But then a couple of months after Dr. Hale’s disappearance, my mother, who ran in the same social circles as Gail, told me the gossip about her untimely death. She took a spill down a flight of stairs and broke her neck after she had a few too many drinks. Leaving her son Ethan with a hefty insurance payout to take care of the consequences of his first failed start-up and then some.
I have to admit, I became a little obsessed with Ethan after that. First of all, he was gorgeous. And second, something about him reminded me of myself. He went after what he wanted. Even if he had to do something other people would say was unthinkable.
Okay, I was more than a little obsessed with Ethan. Let’s just say that our coincidental meeting wasn’t such a coincidence. More like it was carefully engineered by yours truly.
But he never quite came around the way I wanted him to. After we got married, I thought he would confess everything to me. I thought he would love and trust me enough to tell me the truth. But he hasn’t.
That’s why I brought him along on this trip. I could have gone alone, and it would’ve been easier. I could have searched to my heart’s content. But I wanted Ethan here with me. He forgot about this house until he saw the portrait of Dr. Hale on the wall. But now he knows that his secret is out there.
“What are you doing?” I ask him again. He opens his mouth, but before any words can come out, I add, “Don’t lie.”
“I would never lie to you, Tricia,” he sputters.
I give him a look.
His shoulders sag. “You listened to my mother’s tapes, didn’t you?”
“Yes. Some of them.”
“Oh God.” He tugs at the short strands of his golden hair. “I know what she said on those tapes. But I didn’t—”
“Don’t lie.”
He stands there for a moment. The only sounds in the room are the fire crackling and his inhale and exhale.
“Fine,” he says. “I killed her.”
Chapter 54
Now that the truth has left his lips, he seems calmer. He’s not sweating anymore. He’s my confident husband again.
“You don’t know what she was like.” The bitterness seeps through his voice. “She was insane. My father died when I was a kid, and he got off easy as far as I’m concerned. She was always extremely anxious, always accusing people around her of being out to get her. Including me.”
He pauses to look disdainfully at the fire. “She was an alcoholic too. When she drank, she always thought I was stealing her stuff, and she’d corner me and accuse me. She would tell me I was rotten. A rotten kid who would never amount to anything.”
“I’m sorry,” I murmur.
“To be fair, I was stealing her stuff some of the time. I figured if she was going to accuse me either way, I may as well do it.”
This is the other side of my husband. The one he never lets me see. A little thrill goes through me. “So what happened?”
“I needed money.” He looks down at his hands. “She never gave me any money. Never gave me anything because she didn’t trust anyone besides herself. But she had that insurance policy. And you know what? I wouldn’t have even done it, except she was so drunk that night. She was yelling at me about what a terrible son I was, and I couldn’t help myself. I pushed her down the stairs.”
He lifts his eyes slowly. “I had parked around the back. I got the hell out of there and didn’t call the police until a day later. I told them I couldn’t reach her, and I was worried. She was long gone by then.”
Now that he’s told me the whole story, he drops onto the couch and buries his face in his hands. I sit down beside him and lower my hand onto his back. His shoulders are trembling.
“You hate me now,” he murmurs. “I can’t blame you.”
“No,” I say.
He lifts his face from his hands. His eyes are damp. “I love you so much, Tricia. I didn’t know I was capable of it. I spent my entire childhood hating that woman, and I didn’t know I had it in me to love another person. Then I met you, and it was like, you’re my soulmate.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me the truth?”
“I couldn’t tell you! You would have left me if you found out.”
“That’s not true.” I reach out and take his hand in mine. “The truth is…”
“Tricia?”
“I already knew.”
His face fills with confusion. This is the moment to tell him everything. I’ve been scared to, but I don’t have a choice. If there was ever a time to tell him, it is now.