Page 111 of The Husband Hour
“Hey, kiddo. Easy there,” Lauren said.
“I thought you were working today,” Beth said.
“Yeah, long story.”
“Aunt Lauren, I’m going to live here! With you! Forever!” Ethan said.
Lauren eyed Beth. “Forever, huh? Well, I don’t know about that. We might have to ship you off to Hogwarts at some point.”
“Sit and have lunch with us,” Beth said.
“I can’t, Mom. I have stuff to do. I need to be alone.”
Okay.
Chapter Forty-Six
Lauren emptied every drawer in her bedroom hunting for her computer charger, mentally combing over the past week in her mind. When had Matt interviewed Stephanie a second time? Was there any way he’d just forgotten to mention it to her? Had she seen him the day it happened?
She finally found the charger under her bed. She didn’t even bother moving to a chair. She plugged in her laptop and slipped the HD card into the port.
The clips filled her screen, and before she pressed Play, she could see that Stephanie was in Matt’s room. This bothered her in ways she couldn’t fully deal with in the moment.
Stephanie wore jeans and a T-shirt with a black and pink floral design. Her face was tight with tension.
Lauren watched impatiently, waiting for whatever it was she’d thought she’d find. Five minutes in, she paused, backed up a few seconds, and hit Play again.
“I’m not talking to you today to help you make a movie,” Stephanie said. “I’m talking to you because you shouldn’t make this movie.”
“Why not?” Matt asked off camera.
“Because Rory Kincaid wasn’t a hero.”
“You’re the only person out of the dozens I’ve spoken with who has a negative opinion of Rory Kincaid.”
“Well, maybe that’s because I’m the only one who really knew him.”
“I doubt your sister would agree with that.”
“She would if she’d ever, for one minute, trusted me when I tried to tell her that he wasn’t worth her time. I tried to warn her.”
“She might have thought you were jealous. Maybe you still are,” Matt said.
Stephanie snorted. “So that’s how you want to play this? I’ll be the jealous-sister villain of your movie? Come on. You can do better than that.”
“I can’t—not if you don’t give me something better.”
“Nice try,” she said.
“Where were you in the summer of 2010?”
“I was here. At the shore.”
“Where was Rory in the summer of 2010?”
“He was also here.”
“Where was Lauren that summer?”
