R OLLERCOASTER LOVE | Ruaan Jacobs

ROLLERCOASTER LOVE

Dick and Jane met while they were sophomores in college. Dick, a tall man with black hair and green eyes, was studying a B-Tech degree in law. Jane, a short blonde with sea blue eyes and more sex appeal than imaginable, was studying to become an urologist. A specialized field which was in demand across the country. Jane was a bright young lady with a lot of potential but the darkness was crawling underneath her skin.

Dick wanted to finish his degree and take over his father's firm. He came from a well-respected family whose family practised law generation after generation.

The two of them met while attending a birthday party of a mutual friend. It was love at first sight. They were introduced and sparks flew instantaneously. They spent most of the night in each other's company and when the time came to go home, they traded numbers and went their separate ways.

When Dick arrived at his dorm he threw his keys and wallet on the nightstand, took his phone out of his pocket and fell onto his bed. He sent Jane a message saying how he had enjoyed the evening and that he would love to see her again.

Her reply came almost immediately and she confirmed that she felt the same way. They chatted until the early hours of the morning before finally saying goodnight.

When Dick woke up to get ready for his eight o' clock class, there was already three messages from Jane. The first saying, "Good Morning", the second came two minutes later containing over twenty question marks and the third asking, "Why are you ignoring me?"

Dick found this a bit strange and it should have been the first sign of trouble but he thought Jane just likes him more than he thought.

Dick and Jane grew closer and closer with each passing day. Neither spent any time with their friends anymore. They only had eyes for each other.

Dick asked Jane out and they were officially a couple. Jane became obsessive due to her insecurities.

She followed Dick around campus to make sure he did as he said and to ensure no other girl came near him.

Dick was a very likeable guy and he had a lot of friends, both male and female. His female friends stopped talking to him but he assumed it was out of respect for his relationship with Jane. Meanwhile, Jane had threatened them with their lives if they ever came close to Dick again.

Jane was no longer attending classes, giving in assignments or writing tests so she flunked her sophomore year. Dick passed at the top of his class.

During the summer vacation, Jane went along with Dick and his family on holiday. She broke the news to Dick that she would not be able to finish her degree because of financial reasons. After speaking to his parents, they offered to pay for her but she refused the offer. She feared that the truth would come out, putting her at risk of losing Dick.

Dick returned to college the following year. Jane said that she found a job as a cashier at a nearby supermarket where she could earn some money which she would save-up to continue and finish her degree. Her parents assumed that she had gone back to college. They were unaware of what was going on and continued to pay money into her account.

Unaware to Dick, Jane would spy on him the entire day as he moved around campus. At night she would call him while he was in his dorm, watching him through the window. Afterwards she would wait until he goes to sleep. She would stick around for another hour or two to ensure that he was not going anywhere and would then retreat to the small one bedroom apartment she was renting close to campus. The next day she would be back on campus going through the same routine again. This would become her daily pattern. They would only see each other during vacations when Dick was home.

Two weeks before graduation, Jane's parents passed away in a horrific car accident on their way home from a weekend getaway at a luxurious spa. The funeral was held six days later but Jane did not attend, telling her family that she had an important test which cannot be missed or postponed. This infuriated her family, causing a lot of friction between them. Jane would never speak to any member of her family ever again.

Shortly after graduating, Dick started working at his father's firm with the intention of taking over when his father went on pension. His father was sixty one years old and was just waiting for Dick to take over before he leaves.

Dick took over a couple of months later and went to celebrate that night with his family, Jane tagging along.

Afterwards, Dick and Jane went over to the house that Dick had bought in an upstage area to continue the celebrations. Jane's plan was to get pregnant with Dick's child to ensure that he never leaves her. She slipped a drug into his drink and took advantage of the situation.

She mentioned to Dick that she was struggling to get the money together to be able to continue with her degree and that she could get no financial help from her parents as they were killed in a hi-jacking while she was still a baby. Dick offered to pay for her studies but she once again refused saying that she was no charity case and that she would one day do it on her own. She would continue to work at the supermarket until she found a better job and save up money that way. Dick respected her wishes and did not push her any further on the matter.

Two months had gone by and things were going well at Dick's firm. Jane spent most nights at Dick's house and the nights that she didn't, she slept in the park across the road from his house.

It was their fifth anniversary so Dick took her out to a romantic dinner. Midway through the night Dick took out a ten carat diamond ring and proposed to Jane. She said yes without any hesitation and then told Dick that she was two months pregnant. Dick was elated of course and said that Jane should move in with him as soon as possible so that they could be together as a family.

The next day Jane moved in and they started getting a room ready for their unborn child which they found out a month later would be a boy. He would be named Charles.

After their night out when Jane moved in, Dick said that he thinks it's better if she stopped working to ensure that there would be no complications with the birth of their son. She agreed. She still followed Dick around every day and she even started using disguises to not be recognized when she was sitting in court while he was working.

The next seven months flew past and Jane went into labour. The umbilical cord got tied around Charles's neck and he was a still born. Dick was crushed. He spoke to no one, gave all his clients to his associate and refused to take on any new clients or work at all.

Jane was troubled and feared that Dick might leave her so she had to make another plan. When Dick came home one night drunk after drinking his sorrows away, she offered him another drink which was roofied. She went and sat next to him, comforting him until he slipped into unconsciousness. Jane then straddled him, making sure she gets what she wants and needed.

A couple of weeks later Jane announced that she was pregnant again. Dick was confused because he could not recall the night that it happened but was overjoyed none the less. This time Jane took all the necessary precautions to make sure that the fate of this baby would not be the same as that of Charles. This include a balanced diet and regular doctor check-ups to name but a few.

