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Just then the bell rung over the door and Riley O’Rourke walked in. Valerie jumped up from her seat and rushed to him after placing her coffee cup down on the side table. “Oh Riley it’s just so awful.” He wrapped his arms around his wife, while looking over her head at the two cops.
“Can’t this wait? You can see she’s distraught.” His voice sounded angry, defensive; and Celia was secretly beating herself up for not being prepared to see him this morning. She wished she knew why he had such an effect on her, especially with what she was thinking.
Why wouldn’t Sonya tell her best friend the name of the man she was having an affair with? From all that she’d learned so far the two women had been close for most of their lives, so why tell her about the affair but not who it was with? Unless…
“We’ll leave you two alone and as always, if you think of anything else, please give us a call.” She held out one of her cards to pass to the woman but it was Riley who reached his hand out to take it. The last thing she heard as they were walking out the door was him comforting his wife.
* * *
Niall sat alone downstairsfor a while after the cops and Valerie left. He was trying to make sense of the detective’s words that had left him with even more questions now than before. Why had Sonya changed her code? What was she trying to hide?
He tried to recall if there had been any changes in her behavior the last few months but nothing came to mind It’s true that after baby Abigail was born they’d both sorta spun out of control a little bit.
His psychiatrist had put it down to him having a midlife crisis and it was obvious that she’d been suffering the after effects of the birth. But things had smoothed out a lot here lately, and he refused to believe that his loving wife of almost seven years had been doing anything behind his back that would warrant the need for such secrecy.
“No, they must be wrong.” He left his seat and took the stairs two at a time and headed for the room they’d shared as man and wife. The nightgown she’d worn the night before she was killed still laid across the chair where she’d thrown it haphazardly, her panties still on the floor where she’d dropped them after taking them off.
He’d forbidden Nettie to come in here to clean up, to touch anything. He wanted the room to stay just as it was, the way she’d left it for the last time, with just the hint of her perfume in the air still.
He looked around the room now, at all the little bits and pieces that reminded him of his wife, still not quite believing that this was all he would ever have left of her. That she would never walk through the door; never lay on that bed in his arms again. The pain was almost too much to bear and he reached out his hand to lean against the wall.
How could things change so drastically from one day to the next? And yet, life still went on all around him he wondered. How was he still breathing when the woman he loved more than his own life would never breathe again? He felt a scream building inside his chest but held it back with force. He had to remember their children, had to hold onto his sanity for their sakes at least.
He walked into the room and sat on the bed with his head in his hands as his mind ran through their life together. He remembered the first day they met. How he’d been struck by her beauty and her laughter. It was her laugh that had caught his attention that first time.
He remembered that day like it was yesterday. He’d been in a room full of people, bored out of his mind with yet another get together for the rich and powerful of the state. It was one of those workshop type things where the well established were lending a helping hand to the up and comers.
This venue had been a whole lot different though from the norm, set as it was in a more festive milieu. More like a party where the two groups were meant to get to know each other, than the usual stuffy businesslike settings where those things were normally conducted.
She’d been standing in a group of people with Valerie by her side. He knew Valerie since her dad had been a mentor of sorts when he was younger, but he’d never met the vivacious woman who stood beside her.
When he walked over under the pretense of saying hi to Valerie, introductions had been made and from that moment on she was his. Neither of them cared too much about the fact that he was older than she by eleven years give or take. The age difference was lost in the shadows of the love that blossomed between them from the start.
It was just magical, love at first sight if you believe in such things. His first wife had divorced him years earlier because she said he was never home. They’d been married young, both from good families right here in the little town where he’d grown up and returned after college.
He’d been heart broken then, but it was only after meeting and marrying Sonya that he realized what true love really was. The love he’d had for Anna was more friendship than romance or passion, and he’d counted himself lucky that the amazing young woman had come into his life when she did.
Sure they’d had their ups and downs over the years, especially after Abigail was born. But life had been getting back to normal and they’d been well on the way to getting things back to the way they used to be. And now this, a most unexpected turn that he wasn’t sure he’d ever get over.
He felt a deep aching pain, like a blazing ball of fire in the place where his heart was supposed to be. He wanted to rage at the unfairness of it all. Wanted to punch a hole in the wall, tear someone from limb to limb, anything to vent the anger that burned in his chest.
But he had to keep it together for the children, couldn’t leave his poor babies alone in the world, or he’d be tempted to join their mother. If he didn’t have them he didn’t know what he’d do. He was barely hanging on by a thread, barely able to cope with the nightmare that his life had become.
His mind went back to the cops and their suspicions. They didn’t have to come right out and say it he knew what they were thinking, those bastards. I’ll sue if they leak a word of it, he thought as anger overcame the pain for a brief moment in time, giving him the respite he needed.
He was pretty sure that the town’s people would have a lot to say as well, just like they had when the two of them had gotten married. There were some who still blamed him for the divorce, and though it had been more than a decade and way before he’d even met Sonya, in towns like this, where lives are so intertwined, no one ever forgets and they hardly ever forgive.
The thought of her name being blackened filled him with rage and he jumped up from the bed and stalked across the room. He picked up his phone from the bureau where he’d thrown it the day before after turning it off.
He had a ton of missed calls, mostly from family and friends, no doubt calling with their condolences. He wasn’t interested in hearing any of it. He just wanted his wife back. He made one phone call; to someone who could help, the only one he could turn to at a time like this.
“Niall is that you?”
“Yes Mr. Mayor, it’s me.” Mayor Calvin Bosch had been his friend since they were little snot nosed brats on the school grounds. The two of them had remained close over the years though their lives had gone in different directions.
Calvin went into politics with an eye on the governorship, while he had followed in his father’s footsteps to take over the bank that had been started by his great-great-great grandfather when the town was just a thought on a few people’s minds and imaginations.
“I’m so sorry to hear about your wife. I tried calling twice already but there was no answer. I figured you needed some time alone so I didn’t bother to drive out there.”
