Page 28 of My Husband's Wife
I thank her and take the cake. After saying goodbye, I’m in my car and ready to leave the Sea Horse Hotel, and I’m going to have the mother of all lie-ins in the morning. I check my phone. Mum messaged to say that she’d ordered a pizza for her and the boys, and that they were now asleep. I know Mum will be in bed now, so I won’t message back.
It’s dark and dreary tonight. Reaching around the back of my head, I grab a few strands of hair and gently tug, relishing the moment before the follicles pop out of my scalp. I wince, realising I pulled too many in one go. I can feel a thin trickle of blood which I rub vigorously in the hope that it’ll scab.
Instead of turning right to go home, I turn left. The truth is within reach and I have to go and find it.
Twenty-One
I need to check out Madison and Theo’s house under the cloak of a dark, starless sky. Twenty-five minutes later, I’m driving along this single-track mud path which I’ve been on for about a quarter of a mile. The satnav’s instructions ended at the entrance to this road. I haven’t passed a house for ages, and I can’t see one further ahead. I need to turn around but I don’t think I can manage a three-point turn as there’s not enough room. It’s too narrow. I’ll end up bonnet first into a row of trees and I already scratched the car bumper the other day.
My heart thrums. I need to get back on the main road. I can’t see anything and there is no one around. Maybe I can reverse back out… The idea of that fills me with dread. I hate reversing, especially over a long distance. It’ll be like the other day when I crashed my car – and then, I was going forward. I gasp. I can’t breathe. I’m stuck. Letting the window down a bit, I turn the engine off and try to fight my breathlessness. I’m safe. It’s just a panic attack. You are not dying. You will get out of this situation. I repeat those words in my head until I can breathe without feeling like I might pass out.
I put the car back into first gear and start the engine up again. The earth below me is churned up so the car hops as I drive forward. There’s the orange glow of a light in the distance that I catch when the breeze momentarily parts the trees. Another thought unsettles me. If that is Theo and Madison’s house and one of them drives out, I’ll be blocking them. They’ll see me and questions will be asked. Just as I’m about to panic again, I spot a clearing next to a huge gate that leads to a dense thicket of trees. I gently pull forward and park my car as far away from the narrow dirt road as possible. I get out.
In the distance, I hear the shrieking of foxes and an owl hooting. Rustling sounds come from the shrubs, setting my nerves on edge. Shivering, I grab my green jacket from the back seat and put it on before leaving my car behind and heading towards the house on foot. The ground below is so rocky, it’s hurting to walk. It doesn’t help that my feet are swollen from standing all day.
On approaching the house, I spot Madison’s car. Theo’s is parked in front of it. Then there’s a gate that has a tree arch over it. The whole house is surrounded by dense evergreens. It’s like the owner is telling any prospective visitor that they’re not welcome. Light is cast from that one window upstairs. Madison walks over to it and stares out. I stay behind the tree, peering through a gap where she can’t see me. Theo walks in and it looks like they’re arguing. She has her hands in the air and he’s trying to move closer to hug her but she pushes him away.
Theo grabs her arms and forces the hug, just like he used to do with me when I was upset. I didn’t like it when he did that to me. It was as if he was trying to suffocate me rather than allowing me to get my emotions out. I wonder if Madison feels the same. I watch as his mouth meets hers. At first she resists him and I almost think she might release a hand and slap him, but their kiss gets more passionate. This shouldn’t hurt me because I have Zach, but it does. I close my eyes, remembering how Hugo’s touch felt on my body, how expertly he would caress my skin until it tingled. As I open my eyes, I see the room is now in darkness. The sounds of an infant crying and a dog yapping come from the back of the house. I guess they’re attending to their baby.
I gently open the squeaky gate and take in the ivy-clad house. It feels oppressive and suffocating, not like the huge open-plan house in Malvern that we once owned. Hugo came here to hide away from me, and this dark corner of Devon was perfect. I try to ignore the niggling voice at the back of my head, telling me that none of this is possible. DNA proved that Hugo was dead. But he isn’t: I keep seeing him. He is in this house. I dart across the overgrown lawn, sure that my trouser hems are now damp. With my back to the side of the house, I eventually shimmy towards the long garden that is embedded in the base of a hill. At the far end is a wide summer house or maybe it’s an annexe. A light in one of the rooms glows from behind the closed blinds.
Glancing back, I see that the lights are on around the rear of the main house. I can hear the baby’s cries are louder. Madison bobs up and down behind the almost closed curtain. I can’t see Theo.
Back in Malvern, I remember Hugo working at all hours. He loved it when Caiden was asleep and I was in bed. I’d hear him tapping away in his office at the end of the landing as I put my earplugs in. It looks like his working habits have remained the same.
