Chapter 15 | Motive

Katherine's POV

Melanie stood guard at the elevator waiting for me to pass through it's entrance in order to close the doors behind me, "Don't steer me wrong Katherine, I'm putting myself in jeopardy allowing for you to do this."

I flashed her a smile of reassurance, keeping my composure long enough to close the lift doors behind me. "Ten minutes," I began closing the lift doors, "I promise."

The lift doors slammed in front of me, almost causing me to lose my stance from the weight of closing them by myself.

The space that separated Stefan and I seemed to stretch for miles, though it was only fifteen feet. His head was slouched over, his breathing was a dull murmur. He was sleeping, and the position he was in ached my own neck just watching him.

The sound of my heels hitting the cement as I inched toward him awakened and startled him. He attempted to scoot his chair back but was unsuccessful, easing himself as he noticed it wasn't one of the others who had entered the room. They were no where to be seen or heard.

For the first time in days, he was calm.

I brushed one of my hands across his cheek, "My dear Stefan, how did we get in this mess?"

His eyes were watering as they met my glance, and for a moment I felt sympathetic. I wanted to embrace him into a kiss right then, I wanted to untie him from the chains that bound him. I wanted to take him home, and forget the evil in this place.

"I'm sorry," the only words he seemed to be able to muffle out behind his tears. The crackle in his voice sorted out his need for a drink, and I could hear the rumbles in his stomach from the lack of food he had been given over the last few days. "When are they going to let me go? I just want to leave, move away, and never look back," his eyes met the floor once more, never bothering to look back up.

I waltzed to the sink, retrieving the only cup in sight, and filling it with water. As much as he had made me envy him, I didn't want my husband dying from thirst. Without relieving him from the bondage that kept him to the chair, I brought the water to his mouth.

He gulped it up in two swallows, followed by repeated coughs. "Thank you," he said acting as if the water was a reward versus a simple kind gesture, something he hadn't gotten too often since being kidnapped.

"Were you ever going to tell me? About the baby?" I braced myself for his response, because either answer was going to break my heart.

He shook his head apologetically and I felt the shattering sensation within my chest, "I didn't know how to tell you, I knew it was going to hurt you. We wanted a child, but not like this. I thought moving away would make her go away too, I wanted to be rid of her from my life. When she told me she was pregnant, I felt trapped."

The tension in the room was heavy enough to knock me off of my feet, and I wanted to break down right there. I didn't, however, want to give Stefan the satisfaction of seeing me at my weakest point.

After a few minutes, I found myself finally able to gain back my composure continuing forth with the interrogation. Stefan's gaze was still glued to the floor, with no sign of retreat.

"How long have you known? When did you find out Callie was pregnant?"

He began shaking his head almost refusing to answer, "If I tell you, you're going to hate me."

I knelt in front of him placing both hands under his chin, lifting his head to face me, "Nothing you say will ever make me hate you."

A glimmer of hope sparkled in his eyes, and I could pick out a small smile forming at the corner of his mouth. "When we were in Cancun," he began and as the words escaped his mouth I felt my heart ripping at the seams once more, "In Cancun, Callie sent me an email saying we needed to talk. I called her and begged for her to lose my number and my email, it was my business email so I was furious. She broke in the fact that she was pregnant, catching me completely off guard. I didn't know what to do, but I couldn't tell you. Everything was starting to feel right again."

The sound of my hand making contact with his face sent shockwaves down my back. Hitting him was a reaction I wasn't expecting, and I couldn't explain the rage that was engulfing me.

"You mean to tell me," I began pacing back and forth in front of him, "The only reason you agreed to move was to escape Callie? You thought moving away would rid yourself of Callie and the baby, giving me the house of my dreams and family of my dreams. Your life and problems here would just disappear. Is that what you're telling me?"

He looked up at me, the print of my hand still a fresh and bright red sent as a reminder of the rage that had built up inside of me, "It's not what it sounds like. I was doing it for us, she wasn't supposed to get pregnant. That wasn't a part of the plan, she was never going to replace you and she knew. It was an accident."

At that moment the rage inside of me was unbearable, I was shaking and felt the feeling of losing absolute control of myself and my actions. He sat there in a pathetic slump, the constant apologizing and victim shaming almost made me want to scream.

I brought my hands above my head, grasping and tugging my hair at the roots in agony.

"Stop apologizing, and stop blaming her for what you did. The only reason we are here is because of you, because you couldn't keep that thing between your legs in your pants. She owned up to what she did, but you sit here and act as if it's Callie who has a price to pay here."

