6. Marking Territories

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“You had to see the blood. So much blood. I will send you all the juicy pics as soon as it is made legal to release.”

Reagan stared at Sergeant Elliot Grady. He was a homicide detective. He had no problem talking gore. What stunned him was how interested Joanne was in the stories.

He looked at the time.

The motherfucker had overstayed and it was seven in the evening now.

“I don't think she should see all these things now.” He finally opened his mouth after being royally ignored for half a day. The Billionaire CEO was not used to being royally ignored for so long.

Joanne looked at him, offended. “Because I am a girl?”

She did not say it but she really did feel extremely uncomfortable, listening to Elliot talk about blood and murder.

She realized that she was so out of touch with the plight of the victims and used to treat these crimes as entertainment. Until one happened to her.

She remembered the pain, the helplessness and hopelessness, the desperation to live and die at the same time. She would never take a murder as an interesting news article ever again.

But she could not act like it affected her. Like she changed overnight.

Joanne wondered if Elliot would believe her if she told him what had happened to her. She wouldn't blame him if he didn't but if there was one person in the whole wide world that she trusted to believe her, that would be the guy who was there by her side through it all.

Should she try telling him? What if he could stop it from happening?

“Because you are pregnant.” Reagan reasoned.

“Oh please, all the more reason for me to look at them because I would be happier!” She retorted back.

“Just let her do her thing, man. Like you do yours.” Elliot took a sip of his soda.

Reagan looked over at him, unimpressed. “Should I remind you where you are right now?”

“Somewhere I wouldn't want to be if it was not for my Joey?”

It irked him. His Joey?

It had been very obvious to Reagan from the very beginning that Elliot was into his wife. And a part of him believed she knew it too.

“I think you should leave.” Reagan stood up.

“I will leave when Joey asks me to.” Elliot stood his ground.

Reagan turned to Joanne, his jaw set. “I think your guest has overstayed. It is time he left. I have an early morning tomorrow.”

“An early morning on a Sunday?” Elliot scoffed.

“I didn't build an empire slacking off.”

Elliot was about to retort but Joanne grabbed his hand, shaking her head when he looked at her.

The man always kept quiet for her sake.

Reagan watched the exchange, his hands curling up in fists as she squeezed her friend's hand reassuringly.

“I will pick you up tomorrow. Be ready by ten.” Elliot stood up, putting on his jacket. “Don't be late.” He placed a kiss on her hairline, looking over Reagan as he did.

Joanne nodded, getting off the seat and walking him to the front door.

Reagan was rooted to his spot when she came back.

“Where are you going tomorrow?” His voice was icy cold. The voice that sent shivers down her spine. But it was way less unsettling than his feigned nicety.

“A friend's baby shower.” Joanne did not want him to know but the more she regulated herself, the more she was finding the need to act like her timid self so as to not draw any suspicion to herself.

Well, her coming back to the past was not something a normal person would suspect. But a sudden change would draw the kind of attention to her that she did not need.

For example, his nose injury was making him act like a new person. And she KNEW in her guts that it was pretense. She could not do any such thing that would elicit an unfamiliar reaction from Reagan.

Dying and coming back to the past to fix your future was not very easy to handle. The trauma was fresh in her memory even though it had not happened yet in her current timeline.

Getting past all that confusion and trying to be normal while simultaneously figuring out her escape plan.

It was really overwhelming.

But she was over her initial shock, and now she was going to settle back into her role of a wallflower that nobody noticed and her husband never bothered to even look at.

“Which friend?” He asked.

“Talia. We went to college together.” She squeaked out. It was hard to pretend to be timid when all she wanted was to rip his hair out.

“And how does Grady know him?” Why was he so interested in her personal circle now?

“Through me?” Joanne looked away from him, trying to find something to distract herself from his intense interrogation.

“And you never introduced her to me?”

Joanne's gaze shot back to him. “Why would I?”

Reagan raised a brow, “I am your husband.”

Joanne just stared at him for a long moment, split between whether to laugh in his face at the outrageous statement or just pretend this was her fault as well.

How she wished she could go with the former!

“It never came up. Elliot is the only one I hang out with and you know him.”

“I do not like him.”

“Get over it.” The retort came faster than she could stop.

Reagan raised a brow. “I do not think that I should get over a guy making googly eyes at my wife.”

Joanne gaped at him.

“First of all, eww. Second of all, ewwww!” She did not know how much longer she could hold onto her patience. “Third of all, why are you even here?”

In the three years of her marriage - as per her original timeline - Reagan was never home before seven. Not even when she was pregnant. He was always out. He hated the sight of her. He hated his marriage to her. He hated her with a kind of loathing that she could never reciprocate. And so he stayed away as much as he humanly could.

So her question was very valid - why was he even here?

Joanne did not like this blip in the timeline.

“Where else should I be?” He asked, as if it was a challenge.

Joanne let out a sigh. “Forget it.” She proceeded to her bedroom.

“Dinner?”

She stopped in her tracks.

She had stopped in her tracks. And she was feeling queasy.

“I am not hungry.” Joanne said as she took another step forward only to be stopped again.

“Sorry if it came out as a question.”

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