The remainder of the pregnancy went by in a heartbeat and a healthy girl named Missy was born. She was the apple of her father's eye since he held her in his arms for the first time. This suited Jane as she knew that she now had a hold on Dick and Missy could be used as a pawn if needed.

Two months before Missy's first birthday, Dick and Jane finally tied the knot. It was a small reception consisting mostly of Dick's family and a couple of close friends. By this point Jane had no friends or family to speak of. She had written them all off and was now completely obsessed with Dick.

After the birth of Missy, the death of Charles was easier to bear and Dick started focusing on his career and his firm a lot more. As time moved on, Dick slowly started to see the cracks in Jane's personality. He normally arrived home from work at around 17:45. On days that he worked late, Jane would go into his office to make sure that he was alone. Missy was always at home with the nanny. Dick was never allowed to go out with his friends anymore and she even had issues when he went to visit his father who was now close to seventy years old and was diagnosed with stage four cancer a few months prior.

All of this was very troubling to Dick and he knew that something needed to be done. On a peaceful, quiet Sunday morning he decided to sit and talk to Jane. Missy was over at Dick's parents' for the weekend so it was just the two of them at home.

Dick made them each a cup of coffee and they sat on the patio watching the morning sun rise over the beautiful back garden. Dick started telling Jane of all the things that bothered him but she interrupted him midway through saying that she knew he was having an affair with one of his clients. Dick was shocked to his core of being accused of such an absurd thing. In the years that have passed he had only been good to Jane and always carried her best interests at heart. Dick figured he needed to give Jane time to calm down and then he would try to speak to her again.

He kept himself busy doing some woodwork in his garage for most of the day. At around noon, he went into the house and to his surprise, Jane had made lunch. She was acting as if the conversation of earlier the morning did not happen. To her the world was all daisy's and roses. For the first time, massive alarms started going off in Dick's head.

Dick then decided to make use of a personal investigator to try and establish what it was that Jane was doing the whole day. After a week of investigating, the PI arranged a meeting with Dick to discuss his findings. He had photo and video evidence of everything.

On the evidence produced to Dick, he could see that Jane was watching his every move. Hiding behind bushes and trees as to not be seen, even climbing onto windowsills to peak into his office. Dick was shocked, unsure of how to handle the situation. He knew if he confronted Jane that it would end in a fight but he knew that it was the only way that he might be able to settle the matter.

When he got home, Jane was sitting in the lounge reading a magazine and he could not help but wonder how long before him she had arrived. He sat next to her and started talking of what he had learned earlier in the day. Jane got so mad that her entire face turned red, veins popping in her forehead and her neck. She yelled at him while hitting him all over his face and body, even scratching him in the face, leaving a deep laceration on his right cheek. After a couple of minutes, she jumped up and stormed out of the room. Dick sat there in utter disbelief. Jane came back an hour later and found Dick still sitting in the same place. She kissed him and started chatting if nothing happened. Dick tried to mention the events of earlier, Jane gave him a cold stare and kept on talking.

This behaviour carried on for another month, Jane resorting to violence on a more regular basis. Dick decided that enough was enough and went to see a colleague of his that specializes in divorce cases. He explained the situation to him and filed for divorce. He knew moving out was not an option as Jane would follow him everywhere he went so he had to stay put for now. He took Missy to his parents' house because he feared for her well-being. Jane did not even realize that she was gone.

Two weeks after filing for divorce, the summons was delivered to Jane. She boiled over with anger, even throwing cups and plates at Dick. He feared that Jane might kill him so he called the police and Jane was arrested. While they were loading her into the van, she grinned at Dick and he knew that she would come after him as soon as she was released.

Dick went over to his parents' house to pick Missy up. He needed to find a place where they would be safe before Jane gets out on bail. They checked into a motel a couple of kilometres outside of town and was planning to find a more permanent spot the next morning. Dick struggled to fall asleep but drifted away while holding his daughter in his arms.

Just after two that morning Dick heard what sounded like footsteps. The room was pitch black so he was unable to see. He reached over to the night stand and turned on the lamp. As he turned his head Jane was standing at the foot of the bed, covered in blood and holding a knife in her right hand. She had a sadistic smile on her face.

Dick jumped out of bed and ran towards Jane with the intention of pushing Jane to the floor so that he could grab Missy and make a run for it. He managed to push her to the ground and she knocked her head hard on the ground which dazed her and this gave Dick the chance to grab Missy and run. As he was running, he felt an object protruding from his gut. In the scuffle Jane had stabbed him and the knife was now lodged in his sternum. The rain was falling but Dick kept on running to get as far away as possible. Carrying a seven year old child with a knife in your sternum was a daunting task which caused Dick to stop and collapse to his knees.

After a couple of minutes, Dick got back to his feet. When he turned around, Jane was behind him with a bigger knife than the one she stabbed him with. She started talking and confessed to all the lies and everything she had done, claiming that she did it out of love for him. Dick tried to comfort her by assuring her he understands and they would get her help.

This made her very angry and she lashed out at him with the knife causing him to stumble as he pulled away. This left Missy vulnerable. She grabbed Missy by the arm, pulled her closer and held the knife against her neck. Dick pleaded to her not to hurt Missy. By this time the police had arrived. They were looking for Jane as she broke out of custody, killing two officers in the process.

The officers on scene drew their guns, pointing them at Jane. By now there was blood running down Missy's throat due to the force her mother was applying with the knife. They tried to negotiate with her to let go of Missy but she was not even acknowledging them in any way. All of a sudden there was a loud bang that forced Dick to close his eyes and look away. When he opened them again, Missy was standing alone and the body of Jane was on the ground behind her.

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