it, I did fuck your wife. He even has the balls to look apologetic.
“Look, if it makes you feel any better, we didn’t want you to find out like this. Sabine was going to tell you to your face this weekend. Ask her—she’ll tell you we had it all planned out. She was going to tell you the right way.”
“The right way. What in the fucking hell could possibly be the right way?”
Now that the dog’s calm, he settles the thing on the floor. “By telling you that we’re in love. That we want to be together. I know that hurts to hear, and believe me, we’ve struggled with it ourselves, but—”
I throw back my head and shout hard enough to burn the back of my throat, “She’s married, you asshole!” The words bounce around the house, then fall into a silence so absolute it rings in my ears.
“I understand that, Jeffrey, and I’m sorry. Truly. You can’t even imagine how sorry. But swear to God, Sabine and I didn’t set out intending to break up two families. It just happened, and this isn’t just some fling. This is the realest, most genuine thing I’ve ever felt. Sabine is my soul mate. I love her. I adore her. She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
His speech might have worked on another man. His words might have been a balm on a brittle, broken heart. Sabine will be loved, cared for, cherished. He’s not stealing her out of greed or spite, but because he has no choice, because their connection is too great to ignore. Only an asshole stands in the way of soul mates.
But we’ve already established that I am a bitter, bitter man.
“Well then, Trevor, I feel obliged to tell you that this woman you cherish so much? Your soul mate?” The fur bag sniffs at my shoe, and I push it away with a foot. “She’s missing.”
Trevor makes a face like I punched him in his perfectly sculpted abs. “What do you mean, Sabine is missing? Missing, missing?”
I nod. “She had a showing last night—”
“With Corey Porter and his family, I know.”
The doctor stops, waiting for me to continue, but I’m still processing the fact that he knows more about my wife’s business than I do, than even Ingrid does. As much as I’d love to leave him hanging, I need to know what he knows. I fix him with a defiant stare. “She never came home.”
“She never...” He swallows the rest, but his expression is screaming the words.
“Came home. Sabine never came home. She didn’t show up, and neither did her car.”
“Okay, okay. Let’s think about this logically. I mean, she was pretty sure Corey would pull the trigger on the house. Maybe he did. Maybe they went out after to celebrate.”
“Maybe. But now it’s the next day.”
“Did you call her?”
I sigh. Roll my eyes.
“Of course you called her. But, but...” Trevor runs a shaking hand through his hair. “What about Ingrid—did you call her? Did you call the police?”
“Yes to both. Ingrid was at my house when the detective got there. He was going to check out the show house, see if he saw anything out of the ordinary. That was hours ago.”
Trevor’s eyes go wide with fear, with horror. “Oh my God. Oh my God.” He stumbles into the kitchen, and I follow behind. I step on one of the dog’s squeaky toys, and the beast comes running.
Trevor leans against the kitchen counter, tapping numbers into a cordless phone with his thumb. He presses the phone to his ear, muttering, “Come on, come on, come on.” And then his shoulders slump, and he curses. “Babe, it’s me. Jeffrey’s here, and he said you never came home last night. Wherever you are, please call me, okay? The very second you get this. I need to know you’re okay, that you’re... I’m scared shitless. I love you. Call me.”
He hangs up, and I almost feel sorry for the bastard.
He begins pacing, his bare feet slapping the hardwood floor. “Now what?” Under the kitchen can lights, his face is green and shiny, sweating despite the air-conditioning. “What are we going to do now?”
I shake my head, battling a rush of disgust at his use of the word we. “You and I are not on the same team here. We do not share Sabine. She’s my wife. She’s nothing to you.”
He stops, takes a long, slow breath. “When is the last time you talked to your wife?”
“Yesterday