Hate what she made me…as if he had no choice. Blame is for the woman. Always the woman. I tilt my head back and grit my teeth so hard my jaw hurts.
“Asshole!” I yell at the ceiling, and the house seems to wake up. The walls groan, and even the floorboards seem to vibrate. The house is like a slumbering monster opening an eye.
The house likes my anger. It feeds off it.
I don’t know where the thought comes from, but I feel the rightness of it. The house has been asleep for years, and now it’s waking up. I haul myself upright and sit on the edge of the couch, anger roaring through my blood, heating me up until I’m burning with it. I smash my fist into the couch, and upstairs, I swear I hear a door bang open.
“Asshole!” I scream it again. It roars up the stairs, bleeds under the cracks of every closed door like smoke. Like fire.
I snatch up my phone, heart racing with fury, and smash in Joe’s bank details again. And there it is. At 7:51 tonight, he spent $54.75 at Chinese Palace in Ellenvale. A town forty minutes away from Andy’s place. Sure, they might’ve gone there together. Maybe even had a few beers and bitched about me over crab cakes. I could believe that. I scroll down and nearly hiss in rage. But I doubt Joe would’ve spent $35 at Stalks and Stems for Andy.
“A fucking florist,” I tell the house, flipping the glowing screen toward the wall so the house can read it. So it canseeit.
I slam the phone down on the coffee table. My husbandknowsI check his bank statements. Is this his half-assed way of letting me know he’s having an affair? How listless and passive-aggressive of him. He always was a coward.
My head pounds viciously, and nausea creeps up the back of my throat. But I’m too angry to care. I squeeze my eyes shut, fists planted like rocks at my sides. The house seems to hold its breath. But I know it’s really waiting. The smoke is here. But the house wants the fire.Cravesit.
I never thought Joe would cheat on me. But of course he would. You lose ’em how you get ’em.
My eyes snap open. Oh, shit. What’s going to happen if he asks for a divorce? I might be an F-grade celebrity, but people know I’m married. I’ve kept Joe’s face out of my social media posts. He’s paranoid someone will recognize him from our hometown. But I doubt I could keep our divorce a secret. My heart plummets to my feet. What if people found out about his affair? After all,Iwrote the book on marriage. Well, a few chapters on it, anyway: “The Spark and How to Keep It Alive.” And “Fuck like Everyone’s Watching.”
Nausea creeps steadily up my throat as I imagine the comments on my feed.
If Sarah Slade can’t even keep her husband, then why the hell should I buy her book??
Relationship expert, my ass!!
She should lose her license. Bitch can’t even keep a man.
How dare Joe fuck this up.How fucking dare he.
Slowly, I stand up. The nausea retreats, and for an icy moment I am stone-cold sober. I gave up everything for Joe. He forgets that.Ifled my hometown too. Everything I’d ever known, all for him. All for a manwho never loved me. A man who let me work full time for three years while he lay on the couch, playingSkyrimuntil 3a.m.
The house closes in around me like a warm jacket, heating me up. It’s on my side. It hates Joe for doing this to me.Hateshim. He’s going to ruin everything I’ve worked for. And I realize with dull shock that I can’t let him. Ican’t.I couldn’t handle people finding out about my husband’s infidelity. Couldn’t handle him asking for a divorce.
I couldn’t handle that at all.
BLACK WOOD SHOCK:
SECOND BODY DISCOVERED AT MURDER HOUSE
July 2
ABC News, Melbourne
The mystery of what happened at Black Wood House has deepened after police discovered a second body today. It’s been two days since police found the first body. But after searching the area again, police admitted to finding a second victim early this morning.
Police have revealed the second body was discovered in an unusual part of the house but are tight-lipped about the cause of death. Rumors are swirling about the identities of the bodies, but police are remaining silent for now.
As reported earlier, Sarah Slade and her husband, Joe Cosgrove, bought the famed Black Wood House more than two months ago and have not been heard from since the first body was discovered.
“There’s a lot more tests that need to be done,” said Beacon police sergeant, Eddie Johnson. “Police and the coroner’s office are working to identify the victims. Then we’ll notify the next of kin.”
But one thing is for certain: Foul play is involved.
“Due to the significant injuries sustained by both parties,” Sergeant Johnson stated, “we’ll now be investigating this as a double murder.”
Chapter 16
