tightly by the shoulders. “Stop crying.”
She lifted her head long enough to look at me.
“Will it make you feel better that he died quickly?”
People can be cruel in this world. Wes could have had a much worse ending than the one he got. I could have drawn out his death, made him suffer. But I didn’t. I just walked up behind him and stabbed him above the heart, right through the arteries.
Quick and efficient.
When you really stop and think about it, I went easy on him.
“Oh for fuck’s sake.” I grabbed her by her shoulders and spun her around and pushed her out the door. She continued to sob and I shook her as hard as I could. “You have to stop crying.” I gestured toward the shed. “I had to do that, okay?”
“But—”
“No buts. I had to. Victoria made me do this.”
Her eyes clouded over with anger. All of it was directed at Victoria. I smiled and dropped my hands. “You shouldn’t cry; you still have me.”
Quickly I moved toward the car and started to pack things up. The entire time she stood there, immobile in front of the shed. I walked around her and when it was time to pick up the body, I glanced her way and pulled out a pair of Victoria’s shoes and handed them to her. “Put these on.”
She held them away from her body like they were a ticking time bomb. “Why?”
“Do you want a play-by-play of my plan and to waste time, or do you want to help me and I can explain later?”
Alice gnawed at her lower lip and then slowly cradled the shoes to her chest. When she looked at me, I saw that her eyes were back to being flat and I knew the unnecessary emotions were gone. I knew I had an ally in her.
This was the person who had raised me.
After that, everything worked like a well-oiled machine. I quickly unzipped my bag and pulled out a fresh pair of clothes. I quickly undressed. The cold air brushed against my skin, but I felt nothing; the adrenaline flowing through me was so heady, so powerful, that I felt unstoppable.
When I was done changing I put on a pair of latex gloves and got to work changing his pants. His shirt had to stay. But his pants couldn’t. He needed equal amounts of his blood and that of Victoria.
In the end, it took me three minutes and fifteen seconds to change Wes and myself.
It was a personal best.
He was missing one last thing: his cellphone. I pulled it out of my duffel bag and placed it in his back pocket, anticipating the moment when the police would find it. Which they would. Emails would be pulled. So would phone records. Their entire marriage would be ripped apart. They would turn to Victoria for the answers. I was okay with all of that as long as I was one step ahead of them.
As Alice patiently waited in the car, I rolled Wes’s body into a blanket and carried him over my shoulder.
It took a little maneuvering, but I was finally able to fit his body in the trunk. I ripped off the gloves and quickly got into the car.
The rain had let up, lightly pattering against the windshield and the roof of the car.
Before I pulled out onto the road, a police car with its sirens and lights on sped by, going in the direction of what was once Victoria’s house.
I took a right and drove toward the lake. I watched the police lights fade in my rearview mirror. The corners of my mouth pulled up. I pressed down on the gas.
Chin up, Victoria.
Your next time is about to begin.
November 2015
I stare at him, this stranger, in horror.
There are no words for what I’m feeling. It’s like someone snatched my heart from my chest, leaving a cavernous space in its wake. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse it does.
Guilt gnaws at me, hissing that I not only failed my child, but also Wes.
Not once in my entire marriage had I ever questioned his parentage. It just wasn’t a thought in my mind. He blended in with his parents. Perfectly groomed. Charming smile. For so long I thought he was the villain. A psychopath. The cause for my pain.
But I was wrong this whole time. The realization causes buckets of pain to fill my heart.
How could I have not believed him? How could I think that he