Annihilate Me (Vol. 3) (The Annihilate Me Series) Read Online Free PDF

your friend,
Lisa?”
    “Just briefly.   We’ll talk more later.   But two friends are better than one.”
    She almost blushed at that.   She cleared her throat and seemed to
collect herself.   It was as if the
idea that I considered her a friend was unfathomable to her.  
    “Anyway, that’s the reason I came by
today,” she said.   “I saw you
yesterday.   I’m not sure that you
saw me.   But yesterday I stuck my
head inside to check on Alex.   You
were so involved in whatever it is you’re going through that you didn’t seem to
notice me.   So I left.   But it was clear to me that you were
somewhere else, and I have a feeling that you were in the great land of
guilt.   You think he’s here because
of you, don’t you?”
    “Of course I do.   On many levels he is here because of
me.”
    “Why do you feel that way?”
    “Because I overreacted when I found out
that he didn’t tell me about the threat.   And then I received a threat of my own.   What I created after that led to where he is now.”
    “What you created?”
    “That’s right.   What I created.”
    “Tell me who wouldn’t have overreacted in
that situation?”
    “Many wouldn’t have.”
    “Name someone.   I certainly would have overreacted, if you even want to call
it an overreaction, which I’m not sure that it was.   That said, I would have been furious with him.   In fact, now that I know he’s going to
be all right, I am furious with him for not taking that threat more
seriously.   We’re talking about
your life, Jennifer, and we’re talking about his life.   He ignored a clear threat.   He’s done it before.   Hell, he’s done it time and again since
his parents died and he took over Wenn.”
    I saw my chance and took it.   “How did his parents die?”
    She shot me a curious glance.   “You don’t know?”
    “I don’t.   I’ve waited for Alex to tell me himself.   In Maine, he told me more than he ever
has about them and his relationships with them.   He told me that they didn’t like each other, but he never told
me how they died.”
    “Actually, it went deeper than his mother
and father merely not liking each other.   They hated each other.”
    The way she said it was biting.   She once told me she’d been close to
Alex’s mother.   For a moment, the
mood shifted to a darker place that reached her eyes and colored her
expression.
    “They couldn’t have been that old when
they passed.”
    “They weren’t.”
    “Did something happen to them?”
    “You haven’t Googled this?   It’s not exactly a secret, Jennifer.”
    What isn’t a secret?
    “I thought about Googling it, but I felt
like that was prying, so I didn’t.”
    “And you’re not prying now?”
    “I am prying now.   I want to know.   I need to understand him better.   And you’re not behaving like yourself
right now for some reason.   What
happened?”
    “Are you sure you want to hear it from me,
or do you want to wait to hear it from Alex?”
    “It’s public information.   I had wanted to hear it from him.   But right now?   What’s the point in waiting any
longer?”
    “All right.   It was a murder-suicide.   Alex’s father shot Constance in the head.   Then he turned the gun on himself.”
    I couldn’t believe what I was
hearing.   I couldn’t keep the
surprise from my voice when I spoke.   “You’re not serious....”
    “I wish I wasn’t.”
    “When was this?”
    “Four years ago.   It happened a month before he lost Diana.   So, within the course of a month, Alex
lost his parents and his wife.”
    I couldn’t help tearing up at the thought
of how that must have affected him.   “Why did his father do that?”
    “Because he wanted a divorce.   Constance refused to give him one.   This went on for years—at least
twenty.   She refused to give him a
divorce because she was convinced he’d ruin her socially.   And she was right—he would have.”
    “That’s what Alex told