Page 56 of The Therapist
Lana, help me. He’s going to kill me.
‘When did she send that?’ he demands.
Lana looks down at her phone. ‘Just before five last night.’
‘I don’t believe that’s from her,’ says Mike.
‘We just want to know what’s going on,’ says Lana with a quick sideways glance at Ben. Mike has never seen Ben before. There’s no picture of him on the clinic website. He’s a good-looking man and he looks so confident, so sure of himself standing in Mike’s home with his arms folded.
‘That’s not from her,’ he says.
‘How do you know?’ asks Lana and her hand goes back into her bag. ‘It’s from her number. I have it saved in my phone.’
Mike’s stomach churns from too much alcohol and too little food. This whole situation feels precarious, out of control.
He dredges up a part of himself with the ability to conceal his emotions, the part that never gets a chance because he usually, as the saying goes, wears his heart on his sleeve. His heart, his anger, his love, his hate. But he has to be a different Mike right now. Someone is playing with his life. Of that he’s sure, but he’s just not sure how exactly or why. For now, he will play along.
‘You know, I’m not sure who you two think you are but you don’t really know Sandy. My wife has taken herself off for a few days, leaving me to deal with everything, and I don’t appreciate you getting involved in something that is essentially a private affair.’
‘We’re worried about Sandy.’
Mike chuckles at the words. They are worried about Sandy, who is collecting articles on how to get rid of her husband and get away with it. That’s who they’re worried about?
He’s so sick of this shit, of having to do everything himself, of being screwed over by his boss in a crappy market, of having to take care of his kids when he needs time to figure out what to do next, of feeling like he’s a failure as a husband and father. He’s sick of all of it.
‘Sandy,’ he says, gritting his teeth, ‘is a manipulative bitch who is probably really enjoying the fact that you’re worried and I’m worried and that I have to take care of the kids and the house while I’m in the middle of everything else.’ He looks at Ben. ‘So you two can just get the hell out of my house, and when she gets back, I’m sure she’ll be happy to know how much you both cared.’
‘Now, just a minute, Mike,’ says Lana and she glances at Ben again, who is staring at him like he knows something, like he really knows something and he’s just waiting for Mike to confess. ‘We just want to be sure that she’s okay,’ says Lana, holding up her hand.
Mike opens his mouth to ask them to leave again when a blood-curdling scream tears through the air from the back of the house.
TWENTY-FOUR
Lana
I stand frozen. The sound is everywhere at once as I look at Mike. His eyes widen and his face pales.
‘Sandy,’ says Ben. It’s the first word he’s uttered since we got here. The only word he’s uttered. Sandy. We all heard it. It must be her. But is it?
No one moves. I can feel shock rippling through my body.
Only hours ago, I thought I understood everything that was going on. Only hours ago, I made a decision to end this whole charade.
But now I am unsure again.
No one moves and it feels like we are all holding a collective breath, waiting for the sound to come again.
TWENTY-FIVE
Mike
‘What was that?’ shouts Felix, his obvious concern floating down the stairs. Felix is a light sleeper.
‘Nothing, just a neighbour,’ shouts Mike. ‘Stay in your bed, go back to sleep.’ The last thing he needs is Felix and Lila getting out of bed.
Pinpricks of panic run up and down his skin at where the scream came from, at who it could be, at what this means now.
‘That sounded like it came from your back garden, Mike,’ says Lana, and Mike watches as her hand goes back into her bag.
