“She’s in on it?” Selena exclaimed.
“She thought all of this sounded a bit extreme at first, but when she learned the extent of what Connor had been putting me through over the years, she quickly got on board. She’d do anything for me.” Her face relaxed a bit. “And I gave her explicit instructions to mess with Connor as much as possible while I was missing. Vanessa told me about the back rubs; I think there also may have been some incidents related to Nair in his hair products and soap in his green juices over the past week?” She laughed, a true belly laugh. “My mom is epic. I mean, come on. It’s a small but important part of Connor’s punishment: he has to live with his mother-in-law, indefinitely, for all he knows!”
And here I’d thought that Louise had seemed a bit off, hadn’t seemed grief stricken enough. But the opposite was true: she loved her daughter so much that she would do anything that was asked of her—even if it seemed crazy. She’d even been reveling in punishing Connor on Isabel’s behalf. She wasn’t necessarily the best actress, but she was sure as hell a wonderful mom.
“Anyway, where was I?” Isabel asked dryly. “Ah, right. My living hell of a marriage. But then I got pregnant. I’d always vowed to myself I would never get pregnant with his child. I wouldn’t have wanted to subject a child to having him as a father. We rarely slept together, but on the occasion we did, I was so careful. So Naomi was a shock, but when I found out I was carrying her, I couldn’t let her go. I couldn’t even think about it. I didn’t even tell him that I was pregnant until I was about five months along. I just didn’t want him to be part of it. And I still don’t. And then, right after Naomi was born, Vanessa reached out and told me all about what had happened with poor Allison. She told me about Phoebe. I had no idea he’d fathered another child. Vanessa wanted to help, and had ideas, and I had some ideas, too, and finally, most importantly, I had the strength I’d been missing all along, to do something, something big, to finally get revenge on him and shake him out of my life, our lives, forever. Vanessa gave that to me, but so did Naomi. Becoming a mom has made me aware of my own power, my priorities, in a way that I never was before.” I nodded my genuine understanding.
“And so I recruited you, so to speak. Not only did we share the terrible bond of our acquaintance with my awful husband, but we were also new moms. So I knew you were as strong as I was—that you would understand why I needed to finally get out. For my daughter. I knew you were the right people to help me.”
“How did you find us?” Kira asked, finally. “How did you know?”
“Well, that was easier than you’d think.” Isabel shook her head with loathing. “There’s a list.”
“A list?” Selena asked, her voice trembling with fear and revulsion.
Isabel nodded gravely. “Yes. Connor keeps a list of names on his computer. The first time I saw it, years ago, it was by accident—I opened his computer to check my email, because my phone was dead, and it was just there, open on his desktop. I didn’t know what it meant, at first. But I was curious—and once I started googling names, matching locations to his work travel, finding pictures of the women online . . . I put it together. And the crazy thing is that I had asked him if I could use his computer before I did—of course—and he said, ‘Sure.’ He wanted me to see it. To taunt me. Because it was yet another piece of proof I had that he was a monster, but one that I could do nothing about. A list of names isn’t evidence. It’s not like it’s videos and pictures. It wouldn’t mean anything to a lawyer, for instance.” Isabel was right. A random list of names would never be enough to incriminate Connor. “His whole life is about power, control—the list is no doubt meant as a reminder to me that he can get away with whatever he wants to. And a leg up on all of you, too, because I’m assuming most of you didn’t know his name, but he made sure to find out exactly who you were.”
My stomach flopped; I felt like I was going to be sick. I did not want to be a name on Connor’s disgusting list.
“But the list ended up being handy, because I used it in a way he didn’t anticipate,” she continued. “When I realized that the four of us all had new babies and lived in the same neighborhood, I knew there was a way to get us together. To let you get to know me without immediately running for the hills when you realized how we were connected. To make us a team, so to speak. Jenn, you were a late add, of course.” Of course. I hadn’t met Connor until Clara was six weeks old. Isabel hadn’t responded to my post until a few weeks after I’d written it, and the group had already met once or twice when I joined. “Anyway. You guys were plan A. That you’d know me and care about me enough to reveal the truth, publicly, about Connor after I went missing. Then I’d come back, he’d be ruined, and I’d be free forever. That didn’t happen, unfortunately. But like I said. That was plan A.”