AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Twenty-Two
Grace
Ilie in the dark listening to the silence, which is frequently interrupted by Elizabeth’s breathing.The longer this goes on, the longer I lie here not sleeping, the angrier I get.The roof could cave in and she’d sleep through it.Even during checks, Elizabeth only stirs and sometimes mumbles, but she never fully wakes.This brings a certain kind of sadness, as it reminds me of the many nights I spent laying next to Charles watching the rise and fall of his chest.
Even after the worst of it, he slept soundly.
My mind drifts back to the past tonight, the same as it always does, only this time I promise myself I won’t push any of it away.I need to go there.As usual, I think of all the things I could’ve, would’ve,should’vedone.
I close my eyes, reliving everything I should have said as I allow myself to be transported back to my kitchen on that perfect spring afternoon.
I hadn’t seen it as perfect then, of course, but time has a way of showing you what truly matters.
I’d been standing at the kitchen sink, washing the vegetables I planned to use for dinner.I still needed to wash and cut the fruit for the fruit salad before Toby arrived home from school, so I set the veggies aside and got to work.Toby was always starving in the afternoon, and it felt like I was racing the clock to get everything done.This feeling was nothing new, but on this particular day, it was different.It felt more intense, more palpable.There was a strange energy in the air.You could call it a sense of uncertainty, or a buzz, like something was about to happen, something big.
The baby had gone down for his nap, and Eleanor was next door at the neighbors.Darcy and I frequently traded off during the week.Her husband is away; where, she never really says.I get the feeling the two are estranged, but it isn’t my place to pry.I can tell it is a sore subject, and I understand what it is like to have a husband who travels.She had Maggie, a crimson-haired little girl, who was three months older than Eleanor.Maggie was an only child, and Darcy swore it was easier to have the two girls rather than just the one.Who was I to argue?
When I heard the screen door slam, I assumed it was Darcy bringing Eleanor home.I figured she’d had an accident or needed a nap herself.
“In here,” I called out.What struck me first, outside of not getting a response, was the lack of sound on the linoleum in the entryway.Darcy wore heels, no matter the occasion.I set the knife down, grabbed a dishtowel, and turned toward the front door.Immediately, I was stopped in my tracks.
“Easy now,” the man said, pushing me back into the kitchen.“There’s no need to panic.”
Admittedly, Iwaspanicking.Maybe not so much on the outside as on the inside, which probably would have served me better.I was certain that something bad had happened, and they were there to deliver the news.
“Don’t worry,” the second man told me.“We’re not the cops.Soon enough, you’ll know who we are, and why we are here.”
“What do you want?”I asked, eyeing the knife, wishing I hadn’t set it aside.
“Just relax,” he said, taking a gun from the holster under his suit jacket.My heart hitched in my throat.My first thought was of Phillip sleeping upstairs.I said a silent prayer that he didn’t wake up.Then my eyes darted toward the clock.Twenty minutes until Toby’s bus dropped him in the driveway.Please, God, let it be late.
If these men are here to kill me, please let them be quick.
The man stepped forward and placed the gun on the table between us, but just briefly.Long enough to let me get a good look at it.That’s when I knew that something was going to happen.Something terrible.Something messy.
“We’d like you to tell us what you know about your husband’s work.”
“What about it?”Charles is a businessman.He sells machinery.I didn’t see how this was the least bit interesting, not unless it was money they were after.
“Who does he meet when he travels?Who’s he spending time with?”
“My husband doesn’t talk to me about his work,” I said.This wasn’t entirely a lie.Sometimes he talked to me about his job, but for the most part, we valued what little quiet time we had together in this season of life, and work was not often a part of the conversation.
The way the men looked at me, as though I was a sad, hopeless case, hit me like a fist slamming into my chest.My first thought was that maybe Denise had been right.Maybe Charles had been having a clandestine affair during his travels.Maybe this was his mistress’s husband coming to take his revenge.But given that there were two men standing in my kitchen, both of whom looked quite professional, I wasn’t so sure.Plus, I know my husband.Charles hates secrets, and he’s terrible with surprises.Every year, without fail, he could hardly stand not telling me what my Christmas gift was as it sat under the tree.Our engagement had hardly been a surprise; he wanted it to be what I wanted.Even with the kids, he hated fables, like the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.He wanted them to know the truth.He wanted them to know that people who loved them shouldn’t lie to them.
“Your husband has been spending quite a bit of time in Moscow lately, I hear.”
“He has business there, yes.”I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat.“He has business in a lot of places.”
“Funny business, I’d say,” the heavier set man said, glancing at me and then at his counterpart.“Does he ever mention any names?Anyone he might be close with?”
“Like a woman?”I asked.
“Anyone.”
I shook my head.
He narrowed his eyes.“So you know nothing, then?”
