are many roads to Rome’?” she said with a scornful tone. “And yes, we also have many ways to smuggle those things you call contraband,” she added with disdain. “So far, our dealings have never been discovered, until that bastard Thompson realized it. You know, you’re not entirely to blame for his death. If I may be honest, Thompson was already dead before your car hit ours,” Loretta said with a bitter smile. “We’ve been dating for quite a while. Although he had a handsome face and came from an affluent background, unfortunately, he wasn’t great in bed,” she snorted. “I stuck with him just like I stuck with you. He introduced me to many people he knew, giving me a lot of access, connections, and buyers,” she said with a laugh on her face. “And unfortunately, after he found out about my job, he cunningly started squeezing me. Asking for a share he shouldn’t have gotten.

“Think about it, I’m the one working hard, persuading people here and there to buy my goods, and suddenly he wants a cut of my earnings?” The woman snorted in disgust. “No way,” she said, annoyed. “The longer I worked, the bigger my earnings became, and everything was considered because he paved the way for me to get richer.

“I started getting fed up. I started getting bored with him. So, I planned various ways to get rid of him without arousing police suspicion. And that night was the perfect night to carry out my plan,” Loretta said, her eyes drifting away. “I put something in his drink without him knowing. Something that would make him slowly die without realizing it. Something that turned alcohol into the trigger for that drug reaction.”

“At that moment, the car he was driving started to swerve. He was almost losing consciousness but still tried to stay awake. And out of my frustration, I gave him a lethal injection and tossed the syringe carelessly onto the road,” she said, still with a distant look in her eyes, as if the event had just happened yesterday. “I had prepared myself for a car accident, expecting broken bones or ribs afterward. And the car began to swerve when he got his attack.

“I was ready and closed my eyes. It didn’t matter, everything would return to normal as long as I could eliminate that obstacle from my life.

“I stretched out my foot to step on the gas when that bastard had completely lost consciousness and intended to crash myself into the guardrail. But before I could actually do it, you collided with our car. And yes, you ended up trapped with me,” she said, now shifting her attention to Nathan. “You just believed it when that fake doctor said something about my mental condition. But, Nathan, my dear, I’m perfectly fine.

“How could I be a drug dealer if my brain is damaged? Because even though I sell those illicit goods, I’m not a user,” she replied with a loud, resounding laugh. “Initially, I wanted to thank you for making things easier for me. You know, a drunkard crashing into a couple’s car, causing one to die and the other to be injured.

“Initially, I didn’t intend to trap you,” she confessed.