Page 91 of Two Couples

When Emily was handcuffed and sitting in the back of their car, a forensics team arrived. I showed them where Todd’s body was.

Then, I walked slowly toward Linda’s house. The sheriff wasn’t thinking about her right that minute, so I was glad I had the chance to tell her myself, instead of an officious stranger giving her the soul-crushing news that her daughter had been murdered.

She didn’t answer right away. I knocked again and the door opened slowly.

“Can I come inside?”

“Why?”

“I need to tell you something. It’s important.”

She swung the door open and turned away. I stepped inside, closed the door, and headed toward the living room. Linda was already seated on the rocking chair.

I perched near her on a footstool. She didn’t comment on my choice of seating, so I wondered if she was already suspecting something soul shattering.

I looked up at her. “Jordan’s dead. She was attacking me. Emily thought she was trying to kill me, so she stabbed her.”

“Dead?” Her voice sounded as if she was being strangled.

“I’m so sorry.” I reached for her hand that was dangling over the edge of her knee. She let it rest limply inside my own.

“How can she be dead?” Her voice broke into a wailing sound and her face contorted beyond recognition. “No! No! She can’t be. How?”

“Emily lost her mind. She⁠—”

“She’s my whole heart! I’ve loved her with everything I have. I gave my whole life for my little girl.”

“I know you did.”

“I gave birth to her. Fed her, played with her, cuddled her, and read ten thousand books to her. I helped her grow up. I encouraged her poetry. I was her closest friend. Her biggest supporter. I built that house for her, and then he tried to take it. She can’t be dead! I can’t…”

She broke into sobs again, wailing and shaking so hard I wanted to hold her to keep her still. But I wasn’t sure I had that right. “I’m so sorry,” I said.

Then, just as the violent storm had wreaked havoc, then subsided as if it had never happened, she became calm. As if this was inevitable. “He ruined her. He stole her heart and she turned into someone else.”

“I don’t think⁠—”

“I don’t know why I’m here anymore if she’s gone. There’s no reason. My life is worth nothing.”

“That’s not true. You’re facing unbearable grief, but there’s still a reason. You just need to find it.”

She stared at me, then slowly pulled her hand out of mine. I sat near her for another hour or more. Patrick didn’t need me. The sheriff and detective and forensics team didn’t need me. I was free to sit here with Linda.

SIXTY-SEVEN

TODD

One Year Ago

My mother looked like a doll herself—lying on the left side of her double bed. Decades ago, after my father walked out without a goodbye, she never moved to the center of the bed to revel in the extra space she now had in her life. She remained in one narrow spot, as if she thought he might return and he’d better not catch her encroaching on his space. Now, she was withered and frail. She hardly moved unless someone helped her.

After placing her lunch on the bedside table, I spoke her name softly. “Wake up, Mom. I have your lunch ready.”

I arranged the pillows above her head, ready to pull her into a sitting position so I could feed her the split pea soup I’d made. Beside the soup was a glass of water with a straw and another glass with a protein drink. The doctor had officially ordered the over-the-counter supplement drink, but sometimes I wondered why I was pushing it on her twice a day, along with trying to get her to take more than five spoonfuls of soup, or a bite of chicken with wild rice.

I was a decent cook. People raved about my split pea soup. It wasn’t the food that kept her from eating. She was preparing to go. I could feel it. But as stubborn as she’d been all her life, she wasn’t going to admit that. Especially not to me.

She didn’t like having me as a witness to her physical deterioration and the resulting humiliation. She didn’t like me taking care of her, but my sister sure wasn’t going to step up. It was all on me—the loser of the family—who didn’t currently have a job, so I was free to be here twenty-four-seven.