Chapter Text
Myrtle was dead. Tom didn’t want to believe it, he couldn’t. He loved her, maybe not as much as Daisy, but he still loved her and it hurt. The moment he found out it was Gatsby who had hit Myrtle with his car, Tom knew he would get revenge on him. He briefly considered manipulating Wilson into shooting him, but simply killing him didn’t seem like punishment enough. Tom wanted to hurt Gatsby the same way that he had hurt him- by killing someone he loved. Clearly, Tom could see Gatsby loved Daisy, but obviously he wasn’t planning on killing her. He was planning on moving to another state with her, though, once he found someone else Gatsby cared for- because he knew there had to be someone else- so that once Tom and Daisy were gone, Gatsby would be utterly alone. That in itself would be a fate worse than death.
Tom decided not to rush his plan nor to tell anyone that he knew who was driving the car. Although, he had a suspicion the police did know it was Gatsby and had simply pretended not to know, as they never would have ended up arresting him anyway, what with all of Gatsby’s ties with the police. Tom was also trying to find someone Gatsby was close to, he had even sent over one of his servants to spy on Gatsby to see who he hung out with. Much to Tom’s delight Daisy hadn’t even been remotely interested in going to Gatsby’s after the car accident. Instead, she spent the majority of the day snuggled next to Tom, who didn’t complain.
After two weeks of this, Tom decided to ask his servant if he had seen anyone with Gatsby over the past couple weeks. The servant admitted that at the beginning of the two weeks Gatsby was locked up in a room, no doubt distraught over Daisy not being interested in him anymore, when a man went into the house.The servant saw him leave once, only to return to the mansion with a small suitcase. After a few days of not seeing either man, they finally started taking walks outside with one another and Gatsby seemed to be getting happier and happier every day. The man stopped spending the night at Gatsby’s house after a week, but he still visited almost every day.
While the servant recounted what he had seen, Tom could feel his smile getting bigger and bigger. It was perfect of course, Tom was going to be able to take away the person that was able to make Gatsby feel happy again after basically being forgotten by Daisy.
“That is perfect! Who exactly is this person?”
The servant hesitated slightly, as he liked the man and Tom certainly looked like he was up to no good, “It’s- it’s Daisy’s cousin, sir. Nick Carraway.”