Page 26 of The Arrangement

“Well, he was your date, wasn’t he? There’ve been conversations between you two. Won’t they come around and ask you how you knew him and if you’ve seen him recently?”

“I used a fake identity on the app, Peter. That was the whole point.”

I scoffed. How did she seem so calm? It was driving me crazy. I kept seeing flashes of the blood, wondering if we’d managed to wipe away every spot of evidence, and she looked like it was just another Friday night. “Yeah, but they’ll be able to find you still, right? You said he used your real name on the app, so he obviously knew who you were. Like you said, maybe you slipped up, but he had our address either way. And the police will have your IP address or whatever. They’ll connect the dots back to you.”

“He only used my name once, and not even my last name. However he figured out who I was, surely he covered his tracks, right? I don’t think cops can just stalk people for no reason. Besides, the app’s privacy guarantee is super strict. They don’t store IP addresses or anything aside from what you put on your profile. Remember? They were the ones who got in all that trouble last year because the police were trying to investigate a girl who was attacked and the company had no information on whom she’d gone on dates with other than his profile, which was obviously fake. It was all over the news. They guarantee privacy, and they stood by that in court. I mean, it was awful, but it’s part of the reason I chose that app for us to use. I didn’t want anyone to be able to find us. Those computer geniuses…they could probably track us down if they wanted to. I didn’t want to chance it. You don’t remember hearing about that case?”

“What?” I asked, feeling a strange mixture of shock and disgust. “I mean, of course I remember hearing about it, but I didn’t remember the name of the app. Why would you ever want to use it? Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?”

“Well, you should be glad I did because it may be the only thing standing in the way of you going to prison.” My face fell as I stared into her hardened expression. After a moment, it softened. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. I’m just stressed out.”

“I am too,” I whispered, rubbing my hands over her arms. “Trust me, I am. I’m so sorry I put us in this situation.”

“You were trying to protect us,” she said softly, but I sensed the disappointment in her tone.

“I’m still sorry. If it comes down to it, you know I’ll take the blame.” I reached for her hand, taking her fingers in mine and rubbing them between my thumb and fingers.

“It’s both of our faults. I should’ve never suggested we see other people. This whole thing was my idea. If anyone’s to blame, it’s me.” She said it plainly, leaving no room for negotiation, but I could sense the vulnerability there.

“Don’t say that. None of this is your fault. He was a bad man who wanted to hurt you. He must’ve looked into you. Like you said, he’d been stalking you. Harassing you. Messaging you all the time. He showed up at our house… That was all on him.”

“What do you think he wanted?” she asked, dropping her head a bit and tucking her chin to her chest. “Why do you think he wouldn’t leave me alone? Do you think he was planning to hurt me?”

“I don’t know,” I said, resisting the sudden urge to pull her to my chest and comfort her. “He said he wanted to see you. He threatened me. He said if I didn’t put my bat away someone was going to get hurt and, when you opened the door, he was going to grab you… I knew he had the gun. He could’ve held you hostage. I just…I snapped. I couldn’t let him hurt you. Why else would he have brought his weapon and handcuffs? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“How did he even find me, though? How did he learn my real name? I was so careful. I truly don’t think I would’ve slipped up that badly,” she insisted.

I shook my head. “I don’t know… I mean, he was a cop. Maybe he ran your plates? Maybe he saw your ID when you ordered a drink. There are probably a million ways he could’ve found out who you were… We could try to look him up—”

“No,” she said. “We can’t. We can’t give anyone any further reason to look into us. We need to forget about it.”

“Should we delete the app?”

“Not yet,” she said. “If the police were to come looking for me, it might seem suspicious. There’s nothing incriminating in our messages. If anything, there’s proof that he was stalking me. We’ll leave the app on our phones for now, but we’re both in agreement that we don’t connect with anyone else on there. We’re done with this…arrangement.”

I nodded. “Okay, agreed.”

She shivered. “I’m so sorry about all of this. I don’t understand how it happened. It all feels like a flash. I was so scared… I didn’t know what to do. I should’ve told you about him before, but I was nervous. I didn’t want to break any of our rules, and I didn’t want you to obsess over who he was. I never, in a million years, thought he could be dangerous. He seemed so sweet on our date. I never thought… How did I misread him so badly?”

“I’d say he had a lot of practice hiding who he was.” I slid my hand from her arm to her waist, gripping it tightly. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if I’d lost you. I’m sorry I wasn’t here.”

“It wasn’t your fault you had to work,” she whispered.

“Yeah.” I swallowed, the bitter truth sitting on the tip of my tongue. I wanted to tell her about Gina. I didn’t want to lie to her, but the truth at that moment wouldn’t do anyone any good. “Well, no more late nights. I want to fix us, Ainsley. I want us to be better than we’ve ever been. I almost lost you tonight… I never want to lose, or almost-lose, you again.”

Her smile was small, her eyes exhausted. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” I swore to her, squeezing my eyes to hide the tears I felt preparing to fall. I tucked my face into my pillow and sucked in a breath. My mistakes, countless and longstanding, were what had brought us to this moment. If I hadn’t been distancing myself because I was cheating, we wouldn’t have needed the arrangement in the first place. If I hadn’t lied about my whereabouts tonight, I would’ve known what was going on and perhaps been able to prepare myself or call the police. Everything could’ve gone so much differently, if only I’d been a better man.

But I was vowing then and there to become better. I’d put the night behind me and make myself the man my wife deserved.

If only it were that easy.

Chapter Seventeen

AINSLEY

As I headed into work that Saturday morning, leaving Peter at home with the kids, I checked the rearview mirror incessantly, my stomach going tight each and every time I passed a cop car. When I arrived downtown, it was still early, the streets slow and uncrowded, businesses just beginning their days. I drove through the familiar streets, searching for an unmanned dumpster. I spotted one, between a Subway and a coffee shop, and pulled my car to a stop in the alley. I’d brought a few random things from the garage to make it look less suspicious.