“For what?”
“To create a narrative to destroy the bitch, what else?”
“Okay. I’ll send you all the digital copies, but that’s not the main problem.”
I say nothing. I know what she’s thinking.
“Elliot, maybe…you should show your wife you’re the one she should lean on. Not that I object to helping her, but you are her husband. You should be her first choice.”
“She won’t do it. She doesn’t think of me that way.”
“You two were so happy when you left for your honeymoon. What happened?”
I hesitate, then give her a short summary about how I lost it when I found out about Belle’s connection to Grayson…who’s working for Keith.
“Good god. I had no idea… Why didn’t you give her a chance to explain?”
“I gave her plenty of chances to come clean before I knew about all this. She could’ve told me then, and I would’ve believed her because it would have been her telling me. But when truth comes from a private investigator, it’s not the same.”
“Maybe she had a good reason for not saying anything. Sometimes we do stupid things out of fear…or love.”
Love. Belle used to tell me she loved me, and it only added to my sense of betrayal when I found out. The love she professed seemed so manipulative—something she tossed out in case she needed cover to protect herself when I learned everything. But I realize it wasn’t any of those things, and I want that love back…even though I’m certain I’m not worthy of it anymore.
“When I finally gave her a chance to make me understand it from her perspective, she told me, but…” I dig my free hand into my hair. “The damage had been done.”
Elizabeth is quiet for a moment. “Maybe things went wrong from the beginning. Did Annabelle Underhill give you guys trouble before or after your decision to take her to honeymoon?”
“Before.”
“How strongly did you nip it in the bud?”
I clench my teeth. I didn’t, because I owed her uncle.
My silence is answer enough. “So from your wife’s point of view, you didn’t eviscerate Dad’s Wife Number Three the first time, and she’s coming back to cause trouble again. What’s she supposed to think?”
“I didn’t encourage her, but I couldn’t turn her away, either,” I say. “She asked me for help, claiming that her husband was physically abusing her.”
“What? Stanton beats her?”
“She showed me the bruises on her arms.” Elizabeth’s gasp fills my ear, and I go on. “Trust me, if it hadn’t been for that I wouldn’t have been so patient with her.”
“I never suspected… I mean, Stanton’s always so…gentlemanly. Did you confront him about it?”
“No. She just wanted the name of an attorney who could handle her divorce, since she claimed she couldn’t get anybody to help her. So I referred her to the Sterlings’ lawyers.”
“Good god. I never heard about any of that.”
“Well…” I pause, my eyebrows tightening. How can Elizabeth be ignorant of something like this? She’s too well connected, too well liked. People talk to her, include her in gossip even when she isn’t interested just because they want to share with her. They’re lucky she isn’t an undercover NSA agent.
“I’ll send you what you need,” Elizabeth says. “But I also want you think about what I said. I know it’s only for a year, but it could be a very good year if you let it.”
“I know.”
And it could’ve been more than a year. I realize that I’ve been subconsciously dreaming of more, and that’s why I have such extreme depths of feeling concerning Belle, why I flew off the handle at the possibility she would betray me the way Annabelle Underhill did.
But my past is mine to bear. If I’m not careful, it’ll tear us apart.
First… I need to take care of the problem of Annabelle Underhill. I text Paddington: Tail Annabelle Underhill. I want to know what she’s up to.