I dart along the pathway that cuts through the lawn until I reach the annexe. The door is unlocked and I’m sure they’re both in the house. I should go in, have a look around. I imagine Theo keeping his deepest secrets here, not in the main house where Madison could easily find them.
After listening at the door, I nudge it open and I’m in a tiny hallway, facing a small room with a toilet and wash basin in it. I’m almost holding my breath, trying to creep around in silence just in case he’s close by. There is a closed door to my right and one to my left. What if I’m wrong thinking Theo is in the house? He could be here. What the hell am I doing? I should be at home with Mum, Caiden and Aaron – not playing detective, alone in the dark. But then again, I am alone. Not even Mum believes me so I have to do this. Be brave, Eva.
I press the handle down on the door to my left and peer around the corner. It’s a room full of old dismantled PCs on work benches. Boxes in all sizes are piled up everywhere and leads spill out of drawers and cabinets. It reminds me of the chaos that Hugo used to surround himself in. The rooms in our house that were his reminded me of a hoarder’s space. It was always me who made sure that chaos didn’t spill out into the rest of our house. After a quick poke around using the torch on my phone, I know there’s nothing for me to investigate here.
I leave that room and place my ear against the door of the other room, the one with the light on. There isn’t a single sound coming from that room, and yet I can’t bring myself to press the handle with my trembling hands. What if he’s in there? I don’t know what he’ll do if he catches me here. Will he try to keep up the pretence that he’s Theo or will he call the police to take me away or… My chest tightens. I’m the intruder here. No one knows I’m here and if I confront Theo and Madison, they could kill me and bury me in their woodland to keep Hugo’s secret. I could vanish forever. A thought flashes through my mind as I imagine Caiden missing me when I am not at home in the morning, making his peanut butter apple slices. I imagine Mum’s face as she wonders where I am. How would they be in a week, a month or even a year after I vanished?
Then I hear the back door slam at the main house, and I have no choice but to go into that room. Someone is coming, so I press the handle and breathe a temporary sigh of relief when I see it’s empty. It’s a spacious room with sofas, a fireplace, a desk at one end topped with two huge screens that are on. It looks like Theo is editing a nature video of two foxes at night. Bookcases full of IT and editing manuals cover the walls of the room.
‘My phone must be in here,’ Theo calls back as Madison asks what he’s doing.
It’s him. His phone on the sofa starts buzzing because Madison is obviously calling it.
I run over to the desk, pull the swivel chair out and crouch underneath before pulling the chair back in. My phone starts to ring so I grab it from my pocket. Just as Theo walks through the door, I end the call and the only ringing left is his phone. As I hold my phone to my heart, I know I’ve had a lucky escape.
Glancing between the chair and the desk, I watch as Theo stands in front of the patch of dirt and dead grass that I must’ve left behind when I stepped into the room. I check the floor and see that there isn’t a trail that leads to me, so I hold my breath and hope that Nicole doesn’t try to call me back. His phone stops ringing and the silence is now my enemy. He walks over to the couch and once again stands there. I slowly exhale and place my hand over my mouth in the hope he can’t hear me breathe.
My right leg is crunched under me and I can feel the onset of a cramping spasm.
‘Hello. It’s you,’ Theo says.
What do I do? Do I stand and beg him not to call the police? Do I hope they won’t bury me in the woods? He knows I’m in here. Just as I go to release my leg, he continues to talk, then he shouts. ‘Don’t you ever call me again, do you hear? Call me again and you’ll wish you were never born.’
Phew, he’s not talking to me. He’s on the phone. I grit my teeth as the cramping in my leg worsens.
‘You come near me or my family, I will fucking kill you.’ He ends the call and I let out a slight squeak as he kicks the door so hard, the window frame seems to shake. Again, hand over my mouth, I pray he didn’t hear that. I will fucking kill you. Those words ring through my ears and as I’m about to let out a sob, he turns off the light and leaves. I cry like I’ve never cried before. I’m shaking, and the muscle in my cramped leg spasms really hard and I want to yell, but I don’t. It’s just me and my silent tears. I need to get away from this room. After a stretch, I creep out of my hiding place and poke my finger through a slat in the blind, and I see there’s no one in the back garden. I run out of the door into the hallway and go to open the front door but it’s locked.
I’m trapped.
Twenty-Two
I run into the storeroom panicking. The windows are nailed shut. Who nails windows down? I run to the small bathroom and there is a window above the toilet, but that too is nailed down. Back in the main room, I check the back and front windows again. There is no way out unless I smash the glass, and then someone might hear me.
