The Marriage Act(76)
‘Why would you do that to me?’ asked Jada.
‘Because I’m not a good person. Because I’m not employed to do good things. Because I thought what I was doing for the country was more important than my own family. Because, when you want to confront me about how I’m failing as a dad and a husband, it’s easier to silence you than to admit you’re right.’ He stopped short at telling her about his relationship with Jem. She wouldn’t understand the complexities of their role in each other’s lives or how much he missed her.
Jada began to pace the office, shaking her head. ‘I have a voice and you didn’t want to hear it,’ she said. ‘My voice, Anthony, my voice. My husband, the father of my child, decided he did not want to hear what his wife had to say.’
‘I know I did wrong, but that’s all going to change,’ he continued. ‘We can be like we used to be, you can say anything now.’
‘Now you want us to talk? How magnanimous of you to allow me to be heard.’
‘Please, Jada, you have to believe me, I’m sorry. I want to make things better between us.’
‘Well, maybe I don’t because maybe you’re not the man I married. Maybe I can’t look at you right now without wanting to hit you.’
Jada’s attention was suddenly drawn to the office Audite.
‘It’s not recording us,’ said Anthony.
‘Then why has a light just flashed around the circle of the rim?’
‘I think you’re mistaken.’
‘Don’t you dare tell me what I am or am not again,’ she growled.
‘Then it’s probably a software update.’
Anthony’s head turned towards it. The light circled the device for a second time and then a third. It definitely hadn’t done that before. ‘I don’t understand,’ he muttered and examined it more closely.
‘You just told me we weren’t being recorded. What the hell, Anthony?’
But before he could respond, Anthony’s watch and Jada’s phone pinged. They had both received the same Push notification.
‘Good evening, Jada and Anthony Alexander,’ the voice began. ‘After careful consideration, Audite has decided your marriage has reached a stage where it might need assistance. As a result, Level One constant monitoring has now been automatically enabled. Please access your Smart Marriage Guide for further information.’
57
Roxi
‘Antoinette,’ whispered Roxi. ‘Antoinette? Are you okay?’
She knew it was a rhetorical question before the words fell from her mouth. Her husband’s mistress was clearly dead. She was lying on the floor, her head bent at an unnatural angle. The nape of her neck rested on the lip of the first step of the staircase, her chin was pressed down, as if in horizontal prayer. The life had drained from the woman’s eyes, leaving a glazed, sterile expression in its place.
She placed her fingers on the woman’s wrist then neck to search for a pulse and, when that failed, she tried to locate a heartbeat. ‘Antoinette?’ she asked again, this time more out of desperation than expectation. But there was, predictably, no reply.
The only person Roxi had ever watched die was her friend Phoebe at the hands of her violent husband. That had been a long and drawn-out death, not like this – if Roxi had blinked, she might have missed it. People only died like this in movies. It was why she was struggling to accept Cooper was no longer alive.
Panic beat its drum inside her head. She heard nothing else until the chiming of a grandfather clock distracted her. She turned quickly to look at it: only eight minutes remained before her device would recognize she had illegally bypassed the system and went back online, leaving a digital record of where she was.
She had to act fast, but what to do first? She had no experience to draw from and could hardly search the phrase ‘How to leave a murder scene without getting caught’ online. Besides, it wasn’t murder. She hadn’t deliberately hurt Cooper. But who would believe her? Was doing the right thing and calling for help worth losing her career over? Especially when it involved a woman who had been making her life hell? If Cooper hadn’t been trolling Roxi and sleeping with Owen – and she had near enough admitted the two were in a relationship – Roxi wouldn’t be staring down at her lifeless body now.
Assuring herself their fracas hadn’t been recorded by an Audite became her priority. She must ensure she would not be a victim to a system she so frequently championed. Cooper wasn’t wearing recordable technology but it didn’t mean there wasn’t any somewhere in the house. The clock was ticking. So she hurried from room to room, opening each door with the sleeve of her jumper and touching nothing else. She glanced at framed family photographs on the landing walls of a younger Cooper with three children, two boys and a girl, who grew older with each frame she passed. The last was a more recent shot, of her holding the hand of a young girl, likely her granddaughter. A man appeared in some – her late husband, Roxi assumed. There was also a framed Order of Service with the name David Cooper on it dating back two years.
Roxi looked to a digital clock by the side of Cooper’s four-poster bed. Six minutes remained. She ran back downstairs, carefully stepping over Roxi’s body again and scanning each room until finally she reached a downstairs office. Roxi hadn’t considered that Cooper might be a professional woman. This room contained an armchair and a large chesterfield-style leather sofa backing onto bifold doors and a lush green cottage-style garden. Its only technology was a laptop computer and a Smart watch lying next to it. She suddenly recalled Cooper’s admission she was a widow and realized the woman would not be subject to random recordings if she lived alone.