Chapter 61 - The Husband I Buried

Now

‘Luis—’ Rebecca began.

‘I think our guests are probably worn out,’ Luis said smoothly, cutting her off. He turned to Avery. ‘And I’d like the opportunity to discuss the plan with Elena.’

Rebecca’s – Elena’s – mouth tightened in annoyance.

I knew we had to get out of there, give her time to calm down. I started moving, then stopped abruptly.

‘Rebecca,’ I said. ‘Or whatever your name is. What do you think is going to happen when they realize you didn’t arrive at the psychiatric hospital?’

I didn’t tell her they were already looking for her. That Jessica knew she hadn’t arrived.

She shrugged. ‘They’ll look for Rebecca. But I won’t be Rebecca anymore. I’ll be . . . I don’t know, maybe Toni . . . or Rachel.’ She tried the names on like dresses, changing the lilt of her tone. It was creepy. She could throw on a new persona like it was nothing.

She was good. I guess that’s why she was useful.

‘Some prosthetics, some makeup, and no one will guess a thing,’ she said. It made my skin crawl to think of her coming to our door as ‘Aimee’, pretending to be our neighbor. And standing at Luis’s grave, mourning the man who was really buried there. Silas.

‘Dr. Avery,’ Luis said, guiding me away, ‘if you could take Thomas to a guest suite, I’ll be back in a moment.’

I resisted. All I had to do was give the police a reason to revisit the grave, and they’d do it. I had a pretty compelling reason standing right beside me, his hand warm in mine.

And yet, I didn’t move.

Because the questions wouldn’t stop with Luis. They’d want to know how much I had known about his business activity. Whether I was helping.

‘Just trust me,’ Luis said quietly, his voice threaded with desperation. ‘Please.’

I searched his face. Trust him? After he’d let me think he was dead?

But there was something in his eyes. Hope. Like maybe we could rebuild what we had, but this time with everything out in the open.

And the truth was, I didn’t have any better options right now.

I looked back at Rebecca and it was enough to convince me of what I should do. I could see the hunger in her eyes, the way she watched us like she was already planning the ending. I knew which danger I might survive.

I walked with Luis, hand in hand, right out of there.