You hang up the phone with John B and square your shoulders. It was go time. Phase two of the plan to enact revenge on Groff. Time to put your acting skills to use. You shove your feet into your shoes and leave the hotel room. Walking quickly to St Timothy’s church as the cold rain slashes down, you can see the flashing sirens ahead, filling the sky with red and blue. You push down the feeling of dread in your stomach, reminding yourself this is part of the plan. Everything would be okay. Just play your damn part. You enter the church courtyard, and your eyes land on Rafe’s prone body, surrounded by a priest and two paramedics. You rush to his side, wailing.

“RAFE! No, no, no, no!” You cup your hand on his cheek. “NO! You come back right now. You promised me. You promised you wouldn’t leave me baby….i don’t know what to do without you. Wake up. Please!” Your sobs echo through the courtyard and the priest places a comforting hand on your shoulder. The paramedics watch you with pity.

“Why aren’t you helping him?” You yell at the paramedics. “DO SOMETHING!” You shake your head when they tell you it’s too late. You lay on the wet ground, resting your head on Rafe’s chest. “Rafe…how am I..you can’t go baby. You can’t leave me.” The priest lifts you up and pulls you back as the paramedics say something about bringing him to the morgue. They lift his body on a stretcher and you scream.

“WAIT! Just…wait” you run over to the stretcher. Placing your lips against Rafe’s you cry. “I love you, Rafe. There will never be anyone else. Just you.” The paramedics start taking him away, and the priest tries to comfort you. The police arrive, asking questions that you try to answer. You yell, you scream, you sob, not being much help at all to the police. Everyone gives you pitying looks. Fake platitudes. There’s offers to call someone for you, offers to drive you back to your hotel. But you shake your head no to everyone. You ask if you can go, knowing that they can’t help. There’s only one place for you to go now.

You walk back to the hotel and climb into an unmarked black car. You wipe away your tears and pull yourself together and then you enter in the address that John B had given you. For 45 minutes you drive, listening to the sound of the rain hitting the car, finding peace in the comforting silence. You pull up to a gate, entering in the code and then drive up the long wooded driveway. You get out and walk to the front door, you nod at the guard and he lets you in.

“Hey baby” the sound is like music to your ears and you rush towards Rafe, eyeing the bulletproof vest he has yet to remove, with the bullet hole clear as day.

“I know that was fake, but just so you know, you’re not allowed to ever let that happen for real” you say against his neck as you breathe him in. You felt exhausted after all the emotions you had just faked.

“Hey, hey. It’s okay. I’m okay. You did so good baby. The plan is going perfectly. Now we just lay low here.” He kisses the top of your head. He was proud of you. There weren’t many girls who would’ve gone along with a fake death plot, but you had, playing the bereaved girlfriend perfectly. They’d draw Groff out now, he was sure of it.