Page 53 of Happy Wife

Four days after

I call Este as soon as I’m back in my car, still thinking about Perry, the stranger I met on the side of the road. “What do you mean Ardell is in my kitchen?”

“I came over looking for you, and he was at the front door,” she whispers. “Says he needs to talk to you.”

“Did he say anything about Will? Why are you whispering?”

“I’m hiding in your half bath.”

“What? Why are you—”

My phone signals an incoming call and I let out an audible groan when I see Fritz’s name on the screen.

“Hang on,” I sigh to Este and then kill the call with her as I click over to Fritz. “Hey.”

“Nora, what thefuckare you doing?” The accusation is harsh even if the volume of his voice is relatively normal.

What the fuck amIdoing? What the fuck are he and Ardell doing?

Maybe it’s because Constance has just castigated me, or the revelations from Perry, or maybe I am tired of Fritz yelling at me, but I unleash the most sarcastic tone I can conjure. “Hello, Fritz. Thanks for returning my call—” I check the clock on my car. “Three hours later. And yes, I’m doing the best I can under the circumstances. Thanks for asking. How are you?”

“Cut the shit, Nora. I told you to do one thing: Stay home and don’t speak to anyone.”

“That’s two things.”

“Don’t be cute. First of all, stop getting mani-pedis with your friends, all right? This is a missing person investigation.”

He’s seen the coverage of Este and me out. Fucking perfect.

I don’t fold. “Is that what you called to say?”

He changes his tone, and I can tell he resents having to placate me. “We’re on the same team here, Nora. We all want Will home as soon as possible. But going out with your friends during all of this is irresponsible. It’s only going to distract the public from the real story.”

“Well, then maybe you should be calling Constance. Because she’s feeding information to her good friend Kristy at Channel 2. Seems to me that falls well outside of the realm of responsible behavior. And who put you in charge of the narrative anyway?”

“Let’s not blow things out of proportion, Nora. Just calm down.”

There’s something so patronizing about being told to relax when your husband is literally missing.

Yes, Fritz, I’ll try to smile more.

“And about Constance?” he says. “Look, Nora, you have to leave her alone.”

“Excuse me?”

“She just phoned me, very upset. You can’t just show up at her house.”

How the shit did Constance turn herself into the victim in all of this?

While I try to swallow my shock and indignation, Fritz goes on, “Things are looking bad enough as it is. The news has the story now and that’s going to make things worse. You have to keep your head down.”

“It would be a lot easier to keep my head down if anyone could explain to me how the news got the information about Will’s shirt.”

“Travis and I talked about an hour ago. We both agree that’s a problem.”

Travis Ardelland Fritz are a “we” now. Will hired a PI to look into me, and Constance thinks Will was unhappy in our marriage before hewent missing. Do they know Will and Dean knew each other? Are they trying to keep that from me?

I can feel myself being set up to take a fall. But, for what? I start to tell Fritz that Ardell is in my kitchen presently, but decide against it. Fritz is on Constance’s side now.