Page 46 of She Didn't See It Coming
“You know I don’t mean to,” he says, approaching her.
“But you do anyway.”
His voice becomes a little sharp. “I had nothing to do with that woman, Alice.”
“So you say.”
He knows she doesn’t trust him. He doesn’t trust her either. They are both completely self-interested, and they both know it, but they do better together than apart, and they both know that too. Sometimes their relationship becomes tiresome. But mostly it’s exciting. He knows she worries about him straying, because of that time she caught him. She doesn’t know about the times she hadn’t caught him, before that. Still, that one time, there had been hysterics, and flying shoes that narrowly missed his head, and threats. He thinks of this now as she shows off her new purchases in the living room, while he sinks into the sofa, pretending to pay attention.
He’d made a promise to her after that, to stay away from other women. He thinks she cheated on him after, just once, to even the score, because that’s what he would do if he was her, but he’s willing to let that go. He’s never been as jealous, as possessive, as she is. And he owes her. She’s right about that.
His cybersecurity firm is making them good money, but it took money to get it off the ground. Money he didn’t have. She’d gotten it for him. She hadn’t told him what she was planning, only presented itto him afterward, a fait accompli,a gift. He wonders now, if she had told him what she was going to do, would he have stopped her? Probably not. He’s as cold-blooded as she is.
He supposes most other husbands would have been horrified. But she didn’t choose another husband; she chose him. And he was grateful, and actually rather impressed. Neither one of them had liked her mother anyway. She was a trivial woman. Always nervous around them, looking at them as if she were afraid of what they might do next. Her timidity always annoyed Alice, provoked her.
He looks at Alice now in the sexy red patent-leather stilettos, and his thoughts about her mother disappear. Derek likes to think of the two of them as special, as people unhampered by the same restraints that hamper other people.
“What do you think?” she purrs, posing with a hand on one hip, one heel coyly raised. She arches her back a little.
“They’re perfect,” he says, his voice growing husky. “You’re perfect.”
She walks slowly up to him, swaying her hips, crawls into his lap, straddling him, and fastens her mouth on his. He can feel himself become instantly aroused. She must feel it too.
“I am, aren’t I?” she whispers after the kiss. “You don’t deserve me.”
“No, I don’t,” he whispers back, unbuttoning her blouse.
30
Lizzie doesn’t like the look of Sam when he returns to the condo from the police station. His eyes are wild as he collapses into an armchair. Fortunately, Clara is at Angela’s and Paige left some time ago. “What did they say?” Lizzie asks, concerned. He gazes back at her vacantly and doesn’t answer. His hands are shaking. She asks more sharply, “What happened, Sam?”
He swallows nervously. “They told me Bryden was having an affair,” he says.
“What?” Lizzie says, taken completely off guard. “Surely that can’t be true.”
Her parents look completely unprepared for this news. She can tell that they don’t want to believe it either.
Sam continues, his voice strained, “They said she was having an affair with Derek Gardner, that man she had the car accident with.”
The silence in the room is profound. “No way,” Lizzie protests after a long pause. Then, “How do they know?”
“She confided in Paige, and Paige told them,” Sam says. Then he breaks down into sobs and covers his face with his hands.
Lizzie freezes. Paige knew about this? And told the police about it? Without a word to any of them? Lizzie considers going to Sam and putting a comforting hand on his shoulder, but something stops her. Perhaps it is her mother, sitting in clear judgment of her son-in-law, her face an open book. Her mother’s expression suddenly makes Lizzie wonder if Sam knew about the affair. She catches her mother’s eye and knows she’s thinking the same thing. Lizzie then glances at her father, sees the wheels inside his mind turning, the fresh dismay on his lined face. And Lizzie finds she is angry that her sister didn’t confide in her but confided in Paige instead.
“Did you know about this?” Lizzie’s mother asks Sam, her voice accusing.
Sam uncovers his face and addresses his mother-in-law. “No! I had no idea. Not a clue. I trusted her completely.” He adds, after a moment, “It must have been this Derek Gardner who killed her. It seems obvious. But the detectives think it gives me a motive.” His voice shaking. “I didn’t even know, I swear!”
It’s as if a bomb has gone off in the living room; everyone is waiting for the dust to settle, for their senses to return to normal, to take stock of this new reality.
Lizzie observes Sam in the silence. “Did they say anything else?” she asks finally.
He seems to be trying to gather his thoughts for a moment and says, “They have the autopsy results.” He chokes out, “Someone—someone held a plastic bag over her head.”
Lizzie sees her mother’s hand fly silently to her mouth in horror. Her father makes a guttural sound in his throat. She turns back to Sam. “What else?”
“She wasn’t sexually assaulted, and that makes them think it was someone she knew.” He says into the disturbed silence, “I got an attorney.”
