Page 64 of What the Wife Knew

I waited until the front door closed to open my hand.

Mom picked the item up and studied it. “Interesting. It’s a listening device.”

I wasn’t an expert but it didn’t look like one. “How do you know?”

“I’ve been married four times.”

“And?”

“Men stray. You pick up some tricks to watch them.”

I had no idea what to say to that. I was too stuck on the idea that Kathryn planted the thing. That explained her obsession with visiting. But when did she do it? Why? And why did Portia mess with her mom’s plans? A few seconds later I got a text from Portia.

she put it there last time she thinks youre planning something

Thoughts jumbled in my head. I’d lost the ability to tell when I was being played and when someone was trying to save me, since the latter never happened.

I clenched the device in my hand then wrapped a kitchen towel around it because I had no idea how the thing worked or what the range was. “Portia came over to warn me.”

“Maybe someone in that family is worth two cents after all.”

I tightened my hold on the unexpected offering. “Despite your warning, Kathryn will be back when she realizes her device isn’t working.”

Mom smiled. “I hope so.”

“Do not enjoy this.”

Mom kept smiling. “All I’m saying is it’s a good thing I brought a gun with me. Maybe I’ll get to use it.”

Chapter Forty-Two

Him

Married, Day One

Elias had one job. His people needed to find specific information on Addison that would defang her blackmail attempts and send her running back to the streets. Languishing in a perpetual state ofwho is shewas the one thing I could no longer tolerate, as I made clear in my instructions to Elias.

You need to dig up her past. Every trailer park. Every bar. Every strip joint. The men she’s fucked. The ones she’s blown. Hell, the women she hooked up with. Every piece of her life, including where she’s ever lived, where she banks, anywhere she might store something she doesn’t want anyone to find, and every person she trusts. Rip her life apart.

Acting unconcerned was not an option with that map and the tape I still doubted existed potentially floating around out there. Without any significant movement in unmasking Addison, the walls closed in. I’d spent two decades building an uncrackable puzzle box of stories. Wasted fake tears on unsavable sick children because the audience I played to demanded performative pain. Comforted weeping parents. Pretended to care while hitting and exceeding every career milestone.

All of it intensified my apathy. Conquering came too easy. Theinsatiable drive formore,as unidentifiable as that end goal was, was what pushed me forward. Get away with it once and you could do it again. That insight should have resulted in a sense of freedom, but it was confining. It set a bar I obsessed about jumping over.

Then Addison stormed into my life and destroyed the monotony. She had a goal and determination. I had a new target... one that remained a mystery.

Getting the marriage license had served both to stall and as subterfuge for gathering more intel. I’d hoped she’d produce a birth certificate as a means of identification but of course not. Just that damn Ohio driver’s license, which I’d already photographed and given to Elias. The court clerk who gave us the marriage license asked for Addison’s social security number. She provided one that I learned a few days ago wasn’t hers.

The woman lied about everything, but her time was almost up.

Whatever this confidential,you can trust himdetective Elias had on retainer intended to do, he better do it fast because today was my wedding day. Not a real one like my first wedding. There would never be a real one with Addison.

Today was the day I was going to teach Addison a harsh but necessary lesson. She liked to play games. This one was calledhire a fake officiant and make her think she’d won. I needed her comfortable. Off-balance. Basking in the bright light of her impending failure and unable to see the trap waiting in front of her.

Elias and I stood in the family room of a guy who was supposed to be a minister. He worked at the church next door and agreed, for three hundred dollars, to play the role of minister and “borrow” the minister’s house while he was away at a retreat. The guy clearly welcomed the extra cash. It was a smallprice to pay to maintain my freedom, and all it took was somethis little bitch is trying to trap mebonding to win the man over. Problem solved. For now.

I wore a suit but only because I came straight from an office meeting. This mockery didn’t deserve formal wear or a day off. It barely warranted an acknowledgment. But New York law required a witness and since Addison might have enough brains to check the rules, I dragged Elias along. He didn’t know this setup was fake. He came to make sure the prenup got signed.

We did that song and dance earlier. Addison refused my version of the prenup, as expected. I signed her version because it didn’t matter. Before I signed I wrote that we had to be married today for the document to apply. She agreed to the change.

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