Page 95 of What the Wife Knew

“Then...” Her hand moved up my thigh.

I’d miss the sex. She let me touch her however I wanted. She was willing to try things. That’s what made her so perfect. She did whatever I asked, and I forgot about her the second she was out of my sight.

The photo I convinced her to send me. That one time in the park. Dad was pissed I’d missed curfew, but it was worth it. And his opinion wouldn’t matter soon.

People would be watching me after this was over, probably following me and trying to get a good look or a trauma-filled picture they could sell. I couldn’t be seen laughing or sneaking around with her. This was serious. All tears and sadness. No fun. Perform so that people would say I was so mature and cheer for me.

Consistency was key. I would not get caught.

“Well?” She squeezed her body close, pressing up against me.

Why not? One more time. But hell, I would miss that mouth. She knew how to use it. She also listened and acted interested... and knew when to shut up.

Maybe I could keep her on the side and feed her some details. Share and enjoy some of the glory I’d have to pretend I didn’t feel. Tempting. I couldn’t trust her, but I could entertain her while she got me off.

She kissed my neck and her hand slipped into my jeans.

“Kathryn...”

Chapter Sixty-Two

Her

Present Day

“You can’t be right... that’s not... You got this all wrong.” Wyatt hesitated over every word. His voice, anguished and thick with emotion, shook. He stumbled backward as if the weight of the truth proved too much to bear.

Seeing Wyatt reeling stirred up a violent mixture of doubt and guilt. Thoughts and memories battled in my mind.Why didn’t you wait? Give the kid a break.I’d been thrown into a fire of family secrets. The scorching pain never subsided.

The dose of reality might be necessary but that didn’t make the delivery satisfying. I mentally seesawed between shame and determination, landing on the justification that now was better than later. He had privacy in my house. The public didn’t need a front row seat to his pain.

Soon, everyone who ever supported Richmond or cheered him on, those who didn’t, and the few who never heard his heroic story would learn what really happened. The facts behind the shooting would seep out. Making that happen fell on me. Surviving the revelation fell on Wyatt.

He leaned against the bookshelves and seemed to regain hisbalance. His physical balance. His emotional balance... no. “Dad killed them? His family and that other guy?”

Theother guydeserved more than a footnote in Richmond’s story. It would be nice if someone in the Dougherty family remembered that. “Zach Bryant.”

Kathryn rushed to her son’s side. She comforted him with touches and soothing words. “Of course he didn’t. Your dad would never.”

“You’re so keen on exposing Wyatt to this conversation. You attacked me in my home. Then there’s whatever the hell you did to my mom.”

Wyatt frowned. “Wait. Where’s your mom?”

“You don’t know anything.” Kathryn snapped at me but her efforts to calm Wyatt didn’t stop. She fawned over him, hovered. Suffocated.

Wyatt didn’t move.

“Richmond loved to hear himself talk. His ego demanded constant feeding. That was your job as his girlfriend, then his wife.” He’d told her. He would have needed to tell her. Keeping the secret of his brilliant plan would have chipped away at him and denied him the curtain call he craved. And he wouldn’t have waited.

“No. That’s not true. I had my own life. I was a student and I... I...”

“You forfeited every ounce of decency to stand by your demented husband’s side for decades.” It was a guess but an educated one, and I grabbed on to it whenever sympathy flooded me. “You’re in photos and mentioned in articles. Your job was to hang on his arm and help paint the picture of the grieving but stable all-American boy.”

“Why would she do that?” Wyatt’s flat voice barely rose above a whisper.

“Greed. Your grandparents’ big pot of money.” The obsession with hoarding money didn’t register with me. I never had any and never dreamed of a life rolling around in it. “Now I have their money, and she hates that.”

Kathryn visibly pulled herself together. She stood a little straighter and lifted her chin as if to say she would not be beaten. “That was a mistake that will be fixed.”

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