Page 109 of The Quiet Tenant

There is an undertone of supplication in your voice. None of this comes naturally to you.

“I trust you,” you say.

She whines. Tears roll down her cheeks.It’s okay, you want to tell her. Honestly, I’m surprised it took you this long.

Instead, you tell her to be strong. “I need you to be brave. Do you understand?”

She wipes her cheeks with the back of her hands and nods.

You clutch the gun tighter. A quick look outside the window. Nothing. Everyone’s in the front yard, partying, oblivious to the great escape unfolding inside.

Let’s keep it that way.

This is the part where you jump.

This is the part where nothing is for certain.

This is the part where the planets align, and you go free.

CHAPTER 73

Emily

I take a look around the bathroom—the soap, a supermarket brand, the towels, freshly cleaned. In a cabinet under the sink, bottles of bleach. He likes his house as clean as I like my kitchen.

I step back out.

She’s gone. I’m alone again.

The door under the staircase. She was coming from there.

What was she doing?

I open it and find a flight of concrete steps.

At the bottom of the stairs, a light switch. I flick it.

It’s a basement. Clean but ugly, folding furniture and a flashlight.

It smells nice. Like his scarf, like the crook of his neck. It smells like him.

There’s a workbench, his duffel tucked underneath it. There are boxes. Stacks of them, piled up at the back of the room. Left over from the move, I suppose.

With the tip of a finger, I follow the large, woozy letters he scribbled in a hurry.kitchen stuff, books,and, like an incantation,caroline, caroline, caroline.

His wife. The one he was supposed to end up with. The one who took a vow and received one in return. The one who bore their child, who gave him what I imagine were the happiest days of his life. The one who—

A sound behind me. A scraping—soles on concrete.

Shit.

I didn’t hear him open the door. Didn’t hear him going down the stairs. But he’s here, right here, inches from me, his beautiful gaze so piercing I want to tell him to look away, to leave me alone. But I can’t, because I’m the trespasser. I ignored his request. I went where I wasn’t supposed to go, and I’ve lost all bargaining power.

“How did you end up down here?” he asks.

He’s calm. There’s the hint of a smile on his face. He’s curious, I tell myself, just curious to know what on earth I’m doing here.

“I was looking for the bathroom,” I lie.

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