In the midst of all this paranoia she was experiencing, I informed her that I had to leave the city for a few days.
She looked at me as if the world had just come crashing down on her.
"Do you have to go?" she asked.
I told her that I needed to deal with important family matters so I had no choice but to leave. It was clear that she wanted to come with me but had to stay put because of work.
The plane ride was peaceful.
When was the last time I'd been on a plane? Over twenty damn years. This... this feels nice.
I looked out of the window and admired the white clouds. There was no time during Doomsday to appreciate such beautiful views.
One day into my trip, I had someone enter her home during her work hours with the goal of spreading printed pictures of her infidelity all over her bed.
I knew that Maelle had no one to go to.
Who could she possibly call to tell them about what happened?
They'd want to see evidence and if they saw the pictures then there was no chance in hell they'd have sympathy for her since she was partially to blame for the situation.
"If you never cheated in the first place, these pictures wouldn't exist to start with," people would've said, especially her family members who loved me like I was a part of their family.
The only person with blind trust in her who wouldn't inquire about the details if she didn't want to say was me, her naive boyfriend.
So she came to me.
I was in the middle of talking to someone when my phone rang.
"Hold up, let me talk this call real quick. I'll be back."
"No problem sir. Take as much time as you need."
Maelle called me to tell me that someone had broken into her home and had messed with it.
"What did they do?" I asked.
She told me that had messed with her bed and left the entire place a mess. She made sure to not talk about the pictures.
Leaving out details for obvious reasons, she then asked me to return home to her as soon as I could.
"I'm scared, baby. I'm so scared. What if they attack me while I sleep? What if... what if they rape me?" she asked while crying.
"Okay, baby, calm down. I'll send you some money. Go stay at a hotel for the night. We'll talk more when we get back. I have to go now," I told her.
"Wait ba—"
I hung up the phone before she could finish.
I didn't want her to find any comfort which would allow her to organize her sanity. I needed her to be swallowed by her thoughts, the fear of getting caught by me, the fear of losing me, the fear of her own mistakes ruining her life.
"So what do you think?" asked the real estate agent.
"Not bad. Let's check out a few more but if none of them satisfy me then I'll probably buy this one," I told him.
"Alright."
Maelle called me a few more times throughout the day but I kept my phone on silent so I didn't hear any of the calls.
I had my private investigator continue to give me updates on what she was doing to ensure that she didn't reach her arm out to anyone else for help.
Ultimately, the property from before was the best one available so I paid the entire thing with cash.
"The acres surrounding are also for sale right?" I asked.
"Yes."
I had purchased a million-dollar abandoned school building and was planning on purchasing the 200 acres of land that surrounded it once more money was in the bank from all the avenues that I had placed my money in.
It was a humble beginning but soon, I was going to be working on the land, turning it into the base for Doomsday.
I was going to be doing some extremely illegal fortifications but with Doomsday around the corner, by the time they realized what was happening, it's not like authority was going to arrest me for it.
The reason why I purchased property here instead of my home city was because, in the future, this was one of the few areas in the world that didn't go down and become overrun by zombies in the first five years.
Laying down in the bed of my new home, I finally turned on my phone and called Maelle who'd been constantly calling and texting me the entire time.
It didn't even take more than one ring for her to pick up the call.
"Finally," she said with a sigh of relief. "I thought that you'd never call back."
She sounded like she had just finished another round of crying.
Cry more for me, you dumb bitch.
After the brief moment of happiness wore off, she began yelling at me, calling me insensitive and a piece of shit for hanging up on me while her life was in danger.
I just kept apologizing, letting her know that I was returning home the next day.
It took an hour of yelling but she finally cooled down and began telling me words of affection because she was probably afraid that if she went too far, I wouldn't return.
The two of us fell asleep on the call and after I woke up, I hopped on the plane and began flying back.
I wasn't going back to help her. I wasn't going back to be her loving boyfriend that would save her from the torment. No. I was going back to completely ruin her.
