"You told our son, our sixteen-year-old son, that you committed three murders today? One of them completely planned and in cold blood?" Ken couldn't believe he was asking this question.

"Yes."

"Oh my God."

"He knew about the men I killed before he was born."

"How long has he known?"

"A while."

"How the hell was I kept in the dark about this?"

"I suppose you were too focused on your own playthings."

Ken plopped down on the couch next to Charlene. Yesterday things had been so simple. Now everything was spiraling out of control. He just sat there, massaging his forehead to make the sudden splitting headache go away. He had one obvious question, and assumed that Vivian would offer the answer without prompting, but she simply watched him.

"What did Jared say when you told him?" he asked.

"He was happy."

"He was happy?"

"As happy as Jared gets, yes."

"Okay, but what the hell did he say?"

"He is literally fifteen seconds away from you. Why are you interrogating me instead of just going down there and talking to him?"

"Because I'd like some sort of clue about what I'm in for."

"I told you he was happy."

"That's not enough information."

"He was completely into the idea of the family kill."

"What?"

"Are you going to keep asking me to repeat myself, or are you going to go downstairs and talk to your son?"

"A family kill was never on the table," said Ken. "That wasn't the deal. That was never the deal. She's mine."

"I thought you could show him how it's done."

"How it's done is I put her in a cage and watch. That's it. It's not a shared family experience."

"Well, maybe you could do this one a little differently."

"No! Why didn't you tell me any of this before I went after her? In what universe should I come home and find out that you went behind my back and invited our goddamn son to kill a woman with me? You're supposed to be the rational one in the household! Do you have any concept of how fucked up this conversation is? Any concept at all?"

"I do, actually," said Vivian. "And I'm the one with our best interests in mind. It's all out in the open now. No secrets."

"No secrets. Great." Ken stood up, causing Charlene's unconscious body to flop over onto its side. "Why stop here? How about the next time we decide to have sex, we invite Jared into the bedroom to watch? Huh? How about that?"

"Don't be disgusting."

"I don't think you get that if people had to decide which was more mentally ill, a teenage boy watching his parents fuck, or Mom, Dad, and Junior killing somebody together, almost everybody would choose the murder."

"I suppose you took a survey on your way over?"