Page 27 of Help Wanted: Wife

She slipped the DataDrive into its case and set it on the floor to take to the shop. She couldn’t think of anything else that needed to go, but, just in case, she began opening the drawers of the console.Empty.Empty.There was none of the usual office detritus sometimes found on Terra Nova. Caradonia had gone completely electronic. Writing paper did not exist.

Dust.Crumbs.The remnants of a muffin or cake. She smiled. Larth had been snacking at the desk.

In a bottom drawer shoved all the way to the back, she discovered a small, shiny square blue box. She opened the hinged cube to find a cylindrical object, a little bigger than her thumb.What is this?A storage drive maybe? Old files? She set the box on the console and removed the item to examine it. As she turned it over in her hand, she must have activated something because a blue beam shot out of it.

Seconds later, a hologram of a woman materialized by the console. Pru could tell she’d been extremely pretty once, but illness had stolen her beauty. There were bare patches on her scalp, and the hair she did have lay lank on her bony shoulders. Her skin was more gray than blue, and the gliteri across her collarbone appeared to be flaking off. Dark rings encircled weary, sickly eyes.

She’d never seen a vid or still of Sala but knew instantly that was who stood before her.Turn it off. Turn it off! How do I turn this thing off?She had no business watching this.

“Larth, my love, I am about to enter the stasis pod…” The melodious voice was shaky, weak.

Prudence fumbled with the tiny device but couldn’t find a switch or a button. She dropped the disk into the box and slammed the lid. Sala still stood there.

“In hopes a cure for the nano-virus will be found.”

No. No. Ack! I’m sorry. I’m sorry.She would not, could not violate her husband’s privacy to satisfy her curiosity. The message was intended for his eyes only. Pru would put it back in the desk and forget she found it. But first she had to shut it off!

She reopened the box, grabbed the device, and shook it. The hologram never even wavered.

“If you are watching this, then I did not survive.”

“What are you doing?” Larth’s angry voice boomed from behind.

Chapter Thirteen

Prudence jumped. “Larth!” She looked guilty as fizzak.

He’dtrustedher. “What the fizzak are you doing? How dare you?” She shrank into the chair as he snatched the disk from her hand and shut off the hologram.

After packing up the few remaining items from the stall, he’d taken them to the new location. Prudence hadn’t gotten there yet, so he’d come home to find out what had delayed her.

“You snooped through my private, personal things!” Residual grief, guilt, and betrayal erupted into hot rage. He’d broken his promise to Sala for Prudence—and this was how she repaid him? He’d gotten the gist that Prudence was preoccupied with his late wife, but he never expected she’d sink this low.

What right did she have to look so stricken?Hewas the injured party. She’d violated his trust, disrespected the boundaries of common decency, toreopen a healing wound, and stabbed him anew. Unable to bear the sight of her, he turned his back.

“It wasn’t like that, I swear! It was an accident!”

The ridiculous excuse stoked his fury. “Oh, accident, right.” He turned to find her standing up, her expression pleading, her blue eyes swimming in tears. “The desk is empty, but youaccidentallyopened the very last drawer,accidentallyopened a box hidden all the way in the back, andaccidentallyactivated the disk. Then youaccidentallywatched it.”

Since his involvement with Pru had grown, he’d been able to forget about the disk. Previously, he’d been aware of the disk every second that his mind wasn’t actively engaged with other matters. Unfinished business, the disk called out to him. I’m here.Watch me, watch me, watch me.

But he’d put off watching it.Tomorrow, I’ll do it tomorrow,he would say, each day making that same promise. He had no idea she’d recorded a message until the stasis pod center had forwarded the box after her death. If he never watched the hologram, Sala’sfinalwords would remain unsaid, a message yet to be delivered. But, if he viewed it, her last words would slip into the past, and a tiny sliver of tomorrow, the only future he had left with her, would be erased.

Prudence had robbed him of that future few minutes with his late wife.

“I was checking the desk for items to take to the bakery office when I found the box. I didn’t mean to turn the disk on. It came on by itself. I tried to turn it off!”

“You’ve had a problem with Sala since the beginning,” he said. “But you knew I’d been married before and the circumstances of what had happened. Our marriage is a business arrangement. You accepted that.”

“I felt things had changed, and you were starting to care for me. I love you.”

The situationhadchanged. He had begun to care for her. He still loved Sala, but he loved Prudence, also, in a way that was real and present. But without trust and respect, what did they have? An hour ago, her declaration of love would have thrilled him. Now, he felt manipulated.

“This is how you show your love, by intruding, by violating my trust? You said you were going to study the financials—not watch private messages from my wife.”

“Your wife? Did you hear what you said?” Remorse vanished in a burst of anger. “That’s thefucking problem right there.I’myour wife now, but all I hear is Sala, Sala, Sala! She’s dead.I’mhere. I’malive.” She grabbed the box off the desk and shook it in his face so hard the disk rattled inside. “This is what’s left of your beloved Sala!”

Silence filled the room. Eyes wide, Prudence shook her head. “Oh, Larth. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean that.” Carefully, she placed the box on the desktop.

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