Chapter 3

It felt like something inside me collapsed, but on the surface, I was unnervingly calm. "Why did the client's kid call Mary 'Grandma'?"

The air froze. Jessica's face went pale.

Charles's eyes darkened. "Kids say random things. What's so strange about that?"

"Is that so?" I stared at him. "Then why did he call you 'Dad' just now?"

Charles's head snapped up. "You heard wrong."

Before I could say anything, Peggy came out of the room, leaning against the wall, her expression sour. "Wanda, you start interrogating people like they're criminals as soon as you come home. Is that fun?

"A kid says a couple of wrong things, and you twist it into something dirty. Charles is busy all day, taking care of everything inside and outside the house. You don't help, fine, but you're making things worse."

She glanced at Jessica, and then, almost as an afterthought, added, "Some people can't have kids themselves, so they can't stand seeing others with children."

My head buzzed. Those words were like a knife, stabbing straight into me.

Charles and I had been married for three years. It was not that we didn't want kids. He always said he was too busy with work, that we should wait.

Once, I suggested we get checked out first, and he hugged me and said, "I just want you to be relaxed. I don't want having a baby to be like a chore."

And now, here he was, in our living room, with another woman, watching a child who called him "Dad".

I looked at Charles, suddenly wanting to know which of his words were true and which were lies.

I didn't say a word. I headed straight into the master bedroom.

As soon as the door clicked shut, voices started arguing in hushed tones outside.

I sat on the edge of the bed, and my hands wouldn't stop shaking.

On the nightstand, there was still a photo from our honeymoon.

In the picture, he was holding me, smiling so tenderly, like nothing else in the world mattered but me.

I stared at it for a few seconds, and then turned the frame face down.

Ten minutes later, Charles pushed the door open. "Wanda, you're in a bad mood today. Let's talk."

I looked at him. "Okay, let's talk."

He sat down across from me and let out a sigh. "Jessica isn't a client. She's an old college classmate, and she's a single mom. Her kid's been sick a lot lately, so I introduced a doctor to her.

"After the check-up today, it was pretty late, and my mom felt sorry for the kid, so she let them hang out here for a while.

"Don't read too much into it. There's really nothing going on between us."

I stared at Charles and suddenly asked, "Why does that kid look so much like you, then?"

He froze for a moment, and then actually laughed. "Wanda, are you really trying to decide who one's family is just by how they look?

"Have you been too stressed lately? Maybe you should take a break and stop going to work for a bit."

I looked up. "What are you trying to say?"

"Nothing. I just think you're not acting like yourself lately." He reached out to touch me, but I dodged him. "See? You freak out over something as simple as changing the locks.

"You make a big deal out of every little thing. Wanda, you never used to be like this."

Same trick again. First, Charles denied what happened, then he brushed off how I felt, and finally, he acted like the whole problem was me.

If the property management hadn't told me the locks had been changed five times in just two weeks, and if I hadn't heard that kid call him "Dad" with my own ears, maybe I really would've started to think I was being paranoid.

But I wasn't.

I looked at Charles and gave a slow smile. "Maybe."

He clearly hadn't expected that, and he paused for a second, caught off guard.

I lowered my eyes, my voice softer. "I've really been exhausted lately. That was just me being impulsive."

Charles visibly relaxed, the tension in his eyes fading.

He was always good at treating my concessions like they were his right.

He said, "See? I told you not to overthink it. Jessica and Tommy will be leaving soon."

"Okay." I nodded. "By the way, can you set me up as the admin for the door lock? So I won't end up locked out again next time."

He looked at me, his eyes flickering. "Tomorrow. It's too late tonight."

"Okay."

That night, I didn't stir up any more drama. I even went out and finished my dinner without showing a hint of emotion.

Jessica sat across from me, holding the kid like she'd done it a thousand times.

She was like a cat, always ready to stake her claim, but pretending to be harmless.

At dinner, Peggy kept putting food on Tommy's plate, three times in a row. "Eat up. Boys need to eat to grow up healthy."

Then she shot me a look. "A house only feels like a home when there's a kid around."

I ignored her.

As I was ladling out soup, I accidentally angled my phone just right. The camera was still rolling.

By midnight, the living room finally went quiet. I heard the front door make another noise.

I got up and peeked out through the crack in the master bedroom door.

Mary was crouched by the door, using a screwdriver to take off the lock panel.

Charles stood nearby, his voice barely above a whisper. "Take this one off first. We'll install the fingerprint module tomorrow. If Wanda comes out and asks, just say it's broken."

Mary asked, "Do we really have to go through all this hassle? What if she gets suspicious?"

Charles was quiet for a few seconds, his voice flat. "She's already suspicious. Now's exactly when we need to make her question herself even more."

I froze.

He went on, "The more we swap out the locks, the more messed up her memory gets. Once she can't even tell which lock was on which day, we'll get a doctor to say something's wrong with her, and then everything will be a breeze."

Mary gasped. "Isn't this a little much?"

"Too much?" Charles sneered. "She's got the house and the shares in her name. If we don't make her break down first, how are we supposed to get her to sign it all away?"

I pressed my hand hard over my mouth, holding it shut so I wouldn't make a single sound.

In that moment, the truth crashed down on me.

Charles wasn't just having an affair, or trying to bring another woman into my house. He wanted to wipe me out of this home, once and for all.