The Perfect Wife's Unwritten Past

Mulli

eyes, fixed on the dripping, ruined Pollock, were blazing. He loved that painting m

ce trembling with fury. "Do you

didn't move. I just watched him, my h

ida. Of course. She must have been waiting outside, li

, and me standing there, calm and compos

ed to his side, her hand on his arm. "Elia

e was locked on me. "Get out, Candida

"But Evan, I

he roared, shaking

performance. She looked at him with wounded betrayal, then shot a ve

followed was he

finally said. It

ing," I

tor stalking his prey. "The crash... it was an acciden

y voice was a blade. "You wanted me, so

at that gallery gala six months before the wedding. You were... incandescent. You were talking about Rothko with a passi

sickness. A colle

ecided to

isted, his voice rising with frant

" I spat back. "And

to pack, to leave this mausoleum of lie

," he hissed, his face clos

d my arm, breaking his grip, and shoved him back. He stumbled

nd used his own momentum to throw him toward the kitchen island. He crashed again

, a dawning horror in his eyes. Th

you?" he

ou tried to

ough the tension. I glanced at the

, every call. He thought he could contain me. He was wrong. I started making arrangements through encrypte

home, try to talk to me, his voice laced with that c

ndida es

, captioned with taunts. He says he's tired o

pecial bolognese tonight. He said he hasn't made it for

me in the first year of our "marriage," when he was still in the honeymoon phase of his

m a clandestine meeting with my lawyer. A black SUV slammed

out. They didn't look like mug

had Candida's desperate, sloppy fingerprints

d my car, I calml

he first ring. "El

ice steady. "Three men are about to drag me

and disbelieving. "Stop it, Elia. This is

e of the men shattered my passenger-side

ida wouldn't hurt a fly. She's gen

like you. After everything, he still saw

my chest. Fine. If he wanted a

ing to a whisper. "If you're not here, you'll be collecting my b

before he

ing the alley. Two in the front, on

, revealing a row of yellow teeth. "Mrs.

return them in

he second one came at me with a knife. I disarmed him with a move my instructor had drilled into me a hund

t was his mistake. I closed the distance in two steps, a palm-heel

knuckles bleeding, my suit torn. Th

ale with panic. He ran toward me, his expensive shoes crunching on broken glass. He hadn't even b

three men groaning on the ground. Me, sta

ide with a mixture of horror and

t," I said,

me as if he was afraid to touch me. He saw t

e, choked emotion. He gently took my hand, his thumb strok

he old dynamic was there. Him,

d my ha

said coldly. "You

ading. "I should have known. Forgive

stop him. "You said

Elia, she's young, she's naive. She's from a bad backgro

he had for her

k myself just to get your attention?" I

was a random attack. Y

I might have had for the man

past him, back to my battered car

oing?" he asked

aid, sliding into the seat. "I'll have

g me from closing it. "No! Elia, don't do this! We c

oo late

The car roared to li

ion. He did something so insane, so utterly theatrical, that I almost couldn't be

over me!" he yelled, his voice cracking. "

nt man, reduced to a groveling, patheti

the accelerator. A part of me, the dark, vengeful part that

oot down. The

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