Neighborly(77)

The ketamine wasn’t my idea or my preference, but it has worked in my favor. It’s primed her to believe something as preposterous as someone poisoning her daughter. I don’t think she’s even suspected that it might be more than one person, that multiple people are trying to drive her out.

Kat might not have been with Wyatt under normal circumstances, but it was shockingly easy to get her to compromise herself, given how compromised she was. All we had to do was get her and Wyatt outside and move out of the way. She practically pounced on him. No sex drive, my ass. She just isn’t driven toward Doug. And Wyatt showing up that night, already drunk, and he and Yolanda were clearly having words that ended with her yanking her arm away . . . that was all too easy, too. Everyone knows that when Wyatt gets tired of dealing with Yolanda, he rushes into other women’s arms temporarily, even though he’s going to get an earful when he gets home. Wyatt seems to have taken the idea that it’s better to seek forgiveness than permission to heart.

While the ketamine wasn’t my idea, the pictures were. And sending them to Yolanda from Kat’s phone had, I thought, been a stroke of genius. That way, it would look like Kat had opted in the second she had the chance, and that she wanted to rub Yolanda’s nose in it.

It had been my insurance policy: if the openness didn’t freak Kat out enough to make her want to leave, then Yolanda telling everyone what Kat had done and the resulting ostracism would. Kat would watch her shiny new future go up in smoke.

Instead, I never heard a peep. Everyone could tell that Yolanda didn’t like the new girl anymore, but she wouldn’t say why. My suspicion is that she didn’t want the humiliation, and that she has something else in mind for those pictures, like keeping Wyatt right where she wants him, doing penance. Maybe it’ll even give her the leverage she needs to finally opt out.

I’m not the biggest fan of Yolanda, with her myriad insecurities, but I do care about Wyatt, and I’m sorry that he’s become collateral damage.

Lately, I’m just feeling so alone. When this started, I felt like I had support, but it’s been dwindling. It could be an attack of conscience or a loss of faith. All I know is, there’s been more distance since Sadie got sick.

Or he might have problems of his own, but I can’t be sure. He doesn’t burden me with things like that.

I’ve just got this feeling like things are spiraling and soon it might be beyond any of our control.





CHAPTER 29

KAT

I just keep picturing them together. Andie and Doug. Thinking how much better she is than me, in all ways. I can’t compete.

It’s late at night, and Doug is out in the waiting room. I’m practically delirious from the days of sleep deprivation and the stress and strain of trying to figure out what’s really happening in the AV, who’s after me, who’s after him. I still haven’t confronted him, though my imagination is running wild.

It’s like texting is a direct link to my subconscious.

Maybe we should opt in, I write. Maybe that would solve all our problems. Then Doug can sow his oats and my family stays intact.

She texts back, Are those really all your problems?

There’s the notes. There’s the ketamine. There’s the possible poisoning of my child. But if Doug and I were just stronger, if we were back to being ourselves, we could survive anything. We could figure this out together. Maybe leaving Crayola isn’t the only way. Together, we could find the culprit and make it all stop.

We’ve always been a team. I can’t let the AV tear us apart. That’s just what whoever wrote those notes wants. They want me to doubt my husband, my marriage, and my sanity.

How do you know that Doug and Andie are together? Who told you?

It’s all over the block. Everyone knows. It started the same night you kissed Wyatt.

So that’s all over the block, too?

Yes.

Does Doug know everything? I mean, does he know I kissed Wyatt?

That I don’t know. But if I had to venture a guess, I’d say yes.

So we cheated the same night. But I was drugged. What’s his excuse? Was it revenge, because Andie told him about Wyatt? Or was that just how he gave himself permission to do what he already wanted?

Who he already wanted.

Kat, are you still up?

Kat, are you OK?

I’m always up, but nothing’s OK.





CHAPTER 30

ELLEN

Sadie’s in a regular room, and I’m dying to see her.

Poor choice of words, perhaps.

But I just want to verify with my own eyes that she’s on the mend, that no babies have been harmed in the making of this revenge tale.

Also, I have to remind Kat of what she has to do to save that precious little girl of hers. Last night, I felt her wavering. She even mentioned opting in. That would be the worst-case scenario for me: not only does Kat stay in the neighborhood, she invades the spreadsheet. She gets into the AV even deeper.

Doug’s talking on his cell phone outside the room, and when he sees me approaching, he ends the call and stands directly in my path.

“I want you to leave my family alone,” he says. He’s not angry, exactly, more like grave.

“I’m Kat’s friend.”

“I’ll bet you are.” It’s like he knows that I can’t be trusted, like he’s actually looking after his wife for once, the way a husband is supposed to.