Page 87 of Unforgivable

“Yes. I know. I was there. Ramming her car off the road.”

“Oh my God.”

“Oh my God, what, Laura? I mean, Beth? Actually, I’m exaggerating. I didn’tramher car, I just nudged it. At high speed. But what do you expect? She kissed my husband, Laura. Full on the mouth. I saw them on the security cam which Ialwaysturned on when I went out so I could take a peek at what he was up to. And a good thing I did too. I confronted her about it, she cried, like the sniveling child that she was. She said it was just a kiss, she was very sorry blah blah blah. Anyway, long story short, I tricked her into meeting me for a drink, I made sure she drank too much, which was easy because kids like Jenny do whatever they’re told by people in positions of authority. By the time I bumped her car down the embankment at seventy miles an hour, she had a blood level of oh point eight. Case closed. But I digress. Where was I?”

“They’ll know it was you, the emails from Jenny…”

“No, they won’t. Do you think I’m stupid? I had someone install some very interesting software on my laptop when I was in Italy. Every one of these emails looks like it was sent from within a twenty-mile radius of here. So, in fact, if anyone was toreallylook into it, trust me when I say they’ll be more likely to believe thatyouwere impersonating Jenny Smith rather than me. I’d keep my mouth shut about that one if I were you. But I don’t want to talk about Jenny anymore. Let’s talk about Beth.”

“Beth…” I whisper the name to myself. “It was a joke. I didn’t mean…”

“Yes, I know, you told me. What did you call it? A prank? It paid off nicely, for a prank, you didn’t lose any time getting your claws into him. Hats off to you, by the way, credit where it’s due. I thought you were a whining little mouse with zero ambition and abandonment issues. I stand corrected.”

“It wasn’t like that…”

“I thought Beth was real, Laura!” she barks. Her face is tight with sudden fury. She takes a sharp breath through her nose, lets it out, then runs her hand through her hair. “I tried to make him tell me, so I could, you know, have a chat to her, but he wouldn’t tell me. He kept saying he knew nothing about her. Now I understand why, but I didn’t then. I decided to teach him a lesson. I had an affair with Leon, and I was sure Jack would beg me to come home, but he didn’t.” She shakes her head. “By then Leon had fallen in love with me, and Leon is worth a hundred Jacks, trust me, that man is wealthy. So, all was well. And you know, Italy’s nice. But…” She sighs. “I got too confident. I thought he couldn’t live without me, you see? I got…sloppy. He walked in on me screwing Felipe—very sexy Italian gardener—inflagrante delicto, and he threw me out with nothing. Finito. I got to keep the jewelry he gave me, I sold some so I’d have some cash, but you know…So I came back to this dump, and figured the only way to recoup a little bit of cash would be to kill Jack—”

“But why?”

“I need the money, Laura, I thought I was making that clear. I have nothing! Nothing at all! My mother hates me, so I know for a fact I won’t get anything from that old bag, not even when she dies, and a girl’s gotta live.” She smooths her long hair all the way down to the tips. “We’re not all like you, Laura,” she says with a sigh. “Some of us have standards. At least with the house I’d have a buffer until I figure something else out. Don’t look at me like that. We’re still married, remember? If Jack dies before we get divorced, then Charlotte inherits everything. This house, which is worth three point two million, by the way, can you believe it? I thought it was a little on the high side, but the agent assures me it’s the market. And there’s a life insurance policy although I wasn’t completely sure Charlotte would benefit if he died by suicide. And I wasn’t going to ram his car off the road, was I? How would that look. I got away with it after Jenny and…Anyway, then you told me you were Beth.” She bends down, hands together between her knees, her face inches from mine. “Really? Laura? You steal my man? Again? It’s getting on the obsessive end of the spectrum, don’t you think?”

She stands up straight. “I’m sorry I ruined your painting, by the way. Sorry not sorry. I did think it was a risky move, leaving that painting up there, after you said you needed a hiding place for your stupid artwork thing. I went back up to the attic and I found something. A little peacock, tiny little thing made of glass. How did it get up there, I wonder?

“Anyway, that painting is now at the bottom of a dumpster on some construction site somewhere, and I can’t say I’ll miss it. But bad luck for you, though, Beth, because before I knew you were Beth, I was going to let you off the hook for the simple reason you mean nothing to me. I barely know you exist. But then I thought, wait!”

