The Last Thing She Ever Did(99)
To save Owen.
To ease Carole and David’s enduring heartbreak.
To fade away.
She sat there until Owen emerged, a towel wrapped around his waist. She turned and faced him, the slip of paper now unfolded in her hand.
“What is this, Owen?”
“I don’t know,” he said, running his fingers through his damp hair.
“Don’t lie to me, Owen. You wrote a suicide note. For me. Why would you do that? What were you going to do to me?”
“Liz,” he said, “calm down. I wasn’t going to do anything. I thought you were going to kill yourself. You talked about it. I was thinking that if you did, then you should say something. You know, I thought you would want it that way. And you know they always blame the husband. I had to protect myself in case you didn’t leave a note.”
There he was again, doing what he did best. Lying. Looking for a solution that would sound good to others and absolve Owen of any blame. Liz was sure everyone at Lumatyx hated him.
“You wanted me to die,” she said. “You were probably hoping the whole time that I would end it all so you could play the victim card and move on with your life. All that money. A dead wife. That’s what you wanted, Owen.”
“I didn’t want a dead wife. I didn’t want to lose everything. You did all of this to us and—yes, all right, I really did think that if you killed yourself . . . well, that it would be all right.”
“How would it be all right?”
“I thought you killed Charlie. I thought we’d never, ever be able to undo that. If you killed yourself, out of guilt for what you’d done, I’d be able to move past all of this. Don’t blame me. None of this is my fault. All of this is on you.”
Liz could feel the blood drain from her face. “Owen, why did I even fall in love with you? I don’t know who you are. You can’t have changed so much from that man I married.”
“Honey,” he said, reaching for her. “I am the man you married. I didn’t know what to do. I was just trying to survive. Is that so wrong?”
“You wanted me dead, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t,” he said. “I can’t lie. You know me.”
“Lying is all that you do, Owen. You must have been very disappointed that I’m still alive.”
“No,” he said, trying to hold her. She stepped back and held her hand out to stop him. “This is our chance to start over.”
“We had our chance,” she said. “We’re done. You’re going to leave soon. Not right away. I don’t want anyone to make a thing about our breakup.”
“What breakup?” he asked. “I don’t get you at all. We’re home free.”
She sucked in some oxygen. It was like she could breathe for the first time.
“I want to be free of you,” she said. “I know that you wanted me dead. I know that this whole thing was about your job at Lumatyx. The money. Well, it’s not going to happen.”
“You’re insane,” he said. “You’ve gone off the rails. I’m not going to be pushed around by the likes of you.”
Liz didn’t say anything for a long time. She just looked at the man who had played upon her weaknesses for his own personal gain. They had no marriage. He had a career path. The path to the big house on the river. He wanted to be like the Franklins.
“You don’t even like me, Owen,” she said.
“That’s not true,” he said. “I love you.”
“You love yourself. There isn’t room for you and me in this marriage.”
“Fine,” he said, his anger controlled but rising a little. “You stupid bitch. The only thing going for you was your looks, and we know those are fading fast. Pill popper. Boozer. It shows on your face every time you look at me.”
“I took those pills because you gave them to me.”
“Blame me. Fine. That’s how weak you are.”
“I was weak. I’m not now. I’m drawing a line, and I’m not going to budge past it. You are going to leave Bend for good.”
“That’s crazy,” he said. “My job’s here.”
“You’ll quit your job.”
“No, I won’t. Not going to happen. I’m about to get a shitload of stock, and I’m not going to leave that on the table.”
“You will leave it,” she said. “Or you will go to prison.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“That night when we left Charlie out in the middle of nowhere, my phone accidentally took a picture of you, Owen. Remember that flash? It shows you carrying Charlie, his arm dangling out of the tarp.”
“You’re lying.”
“Why would I lie?”
“There is no photo. We got rid of those phones.”
“And you’re the high-tech expert. The cloud, Owen. The photo was stored on the cloud. I sent it to my law professor. He’s agreed to represent me if I need help in the future.”
“You wouldn’t do that,” he said.
“I would and I have done it.”
“You’re bluffing!” he said.
“Want to bet?” she asked, finding some long-missing strength in herself. “Want to bet your life? You’re going to resign from Lumatyx and you’re going to leave town, or you’ll go to prison for kidnapping and attempted murder.”