Neighborly(95)

I look over at Andie. Is she breathing? Do I want her to be?

Maybe justice has been achieved after all.





CHAPTER 37

Doug is on the love seat. The room is dark except for one dim lamp. He’s slumped, wrapped in blankets, a portrait in misery. I’ve never seen him look like that.

Is it because he knows? Word spreads fast in the AV about the most minor things; it’s hard to imagine it hasn’t spread about something as big as this.

“It’s after two a.m.,” he says hoarsely. “We need to talk. I’ve been waiting up for hours. Where’ve you been?” There’s no anger in it, only fear.

So word hasn’t spread to Doug. He’s that out of the loop.

“Just girls’ night,” I say. “You know how those nights can go.”

“Kat, I have to ask. Were you with Wyatt tonight?”

“No.”

“But I know you’ve been with him before.”

“I was dosed with ketamine, Doug. Just like I told you. You may not believe me about that, or anything else, but I’m not crazy. This neighborhood is.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.”

I stare at him. “Why the change of heart?”

He sighs. “Let’s just put it all out on the table. I’ve been spending time with Andie, as friends, but tonight, after you left, she came over to tell me she loves me and that she wants us to be together. She just wants to wait until after her tenth wedding anniversary to Nolan so she can get his money. What kind of person is that?” He looks amazed, and he doesn’t even know all that came to light earlier. That’s the least of her crimes. “I told her she was crazy and that I love you.” No wonder it was so easy for me to push Andie over the edge. Doug had just rejected her. He’d chosen a nothing like me over her. So what I told her actually turned out to be true.

“You’re saying you aren’t sleeping with her? You’ve never slept with her?”

“No. I swear to you. But I know I made a mistake spending time with her at all, when I should have been on your side and by your side. She was in my ear this whole time. She showed me your phone and said that you’d been with Wyatt. I should have confronted you then, but I was just so hurt. And angry, too. Maybe I wanted you to see me hanging out with Andie. I wanted you to see that someone else was interested in me, since you haven’t been lately.”

I almost laugh. So it was true. He really was using Andie.

“I flirted with her, which I know was wrong, but I felt like I needed the escape. From us, and from Sadie being sick. That day I went in to work, I couldn’t focus, and she texted me. I told her how bad I was feeling, and she said we could take a drive together. We went to Point Reyes and ate some oysters, but that was it. Still, it was enough. I lied to you. I was weak, and I was running away.”

“You didn’t sleep with her, but do you have feelings for her?”

“I didn’t even like her much, once I got to know her. She’s so full of herself.”

Not anymore, she’s not.

“I love you. I love our family. I just didn’t know where your head was and how you could kiss Wyatt. Andie made it sound like you’d done a lot more than that. Then she told me about the openness, and she said you were supposed to tell me about it, and you didn’t, so I felt like you were keeping it all to yourself. You know, like you didn’t want me to be with other people but you were doing it behind my back, with my new friend.”

I can understand his point, but after the night I’ve had, I don’t know what to think or feel.

“You’ve been through so much in your life, Kat, and you always deserved better than me. I’m just this spoiled kid, and the first time things didn’t go my way, I started spending time with another woman.”

So much that he doesn’t know about, but he needs to.

“Are you still seeing Wyatt?” he asks.

“I was never seeing him. I kissed him once because Andie tried to frame me. I’m not interested in Wyatt or anyone else.”

“I should have talked to you about everything. Is it too late for us? Can you forgive me?” he asks.

Layton was a monster. Doug’s my husband, a flawed person, who loves me. And I still love him.

Andie’s a monster, too. Well, she was.

“It’s not too late,” I say. His eyes fill with tears. “But I have to tell you something. The reason that I know Sadie’s safe is because the person who poisoned her is dead.” His eyes widen. “That person is Andie.”

He visibly startles. “Is that a joke?”

“No. She was shot tonight.”

I’d learned of her death from the police as they were questioning me. It took a long time for the police to take everyone’s statements, including Wyatt’s, which was the one that gave all the others credibility. The officers obviously had a great deal of respect for him. Enough to sweep any discrepancies under the rug? I have to hope so.

“Escalation of force,” Wyatt said grimly. “Nolan had no choice but to shoot her when she tried to grab the gun.” The rest of us told that same story.

Nolan hasn’t been arrested. Not yet, anyway. He was by Andie’s side when she died. I can’t even imagine what he was feeling. All I know is, it’s over, for all of us.