The Woman At The Door, Daniel Hurst [world best books to read TXT] 📗

crave affection from elsewhere now that he won’t be getting it from his wife. He might think that it’s Rebecca or nothing, but he’ll soon realise that it’s not as much about who the woman in his bed is but that there is a woman in there at all.

His wife. My client. He thinks he prefers one over the other but remove one and he’ll gladly take the other option.

I’ve removed Rebecca now, which means my client can swoop in and claim the spoils.

This is a fun job, and the closer it gets to the end, the more fun it becomes.

Let the games begin.

38

REBECCA

The loud shouting from my husband in the downstairs hallway gives me the hint that Sam has come around and noticed his belongings packed into suitcases on the driveway. I knew this moment was coming, and I also knew that it wasn’t going to be easy, but it’s a moment that has to be passed through in order for us both to get to the other side.

‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ Sam cries as I appear at the top of the stairs and look down at his flustered face.

‘What does it look like I’m doing?’ I reply, keeping calm so as not to mirror his extreme anger. ‘I’m kicking you out.’

‘By putting all my stuff on the driveway?’

‘Yes.’

‘What if somebody had stolen it all? You could have at least told me!’

‘Maybe I should have done. You’ll have to forgive me, but I was a little distracted by the fact that my husband is a cheating rat who has been up to all sorts behind my back.’

Sam looks furious, and I’m not sure if it’s just about the suitcase situation or whether it’s because I am calling him out on who he really is as a man. Either way, he looks so angry that the thought crosses my mind that he might start doing a lot more than shouting. He looks like he wants to punch a hole in the wall, and I worry for a second that I might have pushed him too far, even after what he has done to me. But fortunately, he doesn’t put any holes in the wall, and he seems to calm down after a few tense seconds of him glaring at me from the bottom of the stairs while I look down at him from the top.

‘Can you come down here? I have something to talk to you about,’ Sam says before he walks away into the living room.

‘I have nothing more to say to you!’ I call after him, but I get no response, and it’s clear he isn’t going to leave until I engage with him a little more.

Reluctantly plodding down the stairs, I find him in the living room sitting on one of the two sofas, so I take my seat on the one opposite him.

‘What?’ I ask, with plenty of venom in my voice.

‘Remember the private investigator I talked about? The one I said I was hiring to find out who that woman at the door was?’

‘You know exactly who the woman at the door was! You slept with her!’

Sam looks like he wants to argue back, but he grits his teeth and calms himself down again before going on.

‘My PI found her. Her name is Alexandra.’

‘Fine. Make up whatever fictitious story you want to make up about her. But I know the truth. She sent me a letter.’

Sam looks as shocked as I had expected him to be about that news.

‘A letter?’

‘Yep. She confirmed what she had told me that night at the door, and she said she felt sorry for me and that she knew it was wrong. At least somebody is apologising for what’s happened.’

‘Where is this letter?’ Sam asks, looking around the room, but I just wish he would stop pretending like he can get out of this by acting dumb.

‘I threw it away.’

‘Why?’

‘Why do you think? Because it made me feel worse!’

‘I could have given it to the PI to look into!’

‘Stop talking about a stupid PI! Just admit you’re guilty so we can get on with things!’

Sam frowns as he processes what I just said to him before he asks me another question.

‘What do you mean get on with things?’

‘I mean divorce, Sam. That’s what I mean.’

‘Don’t be stupid. You can’t divorce me over this.’

‘Why not? You cheated on me. What do you want me to wait for? Another woman at the door?’

‘Can’t you see she is doing all of this? She’s manipulating you into leaving me even though I’ve done nothing wrong!’

‘Why would she do that?’

‘I don’t know why yet. That’s what I’m hoping the investigator is going to find out. That’s why you need to tell me if this woman gets in touch with you again. It could be useful!’

I’m going to scream if I have to hear about this private investigator one more time, but before I do, I decide to pull Sam up on what I saw him doing yesterday.

‘Actually, I was going to show you the letter she sent yesterday. I went to your office and was planning on giving it to you when you finished.’

‘You did?’

Sam suddenly looks very puzzled, and I wonder if it’s because he is now wondering if I might have seen him with his female colleague. But he won’t have to wonder about it for long.

‘Yeah. I sat on a bench opposite your office, and I waited for you to come out so I could speak to you about that letter. But I didn’t get the chance to do that. Why? Because I didn’t want to interrupt all the fun you were having with that pretty colleague of yours.’

‘I wasn’t having fun. She was just trying to cheer me up.’

‘It looked like it was working!’

‘You’ve thrown me out! Forgive me if I needed a distraction from how bad my life is. What do you want me to do? Curl up into a ball and cry?’

‘Yes! What do you