"Don't you dare pretend that you don't know what I'm talking about! Is she inside? I'm not going to hurt her. I'm just going to tell her to stay the hell away from you."

"She's not inside."

"Bullshit." Vivian stormed into the garage. Ken hurriedly followed her.

She tried to open the door to the inside. When the knob wouldn't turn, she began to pound on the door.

"Nobody's inside," Ken said.

"Fucking liar!" Vivian pounded on the door even harder. "Open up! Open the fuck up!"

"Quiet!" Ken said. "The neighbors will hear."

"You think I care?" She continued to pound on the door.

"I said, nobody's inside."

"Then unlock the door."

"I don't have a key."

"Do you want me to search you?"

Defeated, Ken took out the key and unlocked the door. Before he'd even pulled the key out of the lock, Vivian opened the door and walked inside. Ken considered the possibility of jumping in his car, speeding off, and leaving his entire life behind, but he followed her instead.

If she went into Darrell's room, she'd see all of the sex toys, and there'd be no way to convince her that they didn't belong to him. He didn't think Darrell would show up to serve as a character witness.

But she didn't. She stopped at the door to the staircase. She tapped the passcode display.

"What's down there?" she asked.

"I don't know."

"Why does it have a high-tech lock like this?"

"I don't know."

"Ken, I'm going to find out what's behind this door. You can show me yourself, or I can go down there with a locksmith. Which do you want?"

"Can't we talk about this?"

Vivian shook her head so violently that he thought she might hurt her neck. "No, because you keep lying. Unlock the door. Unlock it now."

Ken punched in the four-digit code. Vivian opened the door and walked down the stairs.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" she asked as she reached the second door and the second passcode lock.

"Let me explain first," said Ken.

"I don't want you to explain. I want you to open the door."

"It's going to be upsetting."

"Yeah, I figured that out when we got to the second goddamn locked door."

There would be no dissuading her from this. He could, in theory, use the stun gun on her, but she was his wife and he'd never physically harm her. Not ever. He'd never laid a hand on her, and he never would.

He tried to think of some explanation he could offer, something to cushion the blow of what she was about to see, but he came up blank. What could he possibly say that would make these next few moments less horrifying?

Ken punched in the code. The door unlocked.

"It's going to smell bad," he said. "Brace yourself."

He opened the door.