Page 98 of What the Wife Knew

“No. No, listen to me.” Her now uneven tone bounced between pleading and ordering. “Addison has to die. It’s the only way to get our lives back.”

“Kathryn—”

She clearly wasn’t in the mood for a lecture. “You’re our attorney. You can’t say anything unless we allow it. We’ll explain that you walked in the room after Addison attacked us.”

I couldn’t control my rage. “You’re going to claim self-defense against me in my own house? You can’t be serious.”

“Wyatt and Portia will understand once I explain all the sordid details to them.” She tugged on Wyatt’s arm. “You see what happened here, right? She provoked me.”

“Mom killed Dad.” Wyatt delivered the horrible sentence in a flat tone. She’d admitted her attack but hearing the stark words from Wyatt’s mouth brought the tragedy fully into focus.

“I heard the part about the bat.” Elias’s deep voice mirrored the gravity of the situation.

Until that moment my mind had filled with stray thoughts and unanswered questions. I kept trying to weed out the clutter and concentrate. Elias had been outside the room when Kathryn exploded. He’d listened to every truth I insisted on unburying, spread out like a roadmap.

Now I heard the sirens. Faint, still in the distance, but headed this way as they had several times before. My exhausted body begged for the police to drive faster.

“Richmond was getting... complacent. Sloppy. Overconfident.” Nervous energy wrapped around Kathryn. She stumbled over words and gulped in deep breaths. “He started to believe the persona we’d created.”

Wenothe.She’d been in on all of it. A willing partner.

The witness Richmond left alive.

“I knew if... if there was a court case about the surgery someone could look into his past. There was so much at stake.” She shook her head like she’d got lost in her panicked words. “I was on the verge of losing everything I’d worked for.”

“So, you killed him.” She did it and decided I should take the blame.

“We had a fight that last day about his strategy and how long his plan was taking. He could be so intimidating. That temper.” She turned to Wyatt and continued to plead her case. “You know how he was. You all know.”

“So, you picked up the bat.” Elias said.

“He told me Addison threatened him with it.” Kathryn moved toward the window. “He was so out of control. I... I needed to protect myself. I didn’t have a choice.”

“You did.” Wyatt had wrapped his arm but his face remained pale and his voice shaky. “You could have done a thousand different things and Dad would still be alive.”

The sirens grew louder. Closer.

“The police can’t be here.” Kathryn pulled back the curtain and peeked outside. Her fidgeting kicked up instead of winding down. “We’re running out of time.”

Before the police arrived and lawyers stepped in I wanted one last confession. She tried to shift the blame, but it landed squarely on her.

“How hard did you have to hit Richmond to make him fall like that?” Because it was intentional and preplanned. Richmond’s murder was not a heat of the moment thing. Kathryn had been passionate in her fury when she targeted her ex. I’d bet my life on it.

Her mouth opened and closed. It took a few seconds for her to answer. “I didn’t... You were supposed to be there. At the scene or close by. But that damn diner. I couldn’t wait. You didn’t see his face.”

I’d seen his rage. I could imagine hers. All those years of serving him, fulfilling his needs, backed up on her. “And you knew you had to do something because he was capable of killing. He’d killed before.”

Wyatt made a gagging sound as his body curled in on itself. “I’m going to be sick.”

The room erupted in chaos. Everyone moved as if a whistle had been blown. Kathryn sprang from the window and raced toward me. The scissors aimed at my face, ready to plunge. Wyatt shouted as Elias pivoted to block the incoming attack.

Bang

The shocking noise made me drop. I squatted with my hands on the floor and my head low as adrenaline coursed through me, shaking my whole body.

“No!”

At the sound of Wyatt’s scream, I looked up. Kathryn thumped against the wall. Her legs crumpled under her, and she started sliding. She landed in a sitting position that seemed to jolt through her whole body. Her eyes stayed open and filled with fear.

---