Page 153 of The Bad Husband

I glance up at the entrance before I peer down the street, searching for that man’s car.

It’s not always the same man guarding my place, and they’ve never approached me, but they are for sure his men. I’m certain of that.

Once I spot the vehicle, I walk in that direction.

As the evening slowly crawls in, the temperature drops and gusts of wind sweep my cheeks, leaving cold kisses.

I pull up next to his car and knock on the tinted window.

Once. Twice. The window slides down after the third knock.

A rough-looking man stares up at me.

I tilt my chin toward the cupcakes.

“Would you like one?”

He tilts his stare to the tray.

“You can have two,” I say.

Without a word, he scoops up two cupcakes.

He places one in the cupholder and holds the other, looking at me.

“You need something from me?” he asks, as I stall for a few moments.

We’ve rarely talked to each other since I came home at the end of summer.

These men lived at Damon’s property upstate New York with Henrietta and me.

Henrietta had clear instructions from Damon on what she and I should do.

My feeling was that he’d talked to her that night when he was picked up by the police.

I suspect he knew he’d be picked up and talked to her before he arrived home and had sex with me.

She didn’t discuss that with me. I didn’t expect her to, and we never talked about Damon again.

We traveled to New York and spent the rest of the summer in his beautiful vacation home.

Damon’s men l kept an eye on her and made sure nothing happened to me.

She and I would often go to town and eat out.

I worked at a local boutique for the rest of the summer just to fulfill my obligations and caught up with Keira in the evenings.

I haven’t heard from Damon since that night when he told me that he loved me. He eventually was cleared as a suspect in that triple murder––which doesn’t mean he didn’t do it–– and I thought for a moment that he’d fly up north and I’d see him enter the house, open his arms, and pull me into his chest.

That never happened.

I called him a couple of times, but he never answered my calls or called back.

I left it at that.

Once the summer break was over, I came home.

It felt so good to get reacquainted with my old life. I felt relieved. Henrietta and I no longer had to pretend that we were family.