Page 46 of It's One of Us

Olivia gestures to the half-finished kitchen. “All the time in the world, apparently. I just had a massive setback on this project, crews are going to be here any minute, and—” she points to her wrist “—my husband’s been calling incessantly for the past five minutes.”

“I hear you. I’ll make it quick and painless. I’m going to take another look around if you don’t mind.”

“Have at it. I need to call my husband.”

Olivia scoops her phone out of her purse and dials Park.

“Where are you?” he demands. His voice has the hitch it gets when he is extremely stressed.

“At the Jones build. What’s wrong?”

“What isn’t wrong?” he says bitterly. “Can you please just come home? We need to talk.”

“I can’t right now. I had a weird break-in here this morning. I have to go to the police station to sit down with a sketch artist.”

“What kind of break-in? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Nothing was taken. It was... I’m fine.”

“Well, I’m not. I think we’re being targeted. Someone broke into the shed last night.”

“I heard. Moore is here.”

“You called her? God, Liv. I get that you need to punish me, but seriously? You’re talking to the cops instead of me?”

“Calm down.”

“Don’t you always say telling someone tocalm downis equal to the patriarchy sayingshut up, you ridiculous woman?”

“Yeah, I do. How’s it feel?” she snaps.

She hears him breathe deeply through his nose, mastering his emotions so he doesn’t explode. Maybe he needs to explode. Maybe they both do.

“This isn’t my fault, Liv. I didn’t do anything wrong, and I’m just as shocked as you are about the news. And now someone’s breaking in, stealing things. They took my gun, for God’s sake. Please. Just...come home so we can talk. We need to make a plan. I know you’re still pissed at me. I want to... I don’t know. I want to protect you. Protect us. I want to go back to when everything was fine.” His voice cracks, and a little piece of her heart shatters.

Her rational mind knows he didn’t ask for this, any more than she did, that he’s hurting, and she wants to go to him, to hold him, to hear his words of succor. Her pride won’t cooperate.

“There’s nothing to explain, Park. Lies of omission are just that, lies. Now they’re coming back to haunt you. Did you tell the police everything that happened at school?”

“I didn’t lie to you, damn it, and Chapel Hill is not relevant at all, and you know it. Why would you even bring it up?”

“I don’t know, maybe because a woman was found dead in a lake. And your son is mimicking your past. Oh, and did you hear the other news? Perry is coming home.”

She can feel Park go utterly still, imagines his face draining of color, his lips thinning, the muscle twitching in his jaw that pops when he grinds his teeth in anger.

“Low blow, Olivia,” he says, and hangs up.

She wishes she could slam down the phone, slam a door, anything to bring the call to a close with crashing finality.Fuck him. Fuck him!

It hurts her to yell at him. She’s never been a fan of fighting like this. But she feels like she’s driven her car into a brick wall. Totaled. She is totaled inside, and she can’t pretend things are okay any longer.

Look what he’s done to them. He’s destroyed their life together, with one terrible lie.

Again.

She bites her lip and shakes her head, anger welling deep inside her. Her life as she knows it is over. Her husband is a liar. Her womb is empty. Perry is coming back, and she’s managed to weaponize him before he’s even reached the city limits. A killer is on the loose.

And the detective is standing five feet away, going pale as she listens to someone on her phone. She clicks off looking so stricken Olivia is compelled to ask, “What’s wrong?”