“Team Ginger Shark,” I’ll reply, although deep in my gut I don’t know that it’s a safe team for me to be on.
CHAPTER 30
CONTRIBUTE OR DIE TRYING
DEX
After checking on Margaux, I realize I can no longer sit idly by.
It’s time to act.
Sure, the anonymous texts and first few pranks were fun, but Timmy’s crazy behavior is only escalating. I don’t want to push him to do anything to hurt Margaux, but he’s gone too far, and it’s time for me to take real action.
Am I going too easy on Timmy? Maybe. At least for now.
Sure, I could hire someone to kill him, or at least seriously hurt him. I could certainly fly over and take care of him myself.
But somehow I just know that would destroy Margaux, and she’d be left pining for a ghost of a man that never was.
Selfishly, seeing her all bent out of shape over his loser ass would destroyme. I couldn’t see her going through that. And part of her would always be his.
If she ever found out I had anything to do with it?Game over.
She’d never be mine.
I can’t have that.
I have to make it so that Timmy destroys himself.
So the second phase of my plan starts innocently enough, at least on the surface. A tiny adjustment here, a flicker of confusion there.
I remotely change his phone’s language settings to Mandarin.
He spends the better part of an hour trying to switch it back, muttering curses under his breath.
When he finally figures it out, I switch it to Russian.
A small, satisfying crack in his already fragile composure.
Next, I tinker with his email. I add a filter that reroutes messages from his father into his spam folder, and then send an anonymous email from an untraceable account:
Subject: YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID
Message: It’s only a matter of time. Tick tock.
He stares at his screen, the color draining from his face, and for a moment I think he might actually piss himself.
Good.
I dig deeper into his psyche. I know his insecurities like the back of my hand—his lack of a real job, his reliance on Margaux, his pathetic dependence on his father’s moral support and occasional few dollars sent via Apple Pay for ‘soda’.
I set up a string of fake calendar notifications:
9:00 AM: Interview with Burger Shack – Don’t Blow It
11:00 AM: Call Dad About Loan Repayment
2:00 PM: Find Your Balls, Timmy