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

I am going to have to open it.

47

REBECCA

What started with a knock at the door is going to end with one too. I am standing outside this hotel room waiting for the door to open so I can come face to face again with the woman who sent my life into a tailspin not so long ago. This will be the first time I have seen this woman since she came to my house and told me that my husband had cheated on me, and that night, she had all the power. But now it is me who has the upper hand.

I’m the one knocking.

And she will be the one who is sent into a tailspin.

After several seconds have passed without the door being opened, I decide to knock again but much firmer this time.

‘Who is it?’

I detect fear in the enquiry from the other side of the door, but that isn’t going to stop me. It only makes me knock again.

I take a deep breath as I wait, knowing how important it is to stay calm so that I am able to say what I came here to say when I finally get the chance. I don’t have to wait too long after that because I hear the sound of the handle turning, and two seconds later, the door is open.

Alexandra looks afraid, as she might well be, but she also seems a little relieved that I am on my own. She might have been expecting the police or possibly Sam, but instead, she’s just got me.

She might think that it will be easier to handle me.

But she would be wrong.

‘Nice to see you again,’ I say with a straight face. ‘I thought it was my turn to come and surprise you.’

‘How the hell did you find me?’ Alexandra asks as her eyes dart past me and into the corridor beyond, but I keep my gaze firmly on her.

‘The same way I found out your name and what you do for a living,’ I reply. ‘The same way my husband was able to prove to me that he didn’t cheat on me and stop me from divorcing him.’

‘The private investigator,’ Alexandra mutters, and I nod to confirm her answer.

‘You’ve been watched for a while now, so I wouldn’t feel too bad about it. Once they knew who you were, you never stood a chance.’

‘Look, I’m sorry for what I did, but it wasn’t personal. It was just a job.’

‘Just a job,’ I repeat with a laugh. ‘My whole life was just a job, was it?’

‘That’s not what I mean.’

‘Then tell me what you do mean.’

Alexandra looks like she is starting to realise that I might not be an easier touch than my husband would have been if he was here instead.

‘You don’t know what it’s like to love somebody you can’t have.’

Alexandra’s words catch me off guard a little.

‘What are you talking about?’

‘I’m talking about people who are lonely and have to spend their lives alone because their dream partner is already taken. I’m talking about your friend, Ally, having to watch you be happy with Sam while she was secretly pining for him.’

‘Ally had no right to try and break my marriage apart. And neither did you!’

‘You’re correct, but what gives you the right to be happier than somebody else just because you got there first?’

‘I got there first?’

‘Yes, you met Sam before Ally did. But what is to say that he might have been meant for her instead? What is to say that he might have been happier with her over you?’

I’m not entirely sure what I had been expecting to happen when I came here, but one thing I wasn’t banking on was Alexandra giving an impassioned defence of my former best friend.

‘You’re deluded. You and all the people who pay you to do this crazy thing. What you have done is wrong, and you know it.’

‘So what do you want from me? An apology? Fine, I’m sorry. But you got your husband back, so it all worked out well in the end. Now, if you don’t mind, I need to get some sleep.’

Alexandra goes to close the door on me, but I shoot out a hand to stop her.

‘I haven’t finished,’ I say as I look at her face through the small gap where the door is still open. But Alexandra doesn’t want to know what else I came here to say, and she tries to close the door again.

If it was just me then I might have had a problem keeping her from closing it, but fortunately, Sam accompanied me here this evening and he has been lurking around the corner of the door during this conversation, ready to make an appearance if needed. Now he is needed, and he gives me some assistance in pushing back on the door and getting it fully open again, much to Alexandra’s dismay.

Then we force our way into the room and close the door behind us.

Alexandra goes for the hotel room phone, presumably to try and call reception and tell them that two people have just entered her room against her will, but Sam pulls the cord from the wall before she can make the call.

‘What are you doing? Get away from me!’ Alexandra cries, and I’m aware that some of the other guests on this floor might be able to hear all the commotion, so my husband and I better make this quick.

‘You have no idea how much I want to hurt you, and I will do unless you sit down on the bed and shut up.’

Sam’s command is a stern one, and it’s a little disconcerting to hear him talk in that manner, but his words do the job in getting Alexandra to stop making so much noise, and she takes a seat on the bed in front of us.

‘This is what is going to happen,’ I say, taking over again. ‘We have the names of all the couples you did this to, but