Page 53 of She Didn't See It Coming
Lizzie loved her sister. She misses her already. But their relationship had always been complicated, conflicted. Bryden was always prettier, more lovable, got better grades in school. She did everything right, without even seeming to try. Lizzie wasn’t valedictorian. Lizzie didn’t get a date for the prom. Lizzie didn’t get a scholarship to college. Lizzie didn’t marry a wonderful husband and produce a lovely child. Lizzie always felt lesser-than.
Lizzie can’t deny that she feels a certain freedom now that Bryden is gone. Is that wrong? Is it wrong to enjoy the fact that maybe Bryden wasn’t so perfect after all, and that maybe now her parents are starting to realize it? Now her parents think Sam might have killed her. Maybe for once, they think their favorite daughter might have made amistake. And she had anaffair! What do her parents think of their perfect daughter now?
She feels the urge to hole up in her bedroom and get online; it’s pulling her, but she has to ignore it for now. She has to make do with scrolling on her phone, reading the posts on the Facebook group with her parents hovering, oblivious.
She hadn’t learned anything further from Sam this morning. She’d hoped he might tell her more about his latest police interview when they were alone, which had been the whole point of her offering to go over this morning and take Clara to day care for him. But he’d given her nothing new.
She remembers his reaction when she’d said she could help, that she knew people. He’d pulled back from her, given her an odd look. Had she revealed too much? Should she have toned it down? She feels uneasy about it now. The truth is, her online sleuthingisan obsession. It has been for some time now. But she should be more careful. No more slipups.
Bryden wasn’t the only one hiding a part of her life from everyone else.
35
Paige Mason has been alone in her apartment all morning. She hasn’t wanted to see anyone. She wonders if she should go back to work soon, to keep her mind off things, because her brain is cycling ruinously. She needs to think about something else.
She hears a knock at her door and freezes.Who the hell is that?She’s so jumpy. Her first thought is the detectives—are they back again? As she hesitates, the knock comes again. She hurries to the door and opens it. She is completely surprised to see who’s standing there.
“Paige,” Donna Houser says. “Can I come in?”
Donna is alone, and so bowed down with grief that it hurts Paige to look at her. “Yes, of course,” she says, opening the door wide. “I’ve just made some tea. Do you want some?”
“That would be nice, thank you,” Donna says tiredly.
Paige finds herself in her small kitchen, sipping tea across from Bryden’s mother at the table by the window. Donna seems reluctant to start. “How are you holding up?” Paige asks at last.
The older woman says, “I’m not, really.”
Paige nods sadly back at her, at a loss for what to say. She doesn’t know what she can do for her.
As if she’s just read her mind, Donna clears her throat and says, “I was hoping, as Bryden’s best friend, you might be able to tell me more about her life before she died.”
Paige is both taken aback and immediately uncomfortable. She thinks about how she’d had sex with Sam whenever Bryden was away on business, and flushes.
Donna seems to notice and says, “You knew she was having an affair—with this man she had the accident with.”
Trapped, all Paige can do is nod.
“I just find it so hard to understand,” the older woman says. “I thought Bryden was happy with Sam. It’s like everything I believed about my daughter’s life is a lie. I was hoping you could tell me what was really going on.”
“I know. It’s so hard to understand,” Paige agrees, swallowing. “I thought they were happy too. I was stunned when she told me about Derek. It was—I thought it was so out of character for her.”
Donna leans in over her tea. “But there must have been a reason. Bryden wouldn’t risk her marriage, her family, that way. Was she unhappy? Was Sam not good to her?”
Paige feels ashamed, sitting across from Bryden’s mother, who doesn’t know what she was doing with Bryden’s husband in the marital bed. She says, “She didn’t say they weren’t happy, just that she’d started seeing this other man, and that Sam didn’t know.”
“You’re sure he didn’t know? Because the detectives seem to think he did.”
“He didn’t. Bryden was so sure he didn’t.”
Donna sighs and slumps in her chair. “I’m not sure I believe that. Maybe Bryden thought he didn’t know, but he could have.” Shepauses and adds fretfully, “I’m so worried about Clara. They have to solve this quickly. We have to know the truth. What if Sam did do this to her?” She whispers, “What if he gets away with it and Clara has to grow up with him?”
Paige sees the naked horror on the other woman’s face. She reaches out and puts her hand on top of Donna’s and says, “I honestly don’t think Sam could have done it. He loved her so much, Donna. He isn’t a violent man.”
“I’m not so sure,” Donna says. She gets up slowly. “I’d better get back to Jim. We’re going to look at funeral homes.”
•••
Derek Gardner is workingin his home office when Alice storms into the house. He comes out to greet her, takes one look, and says, “What’s wrong? Where have you been?”
