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

being able to install a bug on the device that allowed all future communications to be monitored. That was how Erica was not only able to figure out who had employed Alexandra to ruin my marriage but also see the message this evening in which that person had tried to send a warning about an investigation into her.

It was Ally.

I had messaged and called my wife several times during the evening ever since I was told that Ally was the person who was really trying to break us up. But Rebecca hadn’t responded to any of my urgent communications. At the time, I had thought it was because she was mad at me. But in reality, it was because she was too busy enjoying a night out with the woman I was trying to warn her about.

Thankfully, Rebecca eventually read my messages and found out about the kind of best friend that Ally really was. My wife has just called me and told me that she is on her way home in a taxi but not before she apparently confronted Ally and demanded the truth. The thought of my wife getting into a catfight on the street outside a wine bar is a troubling one, but I’m just glad she is okay. Apparently, Ally got away, but she will get her comeuppance soon enough. Erica’s assistant is keeping an eye on her home now while Erica herself is keeping watch on Alexandra.

I need to make a decision on what happens next, but I don’t want to do that alone.

I will do it with my wife.

Rebecca should be home any minute, so I keep watch on the road at the front of our house for any signs of her taxi. I had gone inside when I first got here, but that was when I was looking for my wife before I knew that she was out this evening. Since finding out where she is, I have been waiting outside the house because I still want Rebecca to feel like it is her decision to let me back inside for good. The evidence is now available for me to show her that I didn’t cheat, but I’m aware that she is going to need some time to wrap her head around all of this. I’ve known from the start that this was all lies, but Rebecca hasn’t, so she will need a while to come to terms with it. When she does, she will see that she hasn’t lost her husband at all.

But she has lost her best friend.

I can’t believe Ally wanted to break us up. I’m still not clear on why she would do that, but regardless of her motive, it’s despicable. She was supposed to be someone Rebecca could trust, yet all this time she was working behind her back to ruin her marriage. To think that Rebecca and I sat across the table from Ally and her boyfriend not so long ago when all of this drama started unfolding. To think that she sat there as me and my wife got drunk and said things in public that we should have kept in private. And to think that she was taking pleasure in our pain as our marriage crumbled right in front of her eyes.

As bad as this whole episode has been for me, I’m aware it’s going to have been worse for Rebecca even though it is now coming to an end. She will have to live with the knowledge that her best friend was lying to her and stabbing her in the back. I will have to make sure I am on hand to help my wife get over this betrayal, and I will do my best to help her move on.

Perhaps I could be forgiven for being resentful towards my wife for not believing me from the start, but I’m not going to hold it against her. Rebecca had every right to react in the way she did at the recent events because who is anyone to say how a person should react when confronted with the shocking claim that their partner is cheating on them? The important thing is that the truth has come out in the end, and as I see a vehicle turning onto the street, I get the sense that the end is coming now.

As the taxi comes to a stop outside my house, I rush towards it, and I am there to greet my wife as she climbs out of the back seat. She’s unsteady on her feet, which could be down to the wine she has consumed tonight, or perhaps it’s all the shock and adrenaline of what my investigator has uncovered wreaking havoc on her body. Whatever it is, I am there to take her in a big hug and let her know that things are going to be okay now.

She is home. I am home. We are back together again. That is all we need.

But of course, life isn’t as simple as that is it. People don’t just need things to go back to normal after they have been betrayed.

They need revenge.

46

ALEXANDRA

My winning streak is over. My luck has run out. My business is collapsing.

And now it’s time to get the hell out of here.

If I thought the wardrobe door being open was a sign that someone had been in my flat then the text message from my client had confirmed it. In the message, Ally had told me that a private investigator was looking into me and that I should be careful. While I appreciated the warning, it seems it has come far too late. I gathered as much when Ally phoned me a short while after sending that message, and I heard her panicked voice as she told me how she had been exposed and that our targets knew everything about what we had been up to.

I tried to ask Ally exactly what she knew and how much we had been compromised, but I couldn’t