Page 57 of Pretty Little Wife

“Are you worried about property values?” It was a shitty thing to say, and she didn’t put much heat behind the words, but Cassie standing there struck her as so odd that Lila came out swinging.

Cassie dropped the brush in the bucket and ignored the small splash and water dripping off her pants. Her fingers were red, likely from the cold and from clenching the brush.

“I know you think I’m nosy.” She held up her hand as if to quiet Lila even though she hadn’t rushed in and said a thing. “But I watch over you, visit unannounced, and walk by because I’ve been there.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You go for these long walks on your own, even more so lately. You spend weekends alone. When Aaron is here, he’s often outside with his brother or friends.”

“That’s a lot of surveillance.” Which made Lila nervous. She couldn’t afford to have Cassie know her secrets.

“My first husband spent seven years convincing me I was worthless and unlovable. That I didn’t deserve friends and couldn’t handle money. He took everything from me, including my self-respect. Then the hitting started.”

A rush of regret pummeled Lila. “Cassie, I didn’t—”

“Of course you didn’t. You didn’t know him. You didn’t know me back then.” She glanced away. The pained expression came and went, coupled with a quick gnaw on her bottom lip before talking again. “That’s how they win. They destroy you in silence until you’re afraid of speaking out. They attack you in your own damn house, where you should be safe.”

The words tumbled and spun in Lila’s head. She’d spent so much of her marriage mentally insisting Aaron wasn’t abusive. He was different and a loner. A guy who needed validation butnot a lot of attention. None of which was surprising in light of how much he’d lost as a kid. Lila understood. She wasn’t easy either, so they made sense together.

Then she found the videos. He came out fighting. Gaslighting her with ease, as if he’d been using it against her their whole marriage, and she realized now that he had. So much lying and subterfuge.

Looking back, she wondered how much of his behavior she forgave and explained away. She viewed their marriage through a clouded lens and didn’t see abuse, but she was beginning to question if what she saw and accepted as truth was real.

His first instinct when she became a threat to him was to wrap his hand around her throat and squeeze. The clench of his fingers against her skin—so vicious and primal—slashed through her feelings for him, leaving them shredded and forgotten.

The right word abandoned her, but “abusive” might not be so far off as she once thought. He had abused those girls. He’d preyed on them. Her knowing that changed everything. It broke something inside her.

“Look, you don’t have to talk about what life is like in your house.” Cassie wrapped her jacket tighter around her body. “I’m just saying I saw how he looked at you sometimes, how he treated you. There was this whiff of superiority about him even though you’re the lawyer and clearly smarter.”

Cassie saw through him. Most people who knew them both would praise him, but Cassie praisedher. The unconditionalsupport left Lila stumbling and a bit breathless. “I don’t know what to say.”

“He did this thing where he played up his hero image at the school and around town.” Cassie clamped her mouth shut as her eyes filled. She swallowed a few times before starting again. “It all was so familiar.”

Lila’s gaze went back to the garage door. The accusations, those words... weren’t totally wrong. Not in her case. She deserved to be called out and ridiculed. She had killed her husband... or at least tried to. If she had to do it again, the only thing she would do differently was make sure the bastard was truly dead. She had no remorse.

Cassie followed her gaze. “So, no. You don’t deserve to be put under a microscope and dissected. He did.”

Past tense.Because she knew.

Lila wanted to ask how Cassie got away and what she’d lived through. Lila never viewed the other woman as a survivor. She had a quiet husband, clearly her second, who seemed nice enough and didn’t get into people’s business. The relationship made more sense with the new information. Lila had thought of Cassie’s husband as plain, but now she wondered if he was safe. Kind and nonthreatening. Things that should be automatic in a spouse but weren’t.

“And if what people say and what they think about you is true, that’s your business.” Cassie reached for the brush again. “That investigator won’t hear anything different from me.”

A free pass for murder. God. Lila spent every hour thinking she was alone, but maybe not. “Cassie.”

“After I tone this down, you’ll need another coat of paint to get a clean line.” Cassie nodded at the can. “I took a paint chip to the hardware store, and they matched the color.”

“Cassie.” This time Lila touched the other woman’s shoulder as she said her name.

“Yes?”

Cassie didn’t demand the details or have to be convinced. Lila had a support system, but the circle was small and tight, and she didn’t share the truth with them. She wouldn’t with Cassie either, but she sensed, for the first time, that if she did Cassie might get it.

Lila wasn’t sure what to say, so she said the first thing that popped into her head. “Come in for tea.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

Five Weeks Ago

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