Our Wicked Lies by Gledé Kabongo (story read aloud TXT) 📗

story she had ever heard. She’d even used the phrase “swoon worthy.” So why was she wearing the exact same one?

“Oh, Alicia, thank you, mi amiga,” Kat said, embracing her friend. “Tonight is just wonderful! I appreciate you so much.”

It was wonderful that Kat was in high spirits, grateful and happy. Mission accomplished. The party was a success. But Alicia’s stomach flopped. A trickle of sweat ran down her back. Should she say something? Would it be petty to ask about the bracelet now, when her friend was on such a high?

Kat said, “I wasn’t sure about this evening. I thought celebrating my accomplishment might be in poor taste, what with everything going on with Maxim, but you showed me how important it is to mark these moments, Alicia. You stepped up for me, big time.”

“Happy to do it,” Alicia responded. “You’ve had a rough time lately. We lift each other up, right?”

“You do that better than anyone else.” Kat lowered her voice. “I tease you about your halo and being a goody-two-shoes, but I wish I were more like you.”

Alicia smoothed her dress and patted her hair. Kat’s unexpected admission hung awkwardly in the air. She would laugh out loud at the irony if she didn’t feel like a drunken hippo had just crashed into her. Kat, wanting to be like her. Ha, ha, ha. Was that why she showed up wearing the identical bracelet to the one Alicia owned?

“So you bought one, huh?” She pointed to Kat’s left wrist.

“Oh yes. It was a mistake to wear it, though.”

“Why is that?”

“Richard bought it for me last month. He remembered how I kept going on and on about yours and the story behind the inscription.”

You heard that story four years ago. “Well, he has an excellent memory. Is there an inscription?”

“No,” Kat whispered, sadly. “Right, must go mingle—it is a party in my honor, after all!”

Later in the evening, Alicia found herself standing beside Richard DeLuca in a corner of the room that offered an unobstructed view of the party. What she saw concerned her. Over the past hour, Kat had gone back and forth to the bar—four times and counting. She was also snatching flutes of champagne from passing servers.

“Is Kat okay?” Alicia raised her concern to Richard.

“Katalina is skilled at looking out for number one. If I were you, I wouldn’t waste my time worrying about her.”

In the dimly lit space, Alicia studied Richard. His voice was strained. When he wasn’t jangling the keys in his pocket, he continually rubbed his temples. He leaned into the wall as if he would fall if he didn’t use it for support. Then he yawned. He actually yawned.

“Are you and Kat okay, Richard?”

He gave her a one shoulder shrug, then lowered his head. “Is any marriage ever really okay?” Then he looked up at her. “She doesn’t deserve one shred of your kindness, you know that, don’t you?”

He offered up no further explanation but simply turned away and headed toward the exit.

CHAPTER 15

Your husband has a secret.

Can you count the many lies?

“Eliot’s not cheating. Eliot’s not cheating.” She chanted the phrase several times more, pacing up and down the bedroom floor. Another note had appeared in the mailbox thirty minutes ago. Same as last time. Another cryptic message typed on plain white paper. No signature. No return address.

Alicia sat in the rocking chair across from the massive four-poster king-sized bed with the note in hand. She rocked back and forth. The motion helped sooth her chaotic thoughts. The chair was a baby shower gift from her mother-in-law when Alicia was pregnant with Marston. She had spent many a night rocking both her babies to sleep or soothing their fussiness. Today, she needed some soothing and assurances of her own.

They were happy she told herself. She and Eliot. No marriage was perfect, but they were one of the lucky few. Alicia only had to look at Kat and Richard’s relationship to be reminded of how good she had it.

Eliot had explained why he’d placed his phone face-down that night. The man had been exhausted and just wanted a break from work, a breather from the electronic leash. And the call in the middle of the night in Paris was probably a simple time-zone confusion. Someone was obviously out to get her, wanting to stir up trouble by sending these ridiculous notes. She had no clue who would do such a thing, and she didn’t care who was behind the hoax. If anything, she felt sorry for them, that their lives were so empty that they felt the need to harass other people—her in this case.

But she couldn’t let them get away with it. She wouldn’t be bullied, and she knew just where to find the answers.

Alicia stood at the consultation desk of Cartier’s Diamond Salon on Boston’s Newbury Street—a mile-long street lined with nineteenth century Brownstones and hundreds of shops and restaurants, which made it a popular destination with tourists and locals. The space wreaked of opulence and luxury—floor-to-ceiling gold columns, plush carpeting, and display cases loaded with engagement rings, bridal jewelry, and special pieces for gifting.

With the messages implying that Eliot was cheating and Kat’s brazen display at Arnie’s party, along with the dubious story that Richard had purchased an identical Cartier bracelet for her, Alicia could no longer pretend that the three occurrences were mere coincidence.

She’d concocted a story in advance of her arrival to the store. Her husband had bought her the Love Bracelet as a fifteenth wedding anniversary gift and had a special inscription engraved into it. The piece had gone missing for a while, and she feared it might be lost forever. When it didn’t turn up, she finally told her husband, and then shortly after, she overhead him tell their daughter that mom was so upset about the missing jewelry that he was considering surprising her with a replacement.

“But I found the original, you see—silly me. It was hidden