Ken stared at her. "You stabbed three people to death a few hours ago. So tell me what's going on."

"I said we could do this as a team."

"Right. And I said no. I'm not into that idea at all. At all."

"It might bring us closer together."

"It's not up for discussion. I'm taking her down to the basement and putting her in her cage. End of talk. We're done."

"We're not done," said Vivian. "Maybe you don't think we should do this as a couple. Fine. But we're a family and we should behave that way."

"What are you getting at?"

"What do you think I'm getting at?"

"You tell me, since I really don't like what I’m hearing."

"Our family has problems. We all know it. You and I bicker all the time, Jared barely talks to us, he gets in trouble at school—maybe he needs an outlet."

"He has an outlet. You think he's just playing Mario Kart with the girls who come over?"

"I know what he's doing with those girls. I'm not as oblivious as you think I am. I know about your talk, where you told him he'd be on his own if he got one of them pregnant. Going for father of the year, huh?"

"Were you spying on us?"

Vivian let out an incredulous laugh. "No, I wasn't spying on you! I wasn't even home! He told me about it. Jared trusts me. We have no secrets. I drove one of the girls out of town to get an abortion."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You heard me. It was months ago. Her parents paid for it. Jared was very supportive of her."

"Fine," said Ken. "He was nice to some chick he knocked up. What does this have to do with us coming together as a family?"

"You're not listening."

"Apparently not."

"Do you think Jared didn't know about you?"

"I beg your fucking pardon?"

"He didn't know you were a psychopath who locked women in cages, but he knew about your cover story. He's known about it since your first victim."

Ken's mind was reeling. Surely she was making all of this up. Vivian just wanted to inflict psychological torture on him. She was insane.

"If Jared is in this house, I'll..." Ken trailed off.

"You'll what?" Vivian asked.

"I don't know."

"You'll hit me? Strangle me? Lock me in a cage?"

"Is Jared here?"

Vivian nodded. "He's downstairs."

Ken wanted to scream "Are you out of your mind?" at her, but only the basement was soundproofed. She had to be messing with him. This couldn't possibly be real. No way would she bring their son to this house.

"Please tell me you're lying," he said.

"I'm not."

"So you told him what you did?"

"I spared him some of the details, but yes."