She returns to the sideboard, puts white gloves on and takes something out of the box, examines it.

It takes a moment to focus on what she’s holding, and when I do, I start to cry because what she has in her hand is a gun.

“So you see, it’s like this. You bought this lovely little Sig nine millimeter—” She turns to me. “I had to borrow your wallet, by the way, I hope that was all right, I didn’t leave you in the lurch, did I? It was only for a day, so I could use your ID because, unfortunately, they need ID! The nice man at the store didn’t even check if your driver’s license matched my face, although I was wearing a beanie and I made myself as ugly as I could, just like you. He wrote down the details so he could do his background check, which I had to payextrato speed up.” She turns the gun in her hands. “I paid with your Visa card. I hope that’s okay too. It was a little on the expensive side, but what can you do?”

She brings the gun to me, hands it over. “Don’t worry, the manual safety is on. How does it feel?” I don’t move, so she wraps my fingers around it, maneuvers my index finger on the trigger.

“Stop it!” I shout, trying to push her away. “Stop!”

“So when Jack comes in that archway here…” She points in front of me. “You’ll—well, I’ll be squeezing your finger on the trigger, but you’re the one holding the gun, technically, I’m just holding your hand—and we will shoot him!”

“No!”

“Yes, Beth! I need that gun powder on your hand and your fingerprints on that gun! You know the drill. It will be a team effort! I’ll hold that cushion here, in front of the gun so Jack doesn’t see it right away. And honestly, I can’t imagine anyone will be surprised you killed Jack. You’ve been acting very strange lately, Laura. I mean Beth. I mean Laura. I mean Beth. You’re imagining that Summer is having an affair with Jack, which is ridiculous! But I have to say, it’s been fun. I mean, I just mention some imaginary freckle and you’re all over it. I still can’t believe you thought that was Jack!” She laughs and laughs and laughs. “And the poem? Oh my God, you’re priceless. I hope you confronted her, by the way. I’ll be testifying to that of course, but I could use a little backup there. And you’ve beenpayingher to flirt with him because you were so sure he and I were in love again! God, you have a suspicious nature. When all we wanted to do was be good co-parents to little Charlotte.” She tut-tuts, shakes her head.

“You sent the text,” I say. “That night at the restaurant.”

“That’s right! I sent that text. You gave me one Beth, I raised you one Summer.” She cocks her head at me. “I only did to you what you did to me, you can hardly complain. But yes, I got a burner, put the number in Jack’s phone under Summer’s name. Don’t look at me like that. I was with him for six years, you think I don’t know his passcode? I made sure the texts were set to be visible even when the phone was asleep, and when you went to your romantic dinner, I sent it. I could just see you two, kissing over shared pasta and thenping! And you’d look down, and he’d look down, and there’s Summer. And he’d argue and bluster and you wouldn’t believe him because let’s be honest here, there’s you, and then there’s her, and you know who he would pick, right? I bet you told Katie about her. And about me, didn’t you? Essentially, you’ve been acting crazy all around and you look like hell, and look, I’m not saying everyone will immediately say they should have seen it coming. They’ll be shocked, for sure, but once they’ll think about it, they’ll agree things have been building for a while.”

I’m folded in two, my face in my hands. “You’re insane. You’re completely insane.”

“That’s what my mother says.”

I look up, pleading. “It won’t work, why would I take temazepam if—”

“And Rohypnol.”

“—I intend to shoot Jack, what if I fall asleep?”

“I didn’t give you enough to fall asleep, Laura. I gave you enough to be compliant. But sure, when we’ve done the deed, I might give you extra, but yes, I see that I didn’t explain that part.” She bends down again to be closer to me. “You’re trying to kill yourself. It was supposed to be a murder suicide, and you didn’t have the guts to shoot yourself, so you took a cocktail of drugs. But, like everything else you do, you screwed it up. You didn’t take enough. You’ll live. You’re going to jail for the remainder of your miserable life.” She takes the gun back. “So? What do you think?”

“It doesn’t have to be that way. You can have the house, Jack will give it to you, I know he will! He will give you whatever money you want! Please, Bronwyn, stop this before it’s too late!”

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