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

look at Alicia. “But why? I ran every scenario in my head, and I can’t think of any reason why you’d want to get rid of your baby.”

“I thought that if I had the baby, it would be all over.”

“What do you mean?”

She described her mental health, Eliot’s behavior toward her, and how afraid she was that she would end up like Joan or her mother.

Kat said nothing for a long while. Alicia didn’t expect Kat to understand. She had it all—stunning good looks, a thriving and successful business, influence, independence, and family. Why would she comprehend the woes of someone like Alicia?

“I get it,” Kat finally said, surprising Alicia. “You don’t think he values you, which means you have zero security. You want to do something for yourself, so you can stand on your own two feet. You don’t want to struggle to get by like you and your mother did after your father left. But things got out of hand.”

Kat’s understanding was the lifeline Alicia so desperately needed, and she grabbed it with both hands. “Swear, Kat,” she said. “Promise me you will never tell another soul what I have done. It must stay between Jack, you, and me, forever. Swear!”

“I swear,” Kat said, holding up her right hand while placing her left on her heart.

As the story tumbled out of Alicia, Eliot continuously shook his head, as he tried to grapple with everything she’d told him.

“I can’t believe it,” he said repeatedly.

“When I came home, I couldn’t live with what I had done,” Alicia said, closing the door to the pain that transpired in that hotel room, as another, more horrible, suppressed memory surfaced in her mind.

She took a deep breath, knowing that she had to let it all out before she gave in to the pain and despair. She held Eliot’s gaze. “One day, while you and the girls were out, I locked the garage doors, sat in my car with the windows up, turned on the engine, and waited for the carbon monoxide to do its thing.”

She ignored Eliot’s gasp of horror.

“My cell phone rang. I don’t know why I’d taken it with me. It was Kat. I ignored the first few calls, but she must have suspected something was wrong, because she kept calling until I answered. She saved my life that day.”

A dazed, desperate look formed in his eyes. “Alicia, you could have said something, dropped a hint, some kind of distress signal.”

“It’s easy to look back and say what I could have or should have said or done. Perhaps you didn’t see what was happening because you didn’t want to.”

He rested his head in his hands. “That’s not fair. I may have been a blind idiot—am a blind idiot—too caught up in my career to see what was going on in my own house, but we’re partners, a team. You should have sounded the alarm, hard and loud.”

Maybe he was right. But she couldn’t rewind the clock and make different choices. She had worked hard to regain her mental health and strength, and she wouldn’t allow herself to fall back into that oblivion.

CHAPTER 36

“I can’t do this anymore,” Alicia said. “I spoke to Eliot, but he lied. Again. I’m going to divorce him, Kat. I spoke to a lawyer already. He said I could easily take Eliot for half of everything he has.”

Kat’s stiff posture and dazed glare were telltale signs that she wasn’t pleased with Alicia’s unexpected office visit. Ambush would be a more appropriate description. Kat picked up a pile of papers from her desk and pretended to look busy and important, but the sheets slipped through her fingers and scattered all over the floor.

Alicia wanted to look her soon-to-be former best friend in the face and hear the lies slide effortlessly off her tongue, one last time. She expected Kat’s usual phony encouragement, and her pretense to despise “Faith” as much as she did.

“So, what do you think? It’s the right thing to do, isn’t it?”

Kat haphazardly gathered up the papers from the floor, retreated behind her desk, and sat down, her back ramrod straight, hands clasped—the epitome of poise and control.

But it didn’t fool Alicia for one minute. Kat had proven herself to be a talented actress.

She finally found her voice. “What made you finally decide to leave him?”

“I just don’t see a way forward for us. I’ve already given him two chances to tell the truth, but he continued to lie and deny. He claims that Faith came on to him at an offsite meeting, two years ago. Can you believe that bull? Does he really think I’m that stupid?”

In her restlessness last night, as sleep eluded her, Alicia had finally made the connection between Kat and why she’d chosen Faith as her alias.

One afternoon, after Kat had moved into the neighborhood, Alicia had commented on her glamorous style and impeccable tastes when it came to accessorizing, hair, and makeup. Kat had said that she modeled her style after Faith Hernandez, the wife of her next-door neighbor in the Miami suburb where she grew up.

Kat had said that even at twelve years old she had known there was something special about Faith—her beauty and confidence, the way she turned heads and captivated an audience. Kat had admired the way the woman strutted like a queen. Kat had wanted to be just like Faith when she grew up.

But by Kat’s own account, she didn’t realize that emulating Faith would become a problem as she got older. People only recognized her for her looks and nothing else. The fact had wounded her throughout her teens and early twenties, and soon she had begun to resent her beauty but had learned how to weaponize it when it suited her.

“I’m very busy, Alicia,” Kat said, her tone stiff. She shuffled more papers and opened and closed her desk drawers as if searching for something important. “You could have told me all this over