Page 99 of The Wedding Party

“Why?”

“Because she says I slept with her husband at some medical convention in Nashville.”

Everything suddenly makes sense.

“She killed him,” she adds, before I can ask a question. “He found out she was the one who was trying to expose my biological father and ruin me, and therefore he was going to ruin her. So she killed him, and she says she should have killed me.”

“What did you say? Why didn’t you get help?”

Her eyes bottom out with nothing but darkness, cold, hard. Her voice changes, deepens. “I told her that her husband told me that I was pretty, a better fuck than her. I told her we fucked over and over and over, and he couldn’t get enough of me. And I told her that he could hardly stand the sight of her. Kissing her made his skin crawl because he wanted to be kissing me.”

There is a brutality to her words that sends chills down my spine. This is not the sweet, innocent Carrie I’ve met with before.

The door behind me opens and Dr. Thompson says, “What is happening? I told you, her attorney has to be consulted before we talk. Come with me now, Carrie.”

There is a slight curve to Carrie’s lips, as if she’s won in some way, before she tilts her chin upward and walks toward Dr. Thompson, but she pauses next to me, lowers her voice, and says, “I have no idea who her husband is.” With that, she leaves the room.

Chapter Eighty-Seven

I exit the center just as Aiden calls. “I don’t know what just happened,” I say.

“What does that mean?”

“Carrie claims Lana killed Oliver because she slept with Lana’s husband. But . . . it’s a little more complicated than that. And strange. I’ll explain. Where’s Lana?”

“Talk about strange. She pulled into a McDonald’s parking lot, and she’s just sitting there. She hasn’t gotten out of her car.”

“Yes, well, if you heard what Carrie said to her, you might not think so.”

“I think it’s time to bring her in for questioning.”

“Agreed. I want to be there. I want to use what Carrie told me. Send me your location.”

“You got it.”

We disconnect and my phone buzzes with his location. Fifteen minutes later, I bring the McDonald’s into view and find emergency vehicles everywhere. I know what’s happened even before I park and flash my badge to enter the crime scene. Aiden runs toward me, and I meet him off to the side of an ambulance.

“She killed herself,” he says, confirming my assumption.

I wait for the punch of emotion that should follow, but it doesn’t. I’ve apparently mastered the art of coldness. Perhaps a little too well, and I think that should perhaps scare me a bit. I shove aside that thought and focus on my job, on my duty to my badge and community. “How?”

“Gunshot,” he says grimly.

“Any note?”

“Nothing. But I think this is closure for the family.”

Except it doesn’t feel like closure at all. Not after the side of Carrie I saw today.

Chapter Eighty-Eight

Oliver’s funeral is three weeks later, on a snowy, cold day, not long after Carrie checked out of the treatment center. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, Lana killed Oliver. I don’t attend the funeral, but I do go to the cemetery and stand at a distance, watching as the ground swallows the casket. Watching Carrie collapse in front of it. It’s a lie. She is a lie.

I leave there and head home, changing into workout gear and showing up on my father’s doorstep. He knows what’s going on, and he motions me forward. “Let’s go spar, Sugar Bear. Come try and beat your pop’s ass. You know that always makes you feel better. Or better yet,” he says after I enter and he shuts the door behind me, “you can pretend you’re doing what I would do—making sure Carrie can’t hurt anyone else.”

If only I could.

We confirmed Lana lived in Nashville before moving to Boston. Thanks to my dad, we found the dirty PI and the dirty politician who helped him get Lana the adoption records. And we talked to Lana’s ex and confirmed that yes, he slept with someone at a medical convention. And yes, Carrie was at that convention. Of course, Carrie continues to deny the affair, but when our team showed a photo of Carrie to Lana’s ex, he knew her. She was happily engaged to Oliver at the time. Something tells me her denial is real. I’ve seen people who lied so much they literally believed their own lies. We all have a dark side, but only some of us allow it to form a life outside our minds.