Chapter 3
The deputy paused.
“What did you just say?”
My mother smiled.
A terrible, triumphant smile.
“I said I’ve got Olivia. Your perfect little wife. You think she’s been just washing dishes all this time?”
She looked directly at me.
“Ask her where she was on March nineteenth. Ask her why she needed three thousand dollars cash that she couldn’t explain. Ask her about the man who picks her up every Tuesday afternoon in a gray Ford F-150.”
The world tilted.
Olivia?
My Olivia?
No.
It couldn’t be.
She would never—
But for half a second…
Half a terrible, poisonous second…
I believed her.
Because I had been gone so much.
Because Olivia had become distant.
Because she had stopped answering certain questions.
Because I had found receipts for hotels in Austin that I couldn’t explain.
My mother saw the doubt cross my face.
She pounced.
“See? Even you know it’s true. She’s been cheating on you, Ethan. While you were sweating on those construction sites, your wife was spreading her legs for another man. And I helped her cover it up. Because that’s what family does.”
The relatives whispered.
Stared.
Judged.
I felt the blood drain from my face.
Then I heard a sound from the house.
The back door opening.
Olivia stepped onto the patio.
Still holding Mason.
Her face was pale.
But her eyes were dry.
She had heard every word.
“March nineteenth,” she said.
Her voice was stronger than I had ever heard it.
“I was at the hospital. With your mother.”
Silence again.
My mother’s smile faltered.
“What?”
“March nineteenth,” Olivia repeated.
“You called me screaming at four in the morning. You said you’d taken too many pills. You said you were going to die and it would be my fault. I drove you to Medical City Plano. I sat in the ER for seven hours while they pumped your stomach. I told Ethan you had the flu. Because you begged me. Because you said if he knew the truth, he’d send you away and you’d have nowhere to go.”
She took a step forward.
“The three thousand dollars? That was to pay off your gambling debt to a man named Rico in Arlington. He showed up here with a baseball bat. You were on your knees crying. I gave him every dollar we had in savings so he wouldn’t break your legs. Again, I didn’t tell Ethan. Because you promised you’d get help.”
Her voice didn’t break.
Not once.
“The gray Ford F-150? That’s my brother, Jake. He comes every Tuesday to help me lift Mason’s crib and carry groceries because my shoulder is messed up from… from all the things you make me do. You know that. You just call him ‘the man’ because you want Ethan to think the worst of me.”
She looked directly at my mother.
“You told me if I ever told Ethan any of this, you’d take Mason away. You said you’d tell the courts I was unstable. You said you had friends in Child Protective Services. You said you’d make sure I never saw my baby again.”
Mason stirred in her arms.
Whimpered.
Olivia kissed the top of his head.
“So go ahead, Linda. Tell them more lies. I’ve got hospital records. I’ve got text messages. I’ve got Jake’s phone records. And I’ve got the bruises on my back from when you pushed me down the stairs last month because I forgot to iron your blouse.”
She pulled the collar of her shirt to the side.
A large, purple-yellow bruise wrapped around her shoulder and down her arm.
Old.
Healing.
But unmistakeable.
I thought I had been angry before.
I was wrong.
What I felt now wasn’t anger.
It was a cold, black, bottomless rage that threatened to consume everything.
The deputy looked at my mother.
“Ma’am. Is any of this true?”
My mother’s face crumpled.
She looked around at the relatives.
No one would meet her eyes.
Not even her own sister.
“She’s lying!” my mother shrieked.
“She’s always lying! That girl has been nothing but trouble since the day she married my son! She trapped him with the baby! She’s after his money!”
“Enough,” the deputy said.
He stepped forward.
“Linda Carter, you are under arrest for felony theft, financial exploitation of a family member, and suspicion of assault causing bodily injury. You have the right to remain silent…”
He read her her rights.
My mother screamed.
Thrashed.
Tried to run.
Two more deputies arrived and cuffed her.
As they led her past me, she spit at my feet.
“You’ll regret this! All of you! I’ll burn this whole family to the ground before I let you win!”
They put her in the back of the squad car.
The door slammed shut.
And suddenly…
The backyard was very quiet.
The relatives stood in awkward clusters.
Plates of half-eaten food growing warm in the sun.
My uncle Ray cleared his throat.
“Uh… Ethan… we had no idea. Honestly. She told us Olivia was… well… you heard.”
I looked at them.
All of them.
People who had eaten my food.
Drunk my alcohol.
Watched my wife suffer.
And said nothing.
“Get out,” I said.
My voice was low.
Dangerous.
“All of you. Get off my property. Now. And don’t ever come back.”
Nobody argued.
They grabbed their purses and keys.
Trickled out to their cars.
Within five minutes, the yard was empty.
Except for Olivia.
And Mason.
And me.
And the mess.
I turned to my wife.
She was swaying on her feet.
I rushed forward and caught her before she fell.
“I’ve got you,” I said.
“I’ve got both of you.”
She collapsed against my chest.
And finally…
May you like
Finally…
She let herself cry.
