Page 48 of Ruthless Regret

She stares down at her hands, a slight furrow between her eyes as she thinks. “A few people came by,” she says slowly. “Neighbors, friends, reporters, obviously. But … you know, there was this one man. He wasn’t a detective, but he asked a lot of questions. I thought he might be a journalist. He wasn’t like the others, and seemed interested in hearing why I thought you were innocent, so I spoke to him. But I never saw anything in the news.”

“What kind of questions?”

“He asked about you and Jason, your relationship with Louisa. Whether there was a possibility she was having an affair with someone else.”

I sit up straighter. “Do you remember his name?”

“No. I’m sorry. It was such an awful time. He only came by once.”

A man, not a detective, asking questions. It could be nothing. It could be the missing link to a larger picture.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

ASHLEY

Time has slowed to a crawl,and the quiet of the house is starting to get to me. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read and reread the articles I printed out. But there’s nothing new to find in them. I even found some highlighters in a drawer so I could mark the parts that stand out, and make them easier to find later. I’m not sure why I need them to be easy to find, or what I’ll do with them, but I have to dosomething.

The next logical step would be to contact Zain. He’s obviously been trying to find answers for a while, and I guess his revenge plan against me was part of that. But I’m not ready to speak to him. I don’t think I can right now without it turning into another fight.

And the last time we fought …

I jump to my feet. I’m not going to think about that. I need to find something to do,anythingto keep my mind occupied.

Maybe cleaning will help. That’s normal, right? People clean when they need to get their mind off things. And I need some normal in my life right now.

I open the closet where we keep the cleaning supplies, and pull out the vacuum.

I start in the living room, far away from the articles sitting on the table, and the hum of the vacuum drowns out the silence as I move it across the carpet. For the first time in days, my mind isn’t racing. It’s just me, the machine, and the sound of it sucking up dust from the carpet.

If only it was that easy to clean up the mess of my life.

Once the vacuuming is done, I move into my bathroom, where I wipe, polish, and scrub until it shines. By the time the sun begins to set, I’ve cleaned every surface I can reach. I’ve rearranged the kitchen cabinets, stacked and unstacked the dishes, and even reorganized the spice rack.

The house smells fresh and clean, and the sense of control cleaning gave me has settled my nerves. It’s easier to breathe now. I’m not jumping at every sound, and I can look back at my paranoia of earlier and laugh to myself about it.

The sound of keys jingling in the door warns me a second before it swings open. Karla and Jessa tumble through it, both talking at once, and just like that, the house feels alive again.

“Hey!” Jessa-May calls. “We brought pizza. Hope you’re hungry.”

They come into the room, and Karla deposits two pizza boxes down onto the coffee table. “You willnotbelieve what happened at work today.”

A weird sense of relief washes over me. The house feels less forbidding and morenormalwith them here. I stand up and go through to the kitchen to grab plates.

“What happened?”

“Oh my god!” Jessa-Mae flops down onto the couch. “You know Harper, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, do you remember a few weeks ago there were whispers that she knew the rock star who got admitted after an accident? He came in today for a checkup with Dr. Marshall.”

“Oh, I remember him. Everyone was excited because his band mates were in the building as well, right?”

“That’s the one. He came out of the appointment just as Harper was walking past.” She leans forward to flip open one of the boxes and grabs a slice of pizza. “He pulled a pair of panties out of his pocket and handed them to her, and said she left them in his hotel room.”

“What?”

“Yeah. Sherry saw the whole thing. She said that after he gave them to her, he walked off. She chased after him, and hit him, and then they just blew up. He had her pinned against the wall, while his bodyguard kept everyone away. Sherry didn’t hear what they said to each other, but she said they almost kissed, and then Harper broke free and ran.”

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