AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I know, but...” Sienna sighs. “He didn’t see me on the stairs. He wasreallyout of it. He went to the kitchen. And that’s when I noticed.” She pauses. “Hesmelledweird.”
“Like... alcohol?”
“No. Like... like perfume, but not somethingyouwear. Anyway, it made me feel... icky. And mad for you, Mom. I wanted to know who he’d been with. So I hid until he went to bed, and then I ran downstairs. Looked at his phone. But I couldn’t figure out his password. I was about to go to bed, but then I saw something on his jacket. There was this really long hair.” She pantomimes peeling it off fabric, holding it by the tip.
This all seems so unfounded. “The hair could have been from a waitress who’d brushed up against him while delivering his drinks. It could be from a patient. You don’t know.” Sienna shrugs, considering this, but doesn’t look convinced. “Did you ever notice something like that again?” I ask.
“Just that one time.”
I glance at Aurora, who hasn’t moved. “Did you know about this?”
Aurora looks haunted. “About what?”
“Any of it!”
Aurora licks her lips.Oh God,I think.She did.
I slap my arms to my sides. “Were you girls in on ittogether?”
“No,” Sienna insists. “Leave Aurora out of it. I told her the day of the funeral. I was dying inside. I had to tell someone. Those e-mails came out in that hack... and then Greg was killed. Because ofme?”
I run my tongue over my teeth. My head is aching. My thoughts have ground to a halt.
Willa looks at Sienna. “This... drunken stumbling you heard. When was it?”
Sienna thinks for a moment. “Last winter. I don’t remember the exact date.”
I can feel Willa turn to me. She wants to ask me something, but I hold up a hand. I feel too exhausted to mine this any further. I hate her for exposing my daughter’s duplicity. I also hate that these are things that have gone over my head. I’m supposed to know my girls better than anyone else.
“The night of the benefit,” I say to Sienna, my voice croaking with fear. “I need to know. You really weren’t here? You really didn’t see Greg? You really didn’t...?” I’m not able to complete the sentence. It’s like tossing a bomb into a field and then running away before the blast.
Sienna’s eyes are wide, dark pools. Her lips part. “No way.”
“Okay,” I say, nodding and nodding. “Okay.”
I tilt my face toward the ceiling, staring at the pendant lights over my family’s old island, glowing like the sun. I have so many questions. How Sienna crafted the e-mails and hacked into his e-mail. Why she didn’t justcometo me with her suspicions. Did she think I wouldn’t believe her?
Again, my fault. All my fault.
I think about the wording of those e-mails. Greg’s aggression. Lolita’s retreat. She begged him to take her back in the end. Could it really befiction? How does this tie into who killed Greg?Doesit even? Or maybe Sienna’s right, and Gregwashaving an affair with someone—but not Lolita. And it’sthisperson who felt cheated on.
Gravity presses down on me. This is too much to take in. I can’t focus on my husband’s killer. I still haven’t wrapped my head around the fact that my husband’s gone. And underneath that layer is how angry I am with him. And underneaththatlayer is the frustration that Martin had a bad heart and that now I’ve losttwopeople I loved, and how it doesn’t seem like the universe has dealt me a particularly fair hand.
“I need a second,” I say, rushing out of the room. But as I’m at the door, I hear a sharp, metallic buzz.My eyes dart to Sienna’s phone, which lies faceup on the table. A name flashes on the caller ID:Raina.
Aurora frowns. Sienna grabs her phone and turns it over. The thing keeps buzzing, sending shock waves through the wood, the air, my teeth.Buzz,stop,buzz,stop. Finally, Sienna holds down the button on the side and turns it off.
I feel Willa watching me again, and finally, I meet her gaze. It’s clear she saw the name on the screen, too, and she’s making the same connections I am.Raina.The night Greg was murdered, I remember Sienna’s voice on the phone, her quick assurance that she wasn’t drunk. I remember how she worded the next part, too:I just need to find Raina, and then we’re leaving.
Maybe Raina had tried to impress upon me that she and Sienna had been together when Sienna heard the news—together the whole night, essentially—because she needed to cover her ass, create an alibi. Aldrich is a half mile from my home on Hazel Lane. Someone could easily travel from campus to there and back again in the span of an hour or so.
I walk out of the kitchen, through the back door, and to the middle of the yard. My feet sink in the wet earth. Wind whips around me, stinging my skin. But I can barely feel it. I’m too caught up with the picture taking shape before me. The truth about Greg’s mistress has been in front of me this whole time. Maybe the truth about his murderer has been, too.
20
LAURA
MONDAY, MAY 1, 2017
