Page 128 of The Professor's Wife

He stopped walking. “From where?”

“I don’t know,” I said quickly. “I don’t know. But it’s happened twice now. Once at breakfast. Then tonight. And I think—I think someone had their phone out.”

Tristan’s expression darkened. “You think they took a photo?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered, and my voice was hardly audible when I added, “I just… I feel like something’s wrong.”

He reached for my hand, holding it tightly. “You have any idea why people might be looking at you?”

I hesitated. “I just…”

I couldn’t finish.

I didn’t know where to start.

There was at least one reason they might be looking at me, and…

“I…”

Oh, God.

I needed to tell him.

Why can’t I just tell him?

Why were the words stuck inside my throat?

“We’ll figure it out,” he said quickly, saving me. “Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out.”

But I wasn’t so sure.

Because the way those people looked at me—it was recognition.

And I had no idea what they knew.

What if the police were looking? What iftheyknew?

What if this was it—the beginning of the end?

I didn’t have to ask Tristan if we could leave town. He knew already. In fact, he was just as eager as I was. He kept one hand wrapped around mine for most of the drive out, like he was worried I might disappear before his eyes.

In some way, I felt like he knew.

That something was wrong. That I had done something.

That I might be taken away from him.

By the time the last of the light disappeared, we were already gone.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

THE PAST

It had been six months since I’d nearly destroyed my life. Six months, and I hadn’t slipped up once. I was conscious of my actions. When I got upset, I reminded myself that it wasn’t worth clinging to. I went to therapy and talked through my emotions. I told Dr. Carlisle that I had been unreasonable and that I had mistreated my husband.

I’d been…abusive.

There was no escaping that word. It haunted me. I had verbally abused him. It might have been physical if anything I threw had hit him. Sometimes I wondered if anything had and Oliver didn’t want to admit it.