Page 40 of The Arrangement

“You seem awfully certain of that for someone who’s claiming to be innocent.”

I heard the sharp inhale of the woman who wasn’t my wife. “Excuse me? What is that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what I said. How do I know you didn’t do anything to him? Hm? For all I know, you were jealous of his affairs and decided to put an end to it, and now you’re looking for someone to pin it all on. Maybe you don’t want him found at all.”

“How can you say that?” she asked, choking back tears. “I love my husband more than life. I’ve put up with everything because he means the world to me. I could never…would never…I didn’t—”

A sharp, shrill ringing interrupted her and, for a moment, the room was still.

“Hello?”

Silence. I felt cool sweat gathering at my temples. “You what?” I took a step closer to the living room, stepping on a creaky spot on the floor. I froze, taking a half-step back as I tried to come up with my excuse. I needed to go to the bathroom. I needed a drink of water. I was coming to change clothes. “Are you sure?” Her voice interrupted my thoughts. “Yes. Okay. Sure, I’ll be right down. Okay, thank you… Bye.” The last word was whispered, breathless.

“What is it? Are you okay?” Ainsley asked, genuine concern in her voice as pure panic swelled in my stomach.

After a moment, Illiana said the words that shook me to my core, “No. I-I, um…I have to go. They…the police, they found his truck. They found Stefan’s truck.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

AINSLEY

After Illiana left, I turned toward the doorway that led into the hall, where I knew Peter would be waiting. When he stepped out into the living room, it was of absolutely no shock to me. His face was ashen, his expression filled with panic.

“They found the truck?”

I nodded. “Don’t panic. We knew this would happen.”

“But already?” he asked. “And why is she here? Why would you bring her back to the house?”

“I needed to think, Peter. She freaked me out. I was caught off guard. I needed to collect myself, and this was the first thing I thought of. I thought bringing her here would help her see that we’re a normal, non-murdering family.”

“Except that we’re not, Ains. And you brought her here, told her Stefan was here that night. What do you think is going to happen once she gets the police involved? If they get a warrant to search the property—”

“That isn’t going to happen,” she said, holding a hand up to stop my rambling. “We’re fine, Peter. Everything’s fine. They don’t have a body. They don’t have any true reason to suspect us.”

“What if they find your DNA in his car?”

“They won’t,” I said, his worried expression haunting. “I wore my hair up, with my hood over it. I wore gloves, a face mask. There should be no DNA there. And, even if there is, I didn’t lie about going on a date with him. I can say we were in his car for a while.”

“Were you?” he demanded.

I rolled my eyes. “That’s hardly the concern right now, don’t you think?”

“We can’t let her tell them about you. About us. The last thing we need is for the police to be snooping around while we’re still trying to get our story in order.”

“What would you have me do, Peter? Kill her?”

He flinched at my words. “No. Of course not.”

“Listen to me,” I said calmly. “We have our story straight. He came over because I’d been ignoring him. I have the messages to prove that. I didn’t answer the door. I called you to come home, but he’d left before you got here. That’s all we know. We haven’t heard from him since.”

“That story gives me all the motive in the world.”

“It doesn’t. Not when the cheating was mutually agreed upon. You were seeing other people, too.”

“I don’t want that to come out. I don’t want the police to know about it.”

“Which is why I told Illiana I was cheating on you, but if it comes down to it, we’ll tell them the truth.”