I’ll continue from last night.
After my post, I stayed in bed thinking about what had just happened.
The image of him lying on the floor motionless in a pool of his blood made me nauseous.
But admittedly it also made me a bit happy knowing that my wife’s cheating partner was gone.
I had a small bruise on my face from where he punched me.
I put a bandage over it for now and went back to bed.
Eventually my wife came home from work around 330am.
She walked into the room and saw I was awake so she greeted me.
I asked about her day and we chatted a bit.
She saw my bandage and asked what happened. I made up a story about tripping when i got home.
She continued to chat about her day. I wasn’t really paying attention.
She threw her phone on the bed and went to brush her teeth before sleeping.
Her phone started ringing. When I looked at who was calling my eyes almost popped out of my skull. Gracie was calling…
My wife picked up the phone and it sounded like a hysterical woman was shouting at my wife.
I couldn’t make out exactly what was said but all the color left my wife’s face.
The phone call ended and she, in a very panicked tone, told me to drive her to Gracies house.
I was speechless at first.
What does she mean “Gracies house”? I thought gracie was a dude. I thought he was dead.
What the hell is happening here??
I asked “Gracies house?
Did something happen?”
“She called and I couldn’t make everything out, but she said something has happened to Paul and she called an ambulance. We need to go over right away.” She said as she was getting ready quickly.
I thought for a moment and asked “who’s paul?”
“She’s Gracie’s husband.”
Once that left her lips, my heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest. Gracie is real?!?!
She had a husband??
Was that the dude I accidentally killed? But if it was, why was she going to her house instead of the gym? My mind was racing.
Nevertheless I composed myself and we started to drive over to her house.
My wife gave me directions and we continued to talk on the way.
“What is happening with Gracie?” I asked.
“When we both got off tonight, she went home and was looking around for Paul.
When she walked into the bedroom, she found him lying on the floor.”
Something she said caught my attention. “What do you mean ‘when we both got off tonight’?”
” I mean when we both got off our shift tonight. She works at the hospital with me.”
“Wait since when?!” I couldn’t hold back my confusion .
“We’ve been working together for the past 2 years.
I got her a job as a nurse at my hospital after she was fired from her previous hospital. I told you all this before.”
I should mention that ever since they started going to the gym together, she has NOT STOPPED talking about Gracie.
She mentions her all the time and after a while I just started tuning it out. But apparently she was a nurse at another hospital but lost her job in 2022 and Stacy referred her to her hospital.
They work the same shift together.
I don’t remember her mentioning that at all but it’s possible she did at some point. So I collected my thoughts and asked.
“Who’s Paul again?”
“Paul is Gracies husband. He’s a personal trainer at the gym.”
I wanted to pry some more information without being suspicious so I thought of what to ask next.
“Is he your personal trainer?”
“Yeah I told you before.
When the gym raised their rates at the end of 2022, Paul offered to be my personal trainer. He does yoga and zumba classes for me and Gracie together in the mornings.”
Holy shit. What did I just do!?!?
He was her personal trainer?!?! For how long!?!?!? I felt like throwing up.
My insides were in knots.
I started sweating profusely. When I looked over at Stacy, she was also sweating a lot. She couldn’t stop worrying over what Gracie said.
Eventually, we finally arrived at that house.
There were no cops or ambulance yet but there was a lime green 67 mustang parked in the driveway again. Stacy ran inside immediately while I slowly walked in. It felt surreal walking into the house.
I heard crying in the rear of the house and walked towards it. It led to the master bedroom of the house.
There I saw Stacy holding a crying woman while also crying herself. She had dark hair, was short (5’2ish) and was also fit like stacy.
This was the first time I’d seen her.
On the floor beside them was the man from earlier lying in a pool of blood.
The lights were on this time so I had a clearer image of the scene. His head was cracked open and all the blood was coming from there. His eyes were rolled to the back of his head.
Stacy and Gracie were bawling their eyes out.
Gracie then spoke through the tears.
“When I… got home from work, I walked into…..
the bedroom and saw him ly…lying there. I checked his p..p..p..pulse and I didn’t feel anything so i called the police. I tried to per…form cpr but there’s no response.”
I was speechless.
Gracie was real. She was standing right there. The man on the floor was a personal trainer named Paul.
My wife had been going here instead of the gym since it was cheaper.
How could I have made such a mistake?! What the fuck did I just do!?!? I had to excuse my self quickly as I was about to vomit.
I ran outside and vomited on the lawn.
Then I hear police sirens.
The police and ambulance show up. I point them towards the inside of the house. They rush in with a stretcher.
I couldn’t think straight and had trouble standing so I sat down outside. 5 minutes later they wheel him out on the stretcher. His body was covered in a blanket as they put him in the ambulance.
Gracie wanted to go to the hospital but the police wanted to question her first.
The police spoke to her, then to Stacy and I. Stacy said we were both at home when Gracie called.
The police then went inside to continue their investigation.
Stacy said she was going to drive Gracie to the hospital and stay with her for a while. I said ok and they drove off in gracies car.
I stayed for a while because I wanted to see what they were discovering. Then I saw a police officer carrying something in a clear bag and handing it to a detective. It was the cameras.
In my haste that night, I completely forgot about the cameras.
I grabbed the crow bar and my back pack but left the cameras in their positions.
The cameras I bought were designed to record for 14 hours until the batteries died. I had the foresight of removing the serial numbers but they surely would have caught the incident earlier.
I was screwed. I overheard the police talking and they mentioned there were signs of a break in and some muddy footprints from the window.
Their current theory is that someone broke in and Paul was killed fighting the assailant.
They quarantined the area and asked me to leave for now so I headed home. At this point it was 5 am.
My boss was blowing up my phone so I called back and said I had to take more time off. I went home and prepared myself for the worst.
Eventually the police will come for me.
They will see that I killed him. They will see that I did that heinous crime. I will be taken to jail sooner or later.
I ruined my life over a misunderstanding.
How could I do that? Should i turn myself in? Should I tell Stacy?
Ugh my mind is racing.
Stacy came home around 12 pm. She looked paler than ever. Paul was pronounced dead at the scene.
Gracie was in shock. Stacy called gracies family and they came to the hospital to support her. They told Stacy to head home and get some rest.
Stacy was speechless when she got home. She fell onto the bed next to me and continued to cry.
I comforted her and told her he’s in a better place now. We stayed like that for an hour until her phone started ringing.
It was Gracie.
They chatted for a bit until she hung up. She slowly turned to me and looked at me and said ” the police contacted Gracie. They
