Crazy In Love (Secrets of Suburbia #3) - Ivy Smoak Page 0,93

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