Her green eyes open wide as she stares into mine. Her shoulders start to shake, like she’s convulsing. “You’re right. I never believed you.”
I want to wrap her in a hug, but first, I have a lot of explaining to do.
So I start. “I fell for you that night we met at the bar, the first time wereallymet. By then I already knew Cassie and I were doomed. Our marriage was always fake, but it felt like it had all been for nothing. I thought my life was over. It was. And then I walked into that bar, and it’s like you were there to rescue me.”
I shuffle even closer to her until our thighs touch. I need to be against her. To feel her, like before. “I didn’t buy the flashy engagement ring. The first time I saw it was on Cassie’s finger that day when the three of us were in the living room. And I didn’t plan the trip here.”
I pause then, knowing Reese will want to protest. Because I tried to tell her already, after Cassie sprung that on me, onus.I can still picture it, the way Cassie looked at her sister, waiting for her pain to manifest. Then I thought Cassie had found out about us. We were careful though. Whenever we were at the house, Reese wouldn’t even look at me, wouldn’t allow me in the same room as her, even when Cassie wasn’t home.Especiallywhen she wasn’t home. And Reese worked so hard—at a clothing store every weekend, at the bar most nights, at any other odd job she could pick up. But the moments we did have, we made them count. I had never felt so happy. Scared shitless, but happy.
Cassie must have guessed. She was fucking with us; hence the sudden “engagement.” That night, after Cassie’s bizarre announcement, I’d sent Reese a message. Soon after meeting, we’d each created new Instagram accounts (frenchguynewyork for me and thereseladouce for her) so we could communicate when we couldn’t talk in the house. Reese wouldn’t text using our phone numbers—too risky. But now the account was gone. I couldn’t send her a message. I tried to talk to her, but she wouldn’t let meutter a word. Reese thought I’d betrayed her, and she’d cut me out of her life in an instant.
Now she takes a deep breath, staring straight ahead at the trees. “You have to see why it’s a little hard for me to believe you. You told me you loved me, that you couldn’t stand being without me. That you mightkillfor me. A few hours later, Cassie announces that you two are engaged and going to Paris to celebrate. And then you come home and double down, talking about a surprise wedding, saying that the trip to Paris is actually your honeymoon. Sure, she could have been lying. Wouldn’t be the first time. But you went along with all of it. You married her again, in front of everyone we know, and went off on your honeymoon as I watched you go. And that’s not even all of it. I got into that suite and you stopped me. You savedher. You knockedmeover and threw me out in the hallway.”
“Ihadto do all of these things! That night, I saw an opportunity. After weeks of paying little attention to me, Cassie was acting like she wanted to be with me again, with her blingy engagement ring and the tickets to Paris. It couldn’t have turned out better, in fact. Suddenly, it all looked real between us again, the way it needed to be for my plan to work.”
I take a deep breath and get up. I can’t say what I have to say while looking at her.
I start pacing back and forth in front of the bench, aware of her gaze on me. “If you hadn’t walked into our room tonight, Cassie would be gone.” Reese lets out a gasp, barely audible, but it’s there. I look at her. “Why are you even here, in Paris?”
She seems to ponder the question, hurt and confusion written all over her face. But she’s not ready and I won’t push her.
So I go on with the rest of the story. “That afternoon in the car, what I said about getting rid of Cassie… I was serious. And you didn’t stop me. You didn’t tell me I was out of my mind, or that you would call the police. You didn’t throw me out of the car, and you didn’t run away. That’s all I needed to know. But then, of course, Cassie had her own plans.
“You were mad. I got it. You didn’t know I had nothing to do with them. And then I realized I couldn’t involve you in any of it. I couldn’t stand to be away from you, but it would all be worth it in the end. So I kept doing my research and read an article about a woman who drowned in her bath. She was exhausted and drank too much. Most likely she dozed off, slipped to the bottom, and that was that. A friend found her body two days later.
“And then I read something else, about Americans dying abroad. That makes it hard for the government to get answers. They have to deal with the police in the other country, and the local law enforcement is going to care less about a foreigner, especially if her death appears accidental. So many people die every day. They can’t investigate everything in too much depth.”
