Page 80 of Crazy In Love (Secrets of Suburbi 3)

“My husband came back Tuesday.” I wrung my hands together. “I knew he was seeing someone behind my back. I knew he was up to something shady. And I was so freaking mad.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I did something bad. And putting a few states between us and this house isn’t going to solve our problems.” Aiden wasn’t the first person that I drugged and tried to bring to the basement for questioning. But when I shoved my husband down the stairs…he didn’t just lose his memory. He lost his life. The blood seeped into the wooden steps. It had taken hours to scrub away all the stains. I didn’t know how I’d forgotten about it. Joyful moments were always easy to remember. And God, I’d never felt more joy than when I saw all that blood drain from my husband’s head.

He waited. I was pretty sure he wasn’t breathing.

“I killed him. Don’t look at me like that. He deserved it, and we both know it.”

Chapter 29

Monday

Aiden stared at me in a way that my husband never had. Almost as if he was frightened of me. It was weird being on the other side of someone’s fear. I was usually the one trembling. Until I realized I didn’t have to anymore. Until I took things into my own hands.

But I hated the way he was looking at me. I liked when there were stars in his eyes. When he was whispering sinful things against my skin. What if that was gone? What if I’d killed my future and my past?

“Maybe I killed him,” I added. I didn’t want Aiden to look at me like that anymore. My husband was the monster, not me. He knew that. He’d worked with the lunatic. “I mean…I don’t know.” Everything felt upside down and turned around. Hell, for all I knew, I was still staring at my husband right now. Which meant the body rotting away in my house actually didn’t exist. Maybe.

No, not maybe. I’d done it. Detective Torres was right. My husband did technically disappear on Tuesday night. But I hadn’t lied about seeing him the rest of the week. I saw him Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. That was the truth. But he’d been dead, in various states of decay the whole time. I’d kept checking on his body because I kept seeing his ghost outside my window, trying to get inside. And I stopped checking on his body on Friday when I got a phone call from him, asking me to meet up at that bar.

I hadn’t realized that the ghost and the phone call were actually Aiden. I’d thought I was losing my mind. I was more than a little confused. Maybe a little regretful. Trying to hold on to anything I could to prove to myself I wasn’t a murderer. But I knew Aiden wasn’t Noah. Well, I knew that for sure now. I’d had glimpses of that over the last few days, going in and out of denial. For a few moments there, I thought he was my husband. The other moments? I thought he was…an imposter. One that might have the answers to what my husband was up to. One that might know where my money was. Because a man with my husband’s face should have the answers.

And Aiden did have them. He knew everything I wanted. My husband was having an affair. I wasn’t crazy. “My husband didn’t have the money with him on Tuesday. So it’s safe to assume that it’s with Sophia right?” I asked. I wondered how many Sophia Tremblay’s there were in Canada and how hard it would be to track her down.

He shook his head, like he couldn’t believe I’d changed the topic from murder to money. But a girl had to ask. The money was mine, after all. And my husband was already dead, so he didn’t need it anymore. I wasn’t going to let some chick with my face take my inheritance.

“You killed him,” Aiden said slowly. “You pushed him down the stairs…on purpose?”

Yes. “I think it might have been an accident. I don’t know. I’ve been on a lot of medication.”

“Jesus, Ensley. You think it was an accident? Either it was or it wasn’t.” He shook his head. “Maybe it doesn’t even matter at this point. You’ve been lying to Detective Torres about it for almost a week.”

“Yeah, I don’t think it matters. So, can we go back to the money thing real quick?”

He started pacing back and forth, ignoring my very important question.

“Please.” All of this had to be worth something.

“The money wasn’t at Noah’s office, I checked this morning. No one even knew he was back in town. So yeah, it’s probably with Sophia.” He kept pacing.

“So…what’s the plan?” I asked. I had a few ideas, but I was curious to see if Aiden could come up with anything better. Because I really, really, really didn’t want to go through with my original plan anymore. Not now that I knew him.

He continued to pace, back and forth, back and forth.

I cleared my throat. I only had one back up idea. “I was thinking we could set the house on fire…”

“And torch Detective Torres along with everything else? Ensley, that would just make everything worse. We need to get the hell out of here before he wakes up.”

“What about Noah’s body? I really feel like we should get rid of that. I looked up all sorts of stuff about lye, but I already went to the hardware store a couple times and thought buying the ingredients would look a little suspicious. And the lake out back is frozen, so we can’t sink him. I really think a fire is the best bet.”

“Show it to me.”

“The kerosene for the fire?”

“No. The body.” He finally stopped pacing. “Where have you been keeping it? I don’t smell anything. Has he been on ice or something?”

“Well, kind of. I haven’t checked on him in the last few days because…well…because of you. But his body is in the little attic above the garage. It’s really cold out there.” I think. I think he’s there. “You should probably just see for yourself.” Mostly I wanted him to see because having the two of them next to each other would finally put my mind at ease. I’d finally know the truth for sure.

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