Page 61 of The Wife

“It’s a fine line. You can’t pay a witness for silence, but if the parties reach a settlement, the DA might drop the charges. At the very least, any judge would read between the lines and be lenient in sentencing.”

“I guess that’s good news overall, right?” I couldn’t believe that paying off my husband’s mistress and intern passed for good news these days.

“Well, I’m afraid I have bad news.”

She led me to a nearby bench to sit down. “Wilson Stewart, that intern who hooked up with Rachel, called me. That’s why I was late.”

I felt a knot tightening in my stomach.

“He wanted me to know that he exaggerated what he said.”

“How so?”

“He said he made her sound flakier and more histrionic than she really is. He also said Jason’s lawyer made it clear that Jason was impressed with his work and was looking forward to helping him land in a good job, but that he couldn’t do that if he was brought down by a false claim.”

“Honestly? I don’t put anything past that woman. I’m just glad she’s on our side, not theirs.”

“To be clear, Wilson still says he has no idea what really happened and has never seen Jason be anything but professional.”

“Uh-huh,” I said vacantly.

“So did you know Olivia had dangled a job recommendation in front of him before I agreed to have him on the show?”

I said nothing. What does it really mean to “know” anything?

“Angela, you let me put a man on television to lie.”

“I didn’t think he was lying. Olivia was the one who set it all up—”

“And you just said she would do anything to win. Yet you allowed her to pull me into it.”

“I’m sorry, Susanna. I don’t know what else I can say. Please don’t be mad at me right now. I don’t think I can get through this without you.”

She shook her head. “I’m notmadat you. I’m just really caught off guard by this. Maybe there’s more to what happened with that girl in his office, in which case—”

“There’s not, Susanna. Jason’s no saint, but he’s not some sex maniac.”

“You said the other night that something happened between you. Something bad, and that’s when the two of you stopped...” She didn’t need to finish the sentence.

I didn’t understand the transition from my point to hers until I let it sink in. “No. Oh god no. It was nothing like that, I swear.”

“Then what was it?”

“I told you. I just freaked out. And then I think he was scared to be with me after that.”

“That’s not how it sounded when you were talking about it. You said something bad happened, and that you cried. You said you ‘didn’t think he knew that you didn’t want to,’ and then you clammed up. You were making excuses for him forsomething,Angela. What did he do to you?”

I heard Olivia cough and turned to see her heading toward us, Jason right behind her. Susanna reached into her bag and pulled out a thin stack of stapled papers, folded in half, and tucked them in my purse discreetly. “I printed something out for you. Promise me you’ll read the entire thing and think about it with an open mind. I hope I’m wrong, but please, promise me.”

“Fine. Of course.”

She gave me a hug after walking us to our waiting car. I turned my head as I spotted a photographer in the distance. She told me again that she didn’t need a ride anywhere and waved as we pulled from the curb.

While Jason checked his e-mail on his phone, I snuck a peek inside my purse, parting the fold in the papers to read the headline of the article Susanna had printed for me: “Why Women Don’t Always Know When They’ve Been Raped.”

I snapped my purse shut at the sound of Jason’s voice. “King wasn’t kidding about imminent.”

“Huh?” I was still trying to process the words I had just read.

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