The Wife Who Knew Too Much(79)

He was a plant, from the beginning.

They were in on it together.

They’re after my money.

My marriage is a lie.

I’m getting rid of them tonight. Both of them. As soon as the party is done, I’ll have Steve Kovacs bring them here, to my office. And I’ll tell them this charade is over for good.





37





After the party This turned out wrong.

I told Kovacs, bring them to my office after the party, but—I can’t remember, something about an arrest. My head is foggy, but I need to get this down. I was sitting here just a little while ago at this desk when there was a knock at the door. It was Connor, with Juliet right behind him. You wanted to talk to us, Connor said. Yes, that’s right.

But why was I alone with them? That wasn’t how it was supposed to be.

Kovacs left me alone, and I was afraid. I picked up the letter opener from the desk to defend myself. She laughed. That’s when I knew this was bad bad bad.

Everything echoes.

Nina, what is it? You don’t look well, he said.

You did something to me. What did you do?

He looked at her. What is she talking about? What did you do? Did you do something?

She denied it. Juliet denied it.

He doesn’t believe her, I can tell.

How could she—what was it? How did she manage—? She makes my drinks. But tonight, no. I thought I was careful. But something’s wrong. It’s hard to keep my eyes open and my hand doesn’t want to write. Julissa did something. Julissa is her real name. It’s all in the report. Read the report.

I said, I know who you are. You’re not Juliet. You’re Julissa. Call 911.

You call, she said.

Where’s my phone? You’re my assistant. Find my phone.

Find it yourself.

You’re together; you’re both lying. It’s all a fraud. She came here under false pretenses then she brought you so I would fall for you. Lies lies lies. Get out of my house.

Your house? This house is mine by right. It’s mine.

And I understood.

The baby crying. Was that you, I asked. Were you the baby? Funny, I was just talking about you earlier tonight. Edward said you weren’t real. I thought you were a ghost.

You knew, she said.

No, never. I didn’t know. I did not know!

You sent me away.

Not me. It wasn’t me. It was him.

You ruined my life.

Connor said he was going to call a doctor, and Juliet said, don’t you do that. You reap what you sow. She should pay the price.

I blacked out. Then I woke up again with my face on the desk and took out the book to write. The report is here. Read the report.

JULIET!

They left. They’re gone now. Where’s my phone? Did she take it? I need a doctor. Call 911.

Gloria. Somebody. Help me.





38



TABITHA

I sat on the bed, shaking from head to toe. If the things written in this diary were true, then Nina had been murdered. By Connor and Juliet. Who were lovers. And had been together for years.

For the first time, I understood what it felt like to want to kill someone. The betrayal burned like acid. If I had a gun in my hand, and Connor or Juliet walked in that door right now, I would use it. I’d loved him so much. I’d believed in his love for me. How was it possible that—

But, wait. What if this wasn’t true? What if Nina was wrong? What if she was making it up? Stop and think. Assess the evidence. How did I even know this was her journal? There was something off about it. A normal diary would have entries for multiple dates. The entirety of this journal was written on July fourth, the day of Nina’s death. Correction, of her suicide. Before she killed herself, Nina Levitt sat down and wrote out an accusation to hurt the husband she left behind, who, she believed, had been unfaithful to her. She left the journal where it was sure to be found, in order to get him in trouble with the law. That was straight-up revenge. Made up. A lie.

But this Juliet thing … crazy. It couldn’t be real. I didn’t want it to be real.

Though—why would Nina say those things about Juliet, if they weren’t true? The outrage, the sense of betrayal, that came through on the page was as white-hot as her fury at Connor. I believed the emotion. But the accusations seemed too far-fetched to be true.

Read the report, she’d said.

I cast the diary aside and opened the manila envelope. The word “Confidential” was typed on the front, but no sender or addressee was shown. I pulled out a sheaf of papers with a photo paper-clipped to the top.

No.

I rubbed my eyes and looked again. It was still there. The awful truth.

Connor, with Juliet sitting in his lap. They were both much younger in the photo. Connor looked softer around the eyes, with longer hair—much as I remembered him from that summer when we fell in love. And Juliet? She looked so familiar. She wasn’t wearing glasses. Her hair flowed over her shoulders. Suddenly, I remembered. I’d seen her before I ever came to Windswept. She was the woman who’d had dinner with Connor at the Baldwin Grill the night he walked back into my life. They’d spent maybe an hour together, and then she disappeared. What could that mean? Juliet was in New Hampshire with Connor the weekend he and I got back together. The weekend my baby was conceived.