Page 54 of The Liar's Wife

He turned to me, nodded, but didn’t linger. He didn’t recognize me. I meant nothing to him, though he took everything from me. I knocked on Palmer’s door with a fire in my belly, bile rising in my throat.

“What the hell was Nathan Creswell doing here?” I asked, my body trembling with anger.

“How do you know Nate?” Palmer asked, taking our sleeping son from my arms.

“How doyouknow Nate?”

Her skin flushed scarlet. Before she answered, the realization hit me. No. There was no wayher Natewasmy Nathan. “He was…my ex. The one before you.”

My stomach dropped. “What are you talking about?”

“Nate and I dated for eight years before you and I got together. How do you know him?” she asked again.

I shook my head, finding it hard to catch my breath. I couldn’t tell her. Not now. Maybe not ever. Perhaps therapy wasn’t working as well as I thought if I could still lie so easily. “Just from…you know, around.”

She gave an unsure laugh. “Okay…”

“What was he doing here?” I pressed. “I thought you hadn’t talked to your ex in years.”

“I hadn’t,” she said, her voice guarded. “He came by my office yesterday. Wanted to grab brunch. We just got back.”

I kept my face still, emotionless. I couldn’t react. To react would be to lose it.

“We’re seeing other people, Ben. You agreed.”

I did, technically, but just because she pressed the issue. She needed space from me, and I couldn’t blame her. “Right,yeah. Of course. I just didn’t realize you were seeing him. You said he was an alcoholic. That he cheated on you.”

“People change, Ben. I’m not dating him, anyway. We just went out for brunch. As friends.”

“Are you planning to see him again?” I clenched my fists at my sides.

“Maybe. We didn’t talk about it. Is it a problem?” she asked, walking to lay Gray on the couch. She headed back to me, her arms crossed.

“Not at all. I wish you the best, you know that. But I’m not giving you up.” I nodded, hoping I sounded more genuine than I felt.

“I never asked you to,” she said, a hint of a smile on her perfect lips. I leaned down to kiss them, just barely.

When we parted, the crimson of her cheeks had darkened even more. I still did that to her. “Listen, I’ve got to go. I have work in an hour.”

“Sounds good.” She leaned forward, giving me a quick hug and a peck on the cheek. “See you this weekend?”

“See you then,” I vowed. By this weekend, all would be well again. By this weekend, Nathan Creswell wouldn’t be in my way. I waited until she’d shut the door to dart down the hall and onto the street in time to see which direction he was headed. He stopped at a little red sports car, digging in his pants pocket for his keys. Adrenaline coursed through my body as I approached him.

“Hey, bud, can you help me with something?”

He looked up, his lip curled. “What’s that?”

After you’d killed once, it wasn’t that hard to kill again.

I wondered if he felt the same. Then again, he wasn’t a murderer. Not technically. It was just manslaughter. Wrongful fetal death, they’d called it. A .28 alcohol bloodlevel, a stoplight he couldn’t be bothered to stop at, and a car crash that would end the world as I knew it.

“I’ve got something in my car, but I can’t carry it by myself. It’s for Palmer, the woman upstairs. She didn’t want to leave her son alone…”

He groaned, looking up at the apartment building. He didn’t want to help me. That was the kind of person he was, but he’d do it for Palmer. He wanted her again. At least for a little while.

“Fine. Sure.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Where’d you park?”

“Oh, great, thank you so much. I’m just right around here,” I told him, pointing around the side of the building, past the security camera’s line of vision. I’d never stepped in front of them, keeping a safe space. If anyone watched them, they’d never see who he was talking to. He followed me around the building and toward the back of the parking garage.