“I didn’t think I needed to. You see, Chase, I thought we were partners. You know, two people working together toward a common goal. But that’s not how you saw it. You convinced yourself that you were the one who made it all happen. It was your charm and brilliance and good looks that bought this house and the cars and that lovely suit you’ve destroyed. Now you’re here to ask me to remove a curse, because it’s easier for you to believe I’ve bewitched you than it is to accept the fact that I made you a far better copywriter than you ever would have been on your own.”
“You’re right.” Chase nodded. He wasn’t going to put up a fight. “I was an idiot. I should never have let things end the way they did. I’m sorry.”
She laughed—at his blatant attempt to manipulate her, and at the fact that she might once have bought it. The illusions of her youth had been removed with no anesthesia. She hadn’t expected to survive the experience. But she had. And now she was completely invulnerable.
“You don’t need to be sorry. It was time,” Harriett said. “I have no regrets.”
“Harriett,” he pleaded. “You have to help me.”
“No,” she said, “I don’t. You can have what you need. But this time, you’ll have to pay a fair price for it.”
“I’ll give you anything.”
“Anything?” she asked. He seemed so eager.
“What do you want?”
“Your firstborn child,” Harriett said.
Chase blanched. “I don’t know,” he said. “I’d have to talk to Bianca.”
Harriett couldn’t keep a straight face.
“So you were kidding?” Chase exhaled.
Harriett howled with laughter. “I never wanted a baby when we were married. Why the hell would I want one now? I want you to take me and my friends to Jackson Dunn’s Memorial Day party.”
He wasn’t quite buying it. “That’s all you want?”
“That’s it,” Harriett said. “I assure you there is nothing else I could possibly want from you. I wouldn’t even fuck you these days. Frankly, I find you rather repugnant.”
She hadn’t intended to be cruel. Those were just facts.
“You know, you’ve really changed.” Chase sounded wounded. “You used to be sweet.”
“That was before you set fire to our marriage and tried to steal my house.” Harriett walked to the door and held it open for him. “I thought it all would destroy me, but it didn’t. It just turned me into something new. And now that we’ve made our little deal, you should get out of my house. My friends will be coming back soon.”
“So this lady doesn’t have a car?” Nessa asked. The Stop & Shop where Amber Welsh worked was off a six-lane highway. The sixteen-wheelers racing by were streaks of red and white light.
Jo thought of the rusty Corolla parked in front of Amber’s trailer. “She has one, but it’s not running at the moment.”
“I don’t understand.” Nessa looked around. There were no sidewalks, and the shoulder on the highway was little more than two feet wide. “How does she get here?”
Jo had been wondering the same thing herself. “I have a feeling she walks,” she said.
“You’re kidding. She’s going to end up getting killed on that road.”
Jo checked the time on the dashboard. It was 7:16, and she and Nessa had been parked in front of the Stop & Shop for half an hour.
“Where is she?” A bad feeling had settled over her. “I’m gonna go in and check on her—make sure she hasn’t gotten cold feet.”