I couldn't face him any longer, any amount of eye contact sent a wave of emotions running through me. I kept my sights on the countertops and cement floor, and began tracing the outline of Callie's ultrasound photos she had left behind. Half of Stefan was now growing inside of her, a constant reminder of their affair. I could never pretend it didn't happen, because in a few months pretending would no longer be an option.

"Do you remember our wedding day?"

A pair of cables danced between my fingers and the countertops impatiently waiting for his response, though I knew he would tell me everything I wanted to hear.

"His tone took a complete spiral and for a moment he sounded genuine, "Every second of it, you were so beautiful walking down the aisle. It will always be a day I'll never forget."

The cables continued to dance and his words stung, even though I knew he was doing his best to seem genuine.

He was doing anything to steer me away from any negative thoughts I had towards him, his efforts came up far too short. "It was the worst day of my life," I twirled myself around to face him again, his mouth had dropped in pure shock and amazement, "Your family ruined that day for me, your father especially. I never went after your money, to this day I've never asked you for a cent. I've worked throughout our marriage, and still receive no credit. A prenuptial agreement was very smart, I can't go after you for anything you owned before we got married. The house and the car, they're yours. Divorcing you leaves me with nothing, except what I came in here with and what I've made during the marriage."

He looked up at me with a pitiful look in his eyes, "What are you trying to say?"

I sinisterly laughed as I made my way towards him, bending over and resting both hands on my knees. I studied his face for a few moments, counting the stress wrinkles on his forehead and watching his eyes study my body as if he hadn't seen it in so long.

"I stopped loving you on our wedding day. When you decided to have an affair, it didn't bother me that another woman had your attention. I knew it would happen sooner or later, it was only a matter of time. I never imagined it would be prolonged enough to get her pregnant, but you really put the icing on the cake. There was only one loophole in the entire prenuptial agreement."

His eyes were now fixed on me in utter confusion, though he knew I was smarter than I had looked.

"Callie is pregnant with your child Stefan, a sole heir to the legacy that you'll leave behind. I can't benefit from anything you'll leave behind long after you die," I walked back over to the countertop, my hands meeting the cables once again, fiddling with them before fully grasping ahold of them. The battery's site sat in the view of the corner of my eye, beckoning to me.

Deep down Stefan knew my intentions, I could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice as he began begging for his life.

"Katherine, honey, don't do this. Put the cables down, leave now. Don't listen to these people, we can fix this. Everything will be fine, everything will go back to normal," he attempted to scoot the chair further away from me, forgetting all of his past attempts at creating space between him and his captors. The cables danced as I twirled them around in lasso form, walking towards him.

"Nothing you say is going to change my mind about what I'm going to do next," I clasped the cables to the two stakes that bounded his legs.

His body began to shake as if he was attempting to surrender, registering his untimely fate.

I began following the cords from the cable back to the countertop, "Have you ever heard of Sparky? The notorious electric chair that put hundreds of people to their death in the olden days? They finally retired it, a lot of people seen electrocution as inhumane. I was the same way, however, I never took into consideration how the victim's family's felt. The amount of justice and satisfaction they received watching the hands of their family member's killer cooking away until they're no longer living. They can't hurt anyone else, not even emotionally. Execution is a beautiful thing."

He began shaking his head as I finally found myself grazing my hands across the countertop, "You don't know what you're saying. This isn't a murderer you're talking to, this is your husband!"

A spark flickered from the battery as it met the end of the cable as I clasped it to the battery terminal. "I'll always carry a love for you Stefan, but emotionally you were never my husband,"

I watched him for the final time for meeting the other clasp to the opposite battery terminal.

The electric shock knocked me to my feet, and I watched as Stefan's body stiffened. The veins in his neck protruded now in a way I had never seen before, his fingers were stretched out in front of him still slight clinging to the chair. His legs stiffened, attempting to stretch out before him but the stakes kept them elevated.

Within a few moments, foam began to appear escaping from Stefan's mouth, and his skin began to blacken as if it was becoming char. The smell of his insides cooking filled the room with an unimaginably terrible aroma. His hair stood up at the ends, also beginning to cook adding to the stench.

I didn't remove the clasps from the battery for several minutes, ensuring he was dead. I didn't want to hear his screams of agony if he was still alive, I also didn't want him alive. The blood in my veins was now running cold, a sinister smile spread across my face realizing what I had actually done.

Stefan was dead, and at the time I couldn't have been more pleased.