Page 90 of The Silent Patient

“Nothing… nothing to say.”

“I’m not sure I believe that. I think there was too much too say.”

A pause. A shrug. “Perhaps. Perhaps… you’re right.”

“Go on.”

She hesitated. “At first, when Gabriel… when he was dead—I couldn’t, I tried… but I couldn’t… talk. I opened my mouth—but no sound came out. Like in a dream… where you try to scream… but can’t.”

“You were in a state of shock. But over the next few days, you must have found your voice returning to you…?”

“By then… it seemed pointless. It was too late.”

“Too late? To speak in your defense?”

Alicia held me in her gaze, a cryptic smile on her lips. She didn’t speak.

“Tell me why you started talking again.”

“You know the answer.”

“Do I?”

“Because of you.”

“Me?” I looked at her with surprise.

“Because you came here.”

“And that made a difference?”

“All the difference—it made… all the difference.” Alicia lowered her voice and stared at me, unblinking. “I want you to understand—what happened to me. What it felt like. It’s important… you understand.”

“I want to understand. That’s why you gave me the diary, isn’t it? Because you want me to understand. It seems to me the people who mattered most to you didn’t believe your story about the man. Perhaps you’re wondering… if I believe you.”

“You believe me.” This was not a question but a simple statement of fact.

I nodded. “Yes, I believe you. So why don’t we start there? The last diary entry you wrote described the man breaking into the house. What happened then?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

She shook her head. “It wasn’t him.”

“It wasn’t? Then who was it?”

“It was Jean-Felix. He wanted—he had come to talk about the exhibition.”

“Judging by your diary, it doesn’t seem you were in the right state of mind for visitors.”

Alicia acknowledged this with a shrug.

“Did he stay long?”

“No. I asked him to leave. He didn’t want to—he was upset. He shouted at me a bit—but he went after a while.”

“And then? What happened after Jean-Felix left?”

---