Page 47 of Rich Little Liars

I wanted to say no. Wanted to tell him to leave and never come back. That I’d get a divorce lawyer and split everything down the middle and build a new life that didn’t include him or his betrayal or the ghost of Roxanne between us.

But I was tired. So tired of fighting and hurting and pretending everything was fine when it clearly wasn’t.

‘I’ll think about it,’ I heard myself say.

He nodded, grabbed his wallet and keys from the dresser, and left. I listened to his footsteps retreat down the stairs. The front door opening. His car starting in the drive. The sound of it fading as he drove away.

Then I was alone.

I sat in that chair by the window and looked at the bed where I’d found them. The duvet was rumpled. Pillows askew. Evidence of what had almost happened.

My phone buzzed.

A text from Roxanne.

I’m so sorry. Please let me explain. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.

Like there was a right way for it to happen.

I stared at the message. Then I typed a response.

Stay away from me. Stay away from Daniel. Stay away from this house. If I see you again, I’ll make you regret ever knocking on my door.

I hit send before I could reconsider the threat. Before I could soften it into something more reasonable.

Three dots appeared immediately. She was typing.

Then they disappeared.

No response came.

Good.

I went through the house collecting every item she’d left here over the past weeks. The throw blanket. The framed print. The kitchen knives she’d bought because ours were too blunt. The wine she’d brought last week that we’d never opened.

I piled it all by the front door. A monument to my own stupidity. To the weeks I’d spent letting her dismantle my life while convincing myself she was just a friend in need.

How had I not seen it? How had I missed the signs that now seemed so obvious? The way she looked at Daniel. The way she engineered time alone with him. The constant presence that should have felt intrusive but which I’d let become normal.

Because I’d been lonely too. That was the truth of it. Daniel and I had been drifting for so long that when Roxanne appeared – warm and interested and filling the silence – I’d been grateful. Had wanted the companionship badly enough to ignore every warning sign.

I’d invited the wolf in and acted surprised when it bit.

My phone vibrated again.

Not Roxanne this time – Daniel.

I’m staying at The Brenton. Room 14 if you need me. I’m sorry. I love you.

I read the message three times. That last part especially. I love you. Did he? Could you love someone and betray them in the same breath? Could you claim affection while destroying trust?

Maybe. People were complicated. Love was complicated. And maybe Daniel did love me in whatever way he understood love. That didn’t make what he’d done acceptable. Didn’t erase the image of him and Roxanne on our bed.

But it did make it harder to hate him completely.

Maybe that was the plan.

I didn’t respond to his message. Just set the phone down and walked through the house flicking on lights. Making the place shine against the gathering darkness outside. If neighbours looked, let them see. Let them wonder about the woman whose husband had just driven away and who now sat alone in her lit-up house among piles of another woman’s belongings.