He looked startled. “No. Why?”
Before she could cover her mistake, Lorenzo from the mail room appeared outside her door, holding a padded mailer.
“Come in,” she called.
He entered and wordlessly handed over the package, clearly uncomfortable at interrupting a meeting with the CEO. As he retreated, she read the sender’s name and blanched. While written in plain black pen, it may as well have been blinking red neon.
A. Wilkes.
Although it had clearly come by courier, Holly had added a Colorado return address on Misery Lane.
“It’s from my mom,” Jessica said quickly, putting the mailer on her desk facedown. “She told me she’d send me some old photos we found at Nana’s after she made copies.”
“I’d love to see them, but I can’t stand that close and keep my hands off you,” Jon said, flashing the sexy smile that now filled her with dread.
The moment he left, Jessica collapsed into her chair. Her hands shook as she opened the envelope and removed an older internal hard drive. On the bottom was Jon’s handwriting, in Sharpie:
DON’T USE.
There was also a handwritten note from Holly.
Your move.
For the first time ever, Philip didn’t see Jessica coming. His back remained turned as she approached his cubicle, forcing her to tap him lightly on the shoulder to get his attention. “Philip?”
Startled, he jumped and turned around. “Jessica!”
“Sorry,” she said.
“I’m okay,” he said, taking a breath to reset himself. “I was so absorbed in checking this report that I didn’t see you come out of your office.”
She probably should have been more troubled by the fact that he’d admitted he kept an eye on her whereabouts. “I have something I’d really like you to look at.”
“What is it?”
“That’s what I’m not sure of,” she said, handing him the hard drive Holly had sent. Because it came from an old tower computer, she had no idea how or where to plug it in. “I don’t know how to read it, or what’s on it, but I believe it’s important. I need your technological know-how and your analytical skills to tell me what we have here.”
“My pleasure,” he said, blushing crimson.
She hated to trade on whatever feelings he possibly harbored for her, but he was the one person in the whole company she could turn to for help. He was also the most qualified.
“Thank you, Philip