Chapter 76 The Best Laid Plans

“I don’t have anything else to say to you, John already said it all.”
Isabel laughed, “Wow you are better at pretending than even I thought, how is it not killing you that John and I were in your bed together?”
“You weren’t “Together” John explained it all and Melissa admitted it. “
“Amateurs,” Isabel said with a grimace as she looked at Anna and shrugged. “I should have done it myself but I needed a little help. The biggest mistake I ever made.”
Anna found the pulse at John’s throat and breathed a sigh of relief. He still didn’t stir but she’d been feeling around his head while Isabel was gloating and the large bump behind his left ear was scary beyond belief. She had to do something.
“No the biggest mistake you ever made was trying to come between us. John loves me and I love him. Nothing is going to change that.”
Isabel laughed and stood snuffing out the lighted tip of the cigarette she was smoking. “I think I can change his mind. He is so accommodating, isn’t he? Allowing me to move into the cottage on the estate and giving me full access to the house. It really was too easy.”
“What did you do to him?” Anna asked as she sat back and looked at Isabel “we need to get him to a doctor.”
“Nonsense, He is right where I want him. Now I just need to make you disappear. “
Isabel slunk toward Anna in the half-darkness and Anna saw the look in her eyes and it wasn’t human. There was a feral intensity about it that really scared her. Isabel’s breath hissed out as she came toward her and Anna rose to put herself between John and Isabel.
“Let us go, neither of us deserves this. Leave us alone.”
Isabel laughed as she slowly came closer as if she were an animal stalking her prey. “This is exactly what you deserve, you have taken everything from me.”
“what are you talking about Isabel?” Anna asked trying to distract her, she wanted to keep her attention focused away from John as much as possible.
Isabel moved faster than Anna had ever seen her move. Her long-nailed hand closed around Anna’s throat pushing her back against the balcony wall. “I’m talking about how you have taken everything from me.”
Anna pulled at her hands as they began to tighten “You’re crazy! I’ve taken nothing from you.”
“John, you idiot!” Isabel screamed as she pushed Anna backward “you took John and he should have been mine. You are nothing but illegitimate trash and you took him.”
“John was always mine.” Anna gasped prying at her fingers.
“This was supposed to be my life you Bit*&! He was supposed to fall in love with me, to marry me! Then you showed up and it was over, Over!”
Isabel squeezed and anna began to see spots in her vision. She pushed her fingers in between Isabel’s and pried them loose a little bit so she could speak. “ He was never yours.”
“He would have been if you hadn’t shown up. I knew from the first moment I met him when we were three that he was mine.”
“You are a lunatic” Anna gasped as she shoved on Isabel’s arm trying to break he hold.
“I might be a little crazy but I always get what I want.” She screamed as she pushed Anna back and over the slick railing of the balcony “you are certainly not going to stand in my way.”
Anna tried to scream but only gurgling sounds came out as Isabel squeezed and pushed at the same time. Anna’s life was again flashing before her eyes as she saw the darkness of the fall to the street looming at her back. She remembered the fear she’d felt as the men had attacked her in her apartment that night and was damned if she was going to go through that again. She needed to do something, John needed her.
Anna lifted her leg and kneed Isabel as hard as possible in the stomach and then brought her two hands up and between Isabel’s arms. The sound of her hands contacting Isabel’s skin had a heavy sound that made her sick as it reached her ears. Isabel let go and Anna turned to escape but Isabel grabbed her again and slammed her back into the concrete of the balcony wall.
“John will never love you.” Anna panted as she tried to push Isabel off.
“He already does you tramp, her just can’t see past you. I need to set him free. I knew I should have arranged an “Accident” for you the night of your anniversary. It would have been so easy to pass it off as a drunken fall down the stairs.”
“You’ve been planning to kill me since then?”
“I’ve wanted you gone for years now I’ll just have to do it in a more hands-on kind of way,” Isabel said with a laugh as she pushed Anna further back over the edge.
Anna’s hands shook as she fought against Isabel’s weight and the slickness of the rain-soaked concrete behind her. Isabel had her pinned and almost over the railing. Anna grabbed onto Isabel’s shirt in an attempt to keep herself anchored to the balcony. She pulled and they began to fall over together. The darkness reached out for them and they both screamed.