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Back The Dead Husband Save as PDF
Contents ( 85)
  3. Contents
  4. Part I
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-One
  26. Twenty-Two
  27. Twenty-Three
  28. Twenty-Four
  29. Twenty-Five
  30. Twenty-Six
  31. Twenty-Seven
  32. Twenty-Eight
  33. Twenty-Nine
  34. Part II
  35. Thirty
  36. Thirty-One
  37. Thirty-Two
  38. Thirty-Three
  39. Thirty-Four
  40. Thirty-Five
  41. Thirty-Six
  42. Thirty-Seven
  43. Thirty-Eight
  44. Thirty-Nine
  45. Forty
  46. Forty-One
  47. Forty-Two
  48. Forty-Three
  49. Part III
  50. Forty-Four
  51. Forty-Five
  52. Forty-Six
  53. Forty-Seven
  54. Forty-Eight
  55. Forty-Nine
  56. Fifty
  57. Fifty-One
  58. Fifty-Two
  59. Fifty-Three
  60. Fifty-Four
  61. Fifty-Five
  62. Fifty-Six
  63. Fifty-Seven
  64. Fifty-Eight
  65. Fifty-Nine
  66. Sixty
  67. Sixty-One
  68. Sixty-Two
  69. Sixty-Three
  70. Sixty-Four
  71. Sixty-Five
  72. Sixty-Six
  73. Sixty-Seven
  74. Sixty-Eight
  75. Sixty-Nine
  76. Seventy
  77. Seventy-One
  78. Seventy-Two
  79. One
  80. Two
  81. Reading Group Guide
  82. A Conversation with the Author
  83. Acknowledgments
  84. About the Author

I swivel my head and scan the others, their faces frozen in the excitement of the moment. They are loving this.

“Are you kidding me?” I say. The night I didn’t want to go to hell has just gone there, but I no longer care. “You don’t appreciate my tone? I don’t appreciate you stalking me online and asking me questions about a personal tragedy you have no understanding or appreciation of. Maybe I’ll go and Google you. Bet I could find out a few things myself. You have no idea how much information a person can find with a little work. And trust me, I’m all about research.”

She doesn’t reply. I say nothing else. The tension in the room is thick, and no one says anything to break it. I expect someone to come to my side, maybe not Cora, but someone.

No one does.

“I think I’ll call it a night,” I say, standing. For a moment, I’m unsteady. Whether it’s the adrenaline or the wine, I sway just for a second before catching myself.

I walk to the kitchen, grab my purse, and take one last gulp before setting my glass on the granite countertop.

I don’t have to pass through the living room to get back to the front door, but I do. I walk slowly, giving them one last chance to say something. All their judgment. All their thousands of decisions about my existence, all calculated instantly and without error. And now they have a new decision to make about me. A big one.

Did she kill her husband?

They say nothing. I look over to Cora before I reach the front door. She’s smirking.

Of course she is.

Nineteen

Back home, I walk into Max’s room and find him on his Xbox.

“Hey,” I say. “I thought we said no screens tonight.”

He jerks around, surprised to see me.

“Yeah,” I say for him. “I’m back early. You weren’t expecting that, were you?”

“No.”

“Well, that’s not okay. I asked you to finish your homework, then you could read a book.”

“I did finish,” he says as he turns off the TV. “I read earlier, and I don’t want to do that anymore. There’s nothing else to do in this house.”

“Where’s Grandpa?”

He shrugs. “Downstairs, I guess.”

“Did you spend any time with him?”

“No.”

I sigh, walk over, and sit on his bed. “You can’t just stay in your room all the time. I need to be able to go out every now and then with other adults, so you have to be in charge of yourself sometimes. That doesn’t mean hiding in your room and playing games. Did you eat the dinner I made?”

He nods.

“Did you clean up your dishes?”

“Oh. I forgot.”

“Okay, here’s the plan,” I tell him. “Go downstairs, clean your dishes, say hello to Grandpa, and come back and get ready for bed. Do that and I’ll come say good night in a few minutes, okay?”