Page 46 of The Liar's Wife

We made a plan. I was going to see her again, to try and smooth things over, explain what was happening and make sure everything was okay. I thought things went okay. With me, she was totally normal. She said she understood that we weren’t together, that she was only lying to save face, but she knew she had to tell the truth.

When she texted me and told me Palmer was in Crestview, I panicked. I didn’t know if it was even true. I didn’t know what she was doing there or what Kat would do.What Kat would tell her. I lied about the break-in, pretended to be panicked to get Palmer home, get her away from my ex-wife at all costs. I used a fork to break off a bit of the trim. It was stupid, I know, but we’ll just chalk it up to yet another dumb decision I made on the long list I’m sharing with you. It’s far from the worst.

When her dad called again, he said they were going to move her back in with them. They said it wasn’t safe to have her living alone anymore. She’d been erratic, missing all hours of the day and night, blowing through money, sleeping outside on the patio. They were terrified she was going to spiral further, and they wanted to act quickly. I was just supposed to keep her busy while they hired movers to empty her house and get her things set up in theirs. It was only one day. He asked me to take her out to dinner one more time, to keep her busy because she had no one else, and then to never speak to her again.

I thought it was the least I could do, honestly. I felt I owed it to them. To her. We went to eat somewhere crowded and public, like before, but she was agitated. Angry. She complained about her fight with her father. Complained about her food blogging. Complained about everything. She kept wanting to go home, but it was too early. Her father had asked me to keep her gone until mid-afternoon.

When she insisted, I went with her. If I could go back and change that, I would. If I could redo anything in my life, it would be that moment. That stupid, foolish, blind moment when I thought there was no way she could ever hurt me.

She was sick.

She was sad.

She was a lot of things.

But she wasn’t evil.

We went back to her house, and I insisted we go outside. With just a bit of a heads up, her dad had the movers take a lunch break. Luckily, he’d only had the bedrooms cleared out thus far, so I ushered her through the living room and kitchen before she could notice anything.

When I came outside and saw her trying to nurse my son, I nearly lost it. I knew then how far gone she was. If she hadn’t had Gray in her arms, I would’ve bolted. I would’ve thrown a fit. But how could I do that when I didn’t know what she was capable of? I didn’t know how far she’d fallen.

After I’d given her the bottle to feed him, I told her we had to go. Told her we had somewhere to be. Instead, I drove around the block, then parked next door at her parents’ house and told them what had happened. I told them how sorry I was, but I couldn’t help them anymore. They were on their own. I told them I’d continue to pay on the Red River mortgage, but that was it. I couldn’t put my wife and my son in danger. I saw it in their eyes then, it was just one more thing I was disappointing them on, but I couldn’t help it.

When I left their house, I buckled Gray in and walked around to my side of the car.

As soon as I sat down, the back door opened and shut, and I met her eyes in the rearview.

“What the—”

Something heavy smacked into my head with force.

Then it all went black.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Ben

When I came to, I’d been shoved over to the passenger’s side of my car. I wasn’t buckled in and wasn’t even really in the seat. Kat was driving, her eyes wide and maniacal. I screamed at her, my head pounding with every bump. I asked her to pull the car over, told her she didn’t really want this. I tried everything to get her to stop. Tried everything to get her to choose a different path.

Despite it all, that’s my biggest regret. Because she could’ve had a good life. She should’ve. She deserved better.

I remember smelling fish and saltwater when she stopped the car, my vision still blurry from my throbbing head. When I pulled down the visor to get a good look, there was a nasty gash on my forehead.

She was wearing my ball cap, and I watched as she climbed from the car, taking the keys with her. We were at the marina, but I couldn’t figure out why. I watched her saunter across the yard to the boat rental shack. She approached a group of guys, no one I knew, and handed them something that I couldn’t see.

I couldn’t worry about what she was doing. I had to act. It may have been my only chance. I got out of the car and shut my door carefully, lowering myself to the ground and crawling back toward Gray’s door. I stood up, pulling at the handle at the same time I heard the locks click.

She’d locked him in.

I pulled at the handle wildly, looking over the car to where she stood in the distance with my fob held in the air, a stern expression on her face. I pulled on the car door so hard the whole thing shook, trying to figure out how to break the window. It was ninety degrees and my son was locked in the car.

I slammed my elbow into it, which led to pain and nothing else, before she approached the car again, walking to block Gray’s door. “Do you want to come with us, or no?”

I looked to the group of guys, who were jogging off toward the lake, no idea what she was talking about. “Us who?”

“Not them,” she said with a scowl. “Gray and me. Do you want to go with us?”

“What are you talking about? You can’t take him anywhere. He needs to go home, Kat.” I tried to reason with her, to find the sane woman I’d loved not so long ago, but she was gone. Her eyes were empty and cold. “He needs to go home with me. To see his mother.” I spoke slowly, hoping to bring her back to reality. As much as I could see the madness, I still wanted to believe she was who I wanted her to be.