Page 91 of Never Lie
He casts an anxious look at the fireplace. The objects he tossed into the fire haven’t yet finished burning, so I can see what they are. But I don’t need to look. I already know what he burned in the fire.
It’s cassette tapes. Several dozen of them. All emblazoned with the initials GW.
GW was a patient of Dr. Hale for several years. She nursed paranoid delusions that somebody was trying to kill her, including her own son.
GW. Gail Wiley.
Ethan’s mother.
“I just…” Beads of sweat break out on Ethan’s forehead as he tries to come up with a lie. “I just think some of those tapes…”
He doesn’t know that I know. That I’ve always known. I ran into Gail a few times at the house when I was leaving an appointment and she was arriving for hers. Not only is she paranoid, but she’s got a big mouth. She told me all about her concerns that several people in her life were out to end her life, including her son Ethan.Dr. Hale says I’m paranoid, but he’s got money problems—he could use the big insurance payout. And he hates me. I know he does.
I laughed it off, especially when I caught a glimpse of the handsome Ethan dropping Gail off for one of her appointments. Nobody who looked likethatcould be a bad person. And how nice of him to drop his mother off for her therapy sessions. Of course, he didn’t know what she was talking about to the therapist and hecertainlydidn’t know that the sessions were being recorded.
But then a couple of months after Dr. Hale’s disappearance, my mother, who ran in the same social circles as Gail, told me the gossip about her untimely death. She took a spill down a flight of stairs and broke her neck after she had a few too many drinks. Leaving her son Ethan with a hefty insurance payout to take care of the consequences of his first failed start-up and then some.
I have to admit, I became a little obsessed with Ethan after that. First of all, he was gorgeous. And second, something about him reminded me of myself. He went after what he wanted. Even if he had to do something other people would say was unthinkable.
Okay, I was more than a little obsessed with Ethan. Let’s just say that our coincidental meeting wasn’t such a coincidence. More like it was carefully engineered by yours truly.
But he never quite came around the way I wanted him to. After we got married, I thought he would confess everything to me. I thought he would love and trust me enough to tell me the truth. But he hasn’t.
That’s why I brought him along on this trip. I could have gone alone, and it would’ve been easier. I could have searched to my heart’s content. But I wanted Ethan here with me. He forgot about this house until he saw the portrait of Dr. Hale on the wall. But now he knows that his secret is out there.
“What are you doing?” I ask him again. He opens his mouth, but before any words can come out, I add, “Don’t lie.”
“I would never lie to you, Tricia,” he sputters.
I give him a look.
His shoulders sag. “You listened to my mother’s tapes, didn’t you?”
“Yes. Some of them.”
“Oh God.” He tugs at the short strands of his golden hair. “I know what she said on those tapes. But I didn’t—”
“Don’t lie.”
He stands there for a moment. The only sounds in the room are the fire crackling and his inhale and exhale.
“Fine,” he says. “I killed her.”
Chapter 54
Now that the truth has left his lips, he seems calmer. He’s not sweating anymore. He’s my confident husband again.
“You don’t know what she was like.” The bitterness seeps through his voice. “She was insane. My father died when I was a kid, and he got off easy as far as I’m concerned. She was always extremely anxious, always accusing people around her of being out to get her. Including me.”
He pauses to look disdainfully at the fire. “She was an alcoholic too. When she drank, she always thought I was stealing her stuff, and she’d corner me and accuse me. She would tell me I was rotten. A rotten kid who would never amount to anything.”
“I’m sorry,” I murmur.
“To be fair, Iwasstealing her stuff some of the time. I figured if she was going to accuse me either way, I may as well do it.”
This is the other side of my husband. The one he never lets me see. A little thrill goes through me. “So what happened?”
“I needed money.” He looks down at his hands. “She never gave me any money. Never gave meanythingbecause she didn’t trust anyone besides herself. But she had that insurance policy. And you know what? I wouldn’t have even done it, except she was so drunk that night. She was yelling at me about what a terrible son I was, and I couldn’t help myself. I pushed her down the stairs.”
