My Infuriating Childhood Friend

1
I pulled my in-laws from the mudslide's grip, hauling them onto the speedboat.
Just as I caught my breath, a deafening roar split the sky. A swarm of my husband Roger’s industrial drones was diving right for us. High above, in his helicopter, he had his arm around his young assistant, watching the show with a smirk.
The drones’ propellers churned the river into a vicious vortex, threatening to swallow our small boat whole.
I frantically dialed his number. “Roger, are you insane? Your parents are on this boat!”
A light chuckle came through the phone. “A year ago, Lila’s parents were trapped in a flash flood. You were the rescue captain, but you saved everyone else and left them to die.”
“Today,” he purred, “I’m going to let you taste what it feels like to watch your family get swallowed whole.”
His assistant, Lila, squealed in delight. “You’re amazing, Roger! I want to see those old geezers dragged to the bottom of the river!”
The speedboat bucked violently. My in-laws clung to me, their bodies trembling.
I screamed into the phone, “Roger, look closer! It’s your mother and father on this boat!”
…
“Still playing these stupid games, Rhea?” he scoffed.
“My parents went to the chapel at Crestview Mountain for a spiritual retreat today. I dropped them at the airport myself this morning. Maybe use your brain before you start lying?”
Lila snatched the phone from him. “This is what you get, Rhea! It’s karma! You let my parents die, and now you and those two old imposters can go straight to hell and keep them company!”
I wanted to have my in-laws explain, to shout their identities into the phone. But they were shivering uncontrollably, their faces caked in mud, their hair plastered to their skulls in tangled knots. In their wretched state, they were unrecognizable.
“You’re both completely insane!” I roared, hanging up the phone.
There was no time. Any more delay and the boat would capsize.
My mother-in-law’s face was a mask of pale terror as she gripped my arm. “Rhea, what’s wrong with Roger? He wouldn’t really kill us, would he? I’m his mother!”
My father-in-law, a stoic man his entire life, was just as pale.
I had no time to comfort them. The slightest mistake now meant we’d all be dead. The drones were creating a powerful vortex, a whirlpool trying to suck us down.
“Hold on tight!” I yelled, slamming the throttle forward.
Just then, a drone swooped in low. A propeller blade sliced across my cheek.
“Blood! Rhea, your face!” my mother-in-law shrieked.
My father-in-law roared at the sky, “Roger, you monster! That’s your wife!”
I gritted my teeth, the movement pulling at the fresh wound. Damn, that hurt.
Roger’s cold laughter boomed from the helicopter’s loudspeaker. “Still got the energy to curse me? Looks like you two old fools are tired of living!”
The swarm of drones slammed into us. The boat rocked so violently it almost threw us into the churning water. The river poured over the sides, and the bow of the speedboat plunged beneath the surface.
As we were about to be dragged under, my mother-in-law let out a scream of pure despair.
The next second, a grappling hook shot down from Roger’s helicopter, clamping firmly onto the bow. My phone rang again. It was Roger. I immediately put it on speaker.
“Scared yet? Sign the document in your email right now, and maybe I’ll let you live.”
What in the world could he want so badly? I pulled out my phone to check.
When I opened the email, my blood ran cold.
It was a waiver, admitting I had intentionally abandoned the rescue of Lila’s parents and accepting full legal responsibility for all casualties in the disaster a year ago.
But the flash flood was caused by Roger's company cutting corners and violating safety codes, destabilizing the entire mountainside. Now he wanted to make me his scapegoat, and hand Lila a massive settlement in the process?
If I signed this, I’d spend the rest of my life in prison.
My mother-in-law leaned over, her body shaking as she read the screen. She broke down, sobbing. “That monster! How did we raise such a heartless beast?” she wailed. “He’s trying to kill his own wife, his own parents, all for that little tramp!”
My father-in-law grabbed my phone and pointed it at the helicopter, his voice raw with fury. “Roger, you soulless bastard! Look at me! I’m your father! Are you going to kill your own mother and father?”
“You get down here right now! I will never let my daughter-in-law sign that piece of trash!”
A wave of warmth and sorrow washed over me. In three years of marriage, they had always treated me like their own daughter.
But Roger just laughed. “You senile old bastard, you still think you can impersonate my father? You must be desperate to live, huh? My father is a Thorne. You think he’d be a filthy, mud-caked beggar like you? Rhea, I’m warning you, don’t push me! Sign it! My patience is running out!”
Several drones revved their engines, their sharp propellers spinning towards us. One of them sliced into my father-in-law’s arm, opening a gash so deep I could see bone.
“Have you made up your mind? If not, I can just send you all to hell to think it over!”
“Richard!” my mother-in-law screamed, scrambling to press her hands against his bleeding wound.
I stared up at Roger’s drone fleet, my gaze like ice. “Roger, you really think you’ve won, don’t you?”
He snorted. “Still acting tough when you’re about to die? Your lives are in my hands!”
I slowly shook my head. “You’re just a puppet, letting someone pull your strings while you convince yourself you’re avenging a lost love.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m saying you’re going to regret this. Very soon.”
Lila’s shrill voice cut in. “Roger, darling, don’t listen to her lies! She’s just trying to stall for time! Kill her! Kill her now!”
That was all it took. Roger’s patience snapped. “Fine! You want to do this the hard way? Then do it!”

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