This was going to be the final step of my revenge plan.
As I knocked on the door of her hotel room, she rushed into my arms and refused to leave it for ten minutes as she drenched my shirt with her tears.
Look at her. She looks like shit. I can't believe I thought there was no one prettier than her.
We were cuddling in her hotel room.
She had refused to go to work because she hated her coworkers who accused her of texts that she never sent and was scared that one of them was the one who had been messing with her.
No no no, Maelle. Don't look at them. Look at me. It was me. Not them, you dumb fuck.
I was comforting her and she said that if I wasn't here, she wouldn't know what to do. She wouldn't know if she'd be able to keep her sanity.
"I think I'd go crazy if it wasn't for you, baby."
Hahahahahahaha... haha... ha. Any moment now.
Her phone suddenly started buzzing and she quickly grabbed it off the bed, still refusing to let me see anything.
Her eyes bounced left and right as it was reading whatever it was that was being shown on her screen.
Then as she continued staring at her phone as more and more notifications came in, she dropped her phone which didn't stop buzzing for a second.
"What's wrong?" I asked, sitting up.
She couldn't even respond to my question.
It was like her consciousness had just completely run away from reality.
I reached for the phone on the ground and she snapped out of it.
"No!" she screamed, jumping off the bed, and grabbing the phone quicker than the speed of light. She was on her knees, breathing heavily, and looked like a crackhead that had dropped their crack on the floor.
"Maelle... what are you doing?" I asked.
Then my phone on the nightstand started to buzz.
"What in the world is going on?"
I went over to it and Maelle stood up. Before I could pick it up off the nightstand, she had snatched it.
"What are you doing?" I repeated myself. "You're freaking me out."
"D-don't look at it."
"Look at what?" I asked, shaking my head in confusion. I even raised my palms in the air to help express said confusion.
Walking towards her, she began walking backward until her back slammed into the wall behind her.
"Give me my phone," I told her, extending my palm out.
"No," she shook her head.
"Baby, give me my phone, please," I said a little sweeter this time around.
"No. I can't," she cried.
"Maelle... give me my phone."
"I... I can't."
"Maelle, give me my fucking phone!" I screamed at her, saliva flying out of my phone.
She was so stunned by this sudden rage. Never once in our relationship had she ever seen me show any signs of anger so she didn't know how to react.
It was like she had been paused by a remote.
That felt satisfying to do.
I took the phone from her hand and began looking at the text messages. I kept scrolling then finally stopped after a minute.
Looking up at Maelle who was starting to cry, I opened but mouth but didn't even say anything.
Instead, I just turned my body and began heading towards the door.
"No!" she screamed as she grabbed my hand.
I turned my head and said, "Get your hands off me, wench."
"No, baby. Please don't call me that. Please don't leave. Baby, baby... I can explain," she said with desperation.
"Explain what Maelle. All I see is pictures and videos of you FUCKING other men."
"Th-they were all before I dated you," she lied.
What an impressively stupid lie to make.
"Maelle, that's the jacket that I bought you for Christmas last year!" I yelled while showing her my phone screen, yanking my hand away from her.
I opened the door but she rammed her body into it, closing it. She turned around, spread her arms open to block the door, and shook her head, crying, snot falling out of her nose, and started to beg, "Baby... baby, please... please don't go. I didn't mean to do it. It was an accident. It was a moment of weakness. I... I'd never do this to you again. Please, baby, don't leave me."
"Move."
"Don't leave me!" she shrieked.
"Maelle," I said in a very calm and low voice, "move. Now."
This went on for another minute until I grabbed her, tossed her to the side, and walked out. I hid in a different hotel room that I had rented out beforehand and heard her running across the hallway, screaming my name, searching for me.
The next day, after blocking her number and her social media accounts, I discovered from her friend who she was last on the phone with.
Maelle had jumped off a building and killed herself.
Wiping my hands clean, I looked up at the sky and said with a smile, "Any choice I make... is the right one, right?"