I go upstairs to change back into my own clothes. And the whole time I am remembering moments when I mentioned Max. I knew her reaction wasn’t quite right. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.
I cringe at the memory of pouring my heart out to her, sitting together on the floor in my bedroom. What was it she said? ‘For Max to have an affair at work means he must have been unhappy at home, don’t you think?’ And I remember thinking,how does she know it was at work?
Unhappy at home.For the first time I truly wish Max weren’t dead. Just so she could rekindle their affair and run away into the sunset with him. See how she likes it, living with a monster.Come to think of it, they’d probably have a wonderful time making other people miserable. A match made in heaven. Or in hell, I should say.
I put Holly’s clothes back in her wardrobe. To think Teri has come all this way to get him back. She bought the house next door, for Christ’s sake. She befriended Holly. She befriendedme. To think that she let me spill my deepest and darkest secrets, and now she’s toying with me. She’s not after money. She wants me gone. She said as much to Holly yesterday.
She’s leaving you. She’s renting a house. She’s not your friend. She’s going to Hull without you.
All this for what? So I would leave him? So she could have him? God, if only she’d shown up two weeks earlier. I could have agreed to leave with Holly. We could have spared ourselves all this drama. They could have lived miserably ever after.
She must have felt incredibly confident that I wouldn’t know who she was. I never asked Max her name. I didn’t want to know. Maybe he said as much to her.
I never told her your name.But still, things change.
And then I realise my mistake. The letter Max scribbled on the note isn’tT– it’sB. Her name isn’t Teresa or Teri. It’s something that starts with B.
I have to know.
I go back into our bedroom, open the drawer of his bedside table and pull out his phone. I sit on the bed and stare at it.
Don’t do it, Kate.
I bite on my thumbnail. Don’t do it. It’s a really bad idea.
My finger rests on the power button.
Don’t do it.
I turn it back on.
32
The phone explodes with messages. Too many to count. Some of them are from work, but the bulk of them are from someone called Beatrice.
I want to see you. I can’t stop thinking about you.
I miss you. I love you.
Where are you?
Why aren’t you answering my calls?
Call me!
I don’t know what you think. You’re scaring me. Let’s talk.
I just want to talk.
You know I’m better for you than she is. You don’t even love her.
I turn off the phone and drop it back in the drawer. So now I know. Her name isn’t Teri. It’s Beatrice. B. And I don’t know why she wrote ‘I think I love you’, since she certainly has no doubt about how much she loves Max.
I sit there a while, my heart racing. She’s never going to leave us alone. She’s insane. No wonder they got on so well.
Suddenly my phone rings and my stomach twists even more, if it were possible, because I immediately think it’s Amanda fromMax’s workplace. Today is Monday, and I’ve been expecting her call.
Except it’s a number I don’t recognise. She’s probably calling from a different one. Or maybe someone else from Sterling. I let it go to voicemail. It rings again.
