Page 72 of What the Wife Knew

“I forgot to charge it.”

So fast. Richmond could lie on cue. He was a doctor. Not the type of man to get stuck somewhere without a phone, which meant this, whatever this was, was intentional.

The smell of coffee battled with the smell of what I now guessed to be burning tires. The tainted food. This new accident that he walked away from, looking like he rolled around on the ground for a few minutes. Wyatt right there, ready to act as a witness.

This was a setup. All of it. Richmond couldn’t kill me outright, but he could suggest I was unhinged and after him. Make me the liar and claim self-defense. His plan unrolled in front of me. So clear and so obvious.

“Wyatt, I need you to drive me back to the scene.” Richmond nodded toward the back door. “Go start your car.”

Wyatt frowned. “Are you sure—”

“I’ll be out in a second.” Richmond didn’t give his son a choice and waited until he left to continue. “This battle is not going to end the way you think it is, Addison.”

Fake it.My insides trembled and my bones disintegrated tomush. He would never know what standing there cost me. “If you touch me or even look at me again, everything I have on you, about you, becomes public. I’m done playing with you, Richmond. Any more games and you won’t be able to hold on to the scraps I’d planned to leave you.”

“Empty threats.”

“Then try this one. I could carve you into pieces then sit down in a puddle of your blood and eat a sandwich. That’s how little you mean to me.” I stepped away from the safety of the pantry door. “Consider that your last warning.”

Chapter Forty-Seven

Her

Present Day

Wyatt asked to come over. He used the excuse of wanting to pick up more of his father’s personal belongings. My mother said “absolutely not” so, of course, myyou can’t tell me what to doattitude kicked in and I said yes. But “him” turned out to be Wyatt and his mom, which was no surprise but still annoying.

I set the box Wyatt left last time and another filled with unwanted Richmond garbage in the entry hall for an easy in and out. Theyou’re not welcome herehint didn’t seem to bother Wyatt. He opened the box on top and looked at the contents before shutting it again.

Kathryn paced around, clearly wanting access to other parts of the house and huffing in frustration when my mom blocked the way to the kitchen. Kathryn finally stopped shifting and grunting and stood in the middle of the entry. Right under the crystal chandelier.

It was wrong to hope for a sudden earthquake, but I did anyway.

“We need to present a unified front,” Kathryn said.

The woman’s inability to read a room was astounding. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but the answer is no.”

I did know, of course. The Ben Cullen story had morphed from local to regional, and now had hit the national news. Richmond craved attention his entire life and he sure was getting it now. Rumors flew around town. Whispers turned intohe was always at the club and never at workrumblings. His band of mistresses hadn’t stepped forward yet, but that had to be coming. They had stories to tell and deserved to sell them and collect money for their trouble.

The hard-core pro-Richmond camp—the delusional majority—wrote the bad press off as jealous people wanting to cash in now that Richmond wasn’t around to defend himself. The anti-Richmond group questioned every surgery and every death and asked what corners had been cut in deference to Richmond’s past.

No one had taken a harder look at his hero origin story... yet.

“This assault on Richmond and his reputation is despicable.” Kathryn was in full outrage mode with pent-up energy overflowing and hands flipping around in the air.

I could see Mom gearing up to start a scene, so I jumped in. “He deserves the scrutiny.”

“How can you say that? He was a genius. He saved so many—”

My mom rolled her eyes. “Kathryn, stop.”

I rushed in a second time because Mom could go anywhere after that. “If Richmond’s surgical skills were bogus, and it looks like they were in part, that should be news because his medical practice has a lot to answer for.”

Kathryn’s lips flatlined and her voice rose in indignation.“You were his wife. Do you understand what could happen? You could lose everything.”

This sounded like projection mixed with some wishful thinking. “I’ll be fine.”

“Mom, we should go.”

---