Page 75 of I Will Ruin You

“Out,” I said.

“You hadn’t said anything about going out when I left.”

“It was a last-minute thing.”

“It must have been important, if you had to get Mrs. Tibaldi to take Rachel on short notice.”

“Went to see Trent,” I said.

“Why?”

“I needed to talk to him. About... everything. I wanted to hear what he had to say.”

“I thought I’d helped you with all that.”

“You did. You helped a lot.”

“But you still needed to talk to Trent.”

I shrugged. “I guess.”

“So what did he say?”

“He wasn’t home,” I said. “He was at some school meeting.”

“Oh,” she said. “Then why didn’t you come back home if he wasn’t there? Did you go to the school, find him there?”

“No.”

“Then where were you?”

“I drove around. You know, sometimes you just need to wander to think things through. What’s with the wine?”

“What?”

“There was the better part of a bottle there, last time I looked. You killed it off?”

She shrugged. “I felt like a drink.”

“Looks like more than a drink.”

“I was a little stressed when I got home,” Bonnie said.

The truth was, I needed one, too. Badly. I went to the freezer, brought out a bottle of vodka, poured some into a glass, and added some soda.

“Why are you so stressed out?” I asked, then I remembered where she’d been. “Marta. Did something happen with Marta?”

She took a beat too long to answer. “She’s fine.”

“You told her,” I said. “I asked you not to.”

“I didn’t tell her,” she said, bristling.

“Then what’s with this?” I asked, nodding at the empty wine bottle.

“Who wouldn’t be stressed, after everything you told me? Christ, I thought you’d had a heart attack today. Of course I’m stressed. You look stressed.”

She had that right.