Reese looks up at me, her eyes full of questions she doesn’t want to spell out. I come to kneel in front of her and rest my hands on her thighs. “The hotel we’re staying at… It’s the one where I used to work.”
“I noticed that, but I thought it was more proof that youdidorganize the honeymoon.”
“Cassie had already made up that story about our engagement and booked the flights. There was no turning back. But then she left the rest up to me, a huge mistake on her part. I told her I had the perfect place in mind. When I worked at Bhotel, before I moved to New York, I was friends with some of the security guys. They often commented about the cameras on the sixth floor. They didn’t work, so you couldn’t see who was coming in and out of the two suites at the end of the corridor near the fire exit. The guys thought maybe it was because famous people sometimes stayed there and they wanted privacy. If you looked closely enough, you could see that they weren’t even wired.
“That’s the first thing I did when Cassie and I arrived. As soon as she got into the bathroom, I went to check the cameras. And then I found out that the security code to the service entrance at the back hadn’t changed. I walked around a little, went to take a shower at the gym, and no onerecognized me. Now, I couldn’t hope that a little wine would be enough in this case. Cassie wouldn’t die on her own. I wouldn’t be so lucky.”
Reese doesn’t react. The sisters didn’t just despise each other. The hatred ran deep. The name thing alone… Cassie and her mother wouldn’t even call her by her real name? That was messed up. When Reese had introduced herself at the bar, I was so confused.
My name is not Taylor, she’d said as soon as it was just the two of us.But Cassie couldn’t pronounce my real name. At first she called me T. Then she settled on Taylor. Her mom thought it was cute and that it would help me fit in at school. A few years later, when she officially adopted me, she changed my full name to Taylor Quinn. My real name is Thérèse, with the accents. The French way. But Reese is easier.
I sit down next to her and run a hand through her hair. I like the new color, the shorter length. It strikes me all over again, how beautiful she is. “Do you want to hear the rest of it?”
She nods, tilting her head so her cheek rubs against my arm. She always loved to be touched, could never get enough of being in my arms, pressed tight against my body.
I continue. “Before we left, I told Cassie that jet lag would be brutal, especially for someone who’d never experienced it before. She immediately called her dealer buddy, who got her a bottle of prescription sleeping pills. And then I had to wait for the moment when it would make sense for me to go out for the night without her. Before I left, I ordered her room service, with a bottle of wine. When she wasn’t looking, I crushed a handful of pills and poured them into the bottle. I just needed her unconscious enough; the amount couldn’t look too suspicious.
“Then I went out with old colleagues from the hotel restaurant who no longer worked there. They’d been surprised to hear from me, but I’d told them I was passing through on the way to visiting my parents. We hadn’t been close, but I knew they were big drinkers and even bigger partyers. They wouldn’t notice if I slipped out for some of the night. I watched Cassie’s InstagramStories, even texted her that I hoped she was having a good evening. Then I came back to the hotel and entered through the service entrance. I went up the staircase and into the hallway with the nonfunctioning cameras. All she needed was a little push under water to be sure. Then I’d be gone again, seen at the bar with my ex-colleagues. I’d come back hours later to discover her body.”
Reese swallows hard. “But I beat you to it.”
“At first I thought you were an intruder. But when I realized it was you, I couldn’t take the risk anymore. You would have shown up on the cameras. My alibi wasn’t perfect, but it existed. I couldn’t let you take the fall for it.”
She’s silent for a while. When she speaks, her voice sounds hollow. “I couldn’t let you go to Paris without me. And I couldn’t let her get away with this. That’s why I’m here. I did believe you that afternoon, when you told me you wanted to get rid of Cassie. I–I…”
She starts shaking as tears stream down her face. I wrap her in my arms, and to my surprise, she doesn’t resist. There’s so much more I want to say—that Ineedto say. Time is running out, but I can’t take this moment away from her. So I wait until she’s ready to continue.
“I wanted that, too,” she whispers at last. “That afternoon, it hit me: there was a light at the end of the tunnel, a life without her. I didn’t realize how much I wanted that until you said it out loud. I could move on from this. I could walk away from her. And then, maybe, there could be a life with you. It seemed too good to be true, but the way you said it, it felt possible, too.”
She looks up and our eyes meet. I want to cry, too. We were so close.Soclose.
