The End of Her - Shari Lapena Page 0,40

mind keeps circling back to Patrick’s safety deposit box. Where is it? She’s already called half the banks in town and hasn’t found it.

She gives her head a shake and forces herself to get up and get ready to take the twins out. She fumbles through her preparations, almost forgetting her keys at the last moment, then going back into the house to get them. As tired as she is, she needs to get them all some fresh air. She’ll call the rest of the banks when she gets back. They can’t stay in all day.

Stephanie plays with the twins on a blanket on the grass at the park, her eyes scanning sporadically for a glimpse of Erica. Patrick had suggested she avoid the park because of the run-in, but she had protested. What the hell else is she going to do with the babies on a nice day? She can’t keep them inside – they’ll all climb up the walls.

Patrick had then suggested she put them in the car and drive to another park further away, for a change of scenery. She’d turned away and said maybe as he looked on worriedly. But she’s not going to do that. She’s not going to be afraid to use her own neighbourhood. And maybe she wants to talk to Erica. So here she is, sitting with the babies under a tree, a bundle of raw nerves. But there’s no sign of the attractive woman that her husband slept with a long time ago.

Finally it’s time to go home. She picks the twins up, one at a time, to put them in the buggy, lifting them up and down in the air and smiling at them, making them giggle. God, how she loves them. And every time she looks at them now she feels a clutch of fear at her heart – what will happen to their once-happy family? What if they’re all dragged through an investigation – what will that do to her and Patrick? Thank goodness the babies are too young to understand what’s going on.

Her cell phone rings – it’s Patrick. ‘Hi, what’s up?’ she asks anxiously. She’s always anxious these days.

‘I just heard from the attorney.’

She feels her heart rate shoot up. ‘What did he say?’

‘Erica did have a baby. But she gave it up for adoption, privately, after it was born.’

Stephanie tries to digest this news, the implications. ‘That explains why she never came after you for child support,’ she says after a moment.

‘Yeah, but even better, I don’t think it’s going to be so easy to prove it’s mine.’

She hears the relief in his voice and it sickens her.

She pushes the buggy home, feeling unbearably weary. At last they arrive at the house and she sings out to the twins, ‘Home at last! We’ll have some lunch and then—’ She stops in her tracks, her voice silenced. She’s staring at the front door.

It’s wide open.

Surely she locked it. She must have, especially after last time. And then she remembers that she’d forgotten her keys and run back in to get them. Did she forget to lock the door on the way back out? Did she forget to close it? Jesus. She has to be more careful.

She manoeuvres the buggy up to the bottom of the porch steps and unbuckles Emma and lifts her out. ‘Mommy is so tired and getting way too forgetful, Emmie,’ she whispers. She carries her up the steps and inside the front door, and screams.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

HER SCREAM FILLS the front hallway and startles little Emma into crying.

There’s someone inside, sitting in her kitchen. It gives her a terrible shock. Then she recognizes Erica and she can’t breathe.

‘Get out!’ she hisses when she gets enough air in her lungs, clasping the wailing baby to her chest. ‘Get out or I’ll call the police!’

‘Honestly, Stephanie. Calm down,’ Erica says, standing up and walking towards her, sounding perfectly reasonable. ‘I’m not going to hurt you.’

‘You broke into my house!’

‘No, I didn’t, the door was open. You should be more careful.’

For a moment, Stephanie is confused. She might have left the door open; she doesn’t remember. But she does know this woman has no business being in her house, even if she did leave the door open. ‘I know who you are,’ she says.

Erica nods. ‘Good. I wasn’t sure you would. I don’t know how much Patrick has told you.’

‘You were in here before – you stole my bag!’

Erica’s eyebrows go up. ‘I did not. Why