Page 107 of The Tangle of Awful

“Yeah, okay,” I say with a sigh. “Aubrey can’t wait any longer. How quickly can you make this happen?”

“I’m working on it as we speak. I may not be able to talk Mr. Prince into uprooting his entire life right away, but at the very least, I’ll make contact with him and get the ball rolling.”

We hang up and I stare at the coffee machine. I don’t need coffee. I need to run. It’s the only thing that clears my head and resets my focus.

I quickly change into my running clothes and then slip out the back door. The pool sparkles now, but that’s because of me. After the whole Drew debacle, I’m hesitant to let anyone who isn’t family onto my property. I jog through Callum’s backyard and then turn left, toward the street. The pavement echoes the rhythmic sounds back at me as I pick up my pace. When I reach the end of the road where Jude and Grandpa live, I try to see the monstrous home from an outsider’s point of view.

Old. Dilapidated. Haunted by the ghosts of those who are no longer with us.

Dad’s going to have a helluva time getting anyone who isn’t family to step foot into that place. I crack my neck and sprint past it toward my trail.

My mind drifts to the day of Aubrey’s kidnapping. The anger of what happened and fear of losing her is what fuels me to run at an incredibly taxing speed. Burning in my hamstrings and calves feels better than the agony I’d felt when I imagined her death at the hands of that psychopath.

It’s really fucked-up to know Neena was screwing the pool boy. Who else was she screwing while we were married? I know about the yoga instructor and some asshole she went to college with. I’m sure there are more. For some reason, I kept enduring and staying with her. Now, after all that’s happened, I won’t hesitate to slap the divorce papers in her face the next time I see her.

If I see her.

If Drew came after Aubrey because he hasn’t been able to locate his lover, then that means something really has happened to Neena. I’ve spent nearly a year being pissed at her for leaving me high and dry, but never really considered her death.

Was this one of Dad’s “fixes” for our family? He’d go to great lengths to protect us.

Or was it Spencer? He’s certainly doing something suspicious because he continues to run around using her card every day to keep up appearances.

Dad and Spencer are close. Maybe they concocted something together.

I slow to a stop at a huge boulder in the woods. It’s covered in black sharpie writing from the years. We’ve all made our mark here. The most recent ones belong to Dempsey—skull drawings, curse words, and Spencer’s number to “call for a good time.”

Dempsey has now taken the rap for both Callum and Spencer. I don’t know what gave him this martyr complex, but we have to stop letting him take the fall, because if we don’t he will end up with more than a slap on the wrist. He might permanently find himself behind bars.

The birds chirp and the wind blows gently through the trees. Is her body buried out here? I wouldn’t put it past Dempsey and Spencer burying her right under the path I run on all the time.

Could my son really kill my wife?

He shot Drew without hesitation. Three times, in fact. He shot him because he was protecting someone he loved. Would killing Neena be his way of protecting me and our family?

My gut churns. If he did, it’s my responsibility to keep him protected from the outside world. Damn. Dad’s right. This whole family needs therapy and with someone we can trust. Spencer has had a helluva few years. Ever since Aubrey left when they were both sixteen, he’s been harder, sharper around the edges, chronically angry.

I can’t have Spencer continue to cover up her death all on his own. That’s what he’s doing after all. My son is smart and using her card to purchase all the things she always loved was brilliant at keeping eyes off the situation. He was protecting me one hundred percent. When I get back home, I’ll need to see if Jude can help me create a new trail that shows Neena traveling up to Canada and disappearing from our lives for good. Spencer will finally be off the hook and we can put this behind us.

“Goodbye, Neena,” I say to the trees. “I hope it was painless.”

I don’t want to think of how she was killed because then I’ll need therapy too. With a heavy sigh, I start my jog back home.

The shower is hot, but I can’t escape the chill that’s settled in my bones. My family has always had our secrets, but whatever happened to Neena feels like the biggest one of all. I want to sit my family in a giant circle and demand everyone’s involvement. Because if Spencer murdered Neena, he had help.

Dempsey. Dad. Theo. Jude.

I shut off the water and quickly towel off. I’m walking into my bedroom when I discover Aubrey is in it. She’s no longer wearing my shirt and the sheet exposes her breasts. Yellow bruises still color her ribs and the pink scar on her neck will forever be visible. But she’s safe and alive.

“Good morning, Love. What are you up to?”

I head for my dresser, but she sits up, shaking her head. “I need you.”

“What do you need?”

“You,” she says in exasperation. “No one will touch me. Not after…” She trails off and her bottom lip wobbles. “Drew didn’t rape me. I’m not ruined.”

“No one said you are ruined,” I growl, tossing the towel to the floor and prowling toward the bed. “We’re just letting you heal.”

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