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

faith in him, made her doubt everything about him. So, you believe Richard over your own husband? She no longer knew her husband.

He leveled a blank stare in her direction, then forced his spine upright. He appeared frozen, his eyes wide as though struggling to comprehend what he just heard.

“Is that how low your opinion of me has sunk? You think I’m a killer? I’m trying to help you, protect us.”

“I’m sorry, Eliot. I know you’re not a killer. It’s just that... It’s a lot, okay? I have a hard time trusting you now. If you could carry on an affair for two years and hide it so well, it scares me to think what else you could be hiding. I don’t want to think like that, but my mind goes there on its own.”

His body sagged. “I hurt you badly, and I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you, but let’s not pretend you’re a saint. You did something pretty horrific that I will never forget.” In a strained voice, he added, “Let’s just get through this interview with McBride, okay? My other big worry is the media.”

He straightened his tie. “If news of the affair gets out, it might affect the firm’s reputation and Arnie will have my head. McBride already called me out on text messages Katalina sent to me. Then there’s the anonymous texter.”

“And Rina.”

“What?”

“Rina helped me crack Faith’s true identity through her IP address. That’s how I found out Faith was Kat using an alias. Plus, she and David have known about your affair for years. You were spotted together, Eliot.”

His shoulders slumped with the weight of his betrayal, the shame of it. Richard, David, Rina, and Maxim, all silent witnesses. Eliot was a proud man, and Alicia knew that the thought that he was now diminished in their eyes would be unbearable to him. As she looked at her husband, she thought of the young, twenty-five-year-old who had swept her off her feet. He’d looked like a boy back then. A sweet, caring, handsome boy who’d wanted to ease her pain and give her the life she could only dream of.

Beyond the material, he’d promised to protect her, which he was doing now. He’d sworn to remain devoted to her and the family they would one day create. But being faithful in a marriage and devoted to one’s family weren’t necessarily the same thing, were they?

He glanced at the notepad he brought with him. “Let’s go over the details one last time, step by step in the order that events unfolded. McBride will be looking to trip you up with inconsistencies or inaccuracies in the timeline of events. You can’t walk into that interrogation room until you’ve mastered every angle. It’s the only way to get him off your back.”

CHAPTER 48

They occupied Interview Room 1 of the police department’s newly built, state-of-the art headquarters. The room was simple and clean with walls that were painted a grayish blue and furnished with a table and two chairs that were bolted to the floor. A recorder sat on the table.

After declining water and coffee, Alicia told Detective McBride that she was willing to answer all of his questions. She just wanted the interview over with. The shock of Kat’s death still haunted her.

“I understand, Mrs. Gray. I’ll do my best to make this as painless as possible.”

“Alicia, please.”

He pulled up a chair across from her and hit the appropriate button on the recorder. He asked Alicia to state her name, address, and occupation for the record before he started his questioning.

“You and the deceased Katalina Torres DeLuca had a violent altercation in her office before her death, is that true?”

“Yes, we had an argument,” Alicia replied.

“Tell me what happened.”

She did, the way Eliot had coached her. “I found out she was having an affair with my husband. I was devastated, so I went to her office to ask her why, why she had betrayed me so savagely. Things got heated.”

“How did she end up on the floor?” McBride lobbed the question with nonchalance.

“I beg your pardon?”

He flipped through a notebook he’d brought with him and read from his notes. “According to the witness, Mrs. DeLuca yelled for help, and when he arrived, she was on the floor. She said you pushed her. Her hospital records showed she suffered mild bruising from her body connecting with the office furniture. Did you have anything to do with her fall?”

It made sense to her now. It wasn’t so much about the argument, as it was about the push. Kat fell in her office. She fell at home, which led to her death, though that information was not yet public knowledge. Alicia was no Sherlock Holmes, but she had enough brain cells and had watched enough TV crime dramas to follow the detective’s logic, the reason she was here.

“I see where you’re going with this detective. Yes, her betrayal left me devastated, but I didn’t want her dead. I just wanted her to admit what she’d done. Which she did, with a little extra spice.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“The friend I knew and loved was replaced by someone I didn’t recognize—vicious, angry, lashing out in a way I had never seen before.”

“Are you saying she attacked you first?”

She was about to go off script. She felt it, the idea sprouting in her head, taking root by the millisecond. There were no cameras in Kat’s office. No one saw anything. This was a gray area. Not exactly lying, but not the whole truth either. Alicia placed her hands in her lap, afraid McBride might pick up on her anxiety. Yet, she struggled to keep them still.

“I called her ugly names because her actions hurt me and our friendship. She pushed me. I pushed her back. She lost her balance. She always wore high heels. She tripped and fell.”

“So, you were angry with each other. Was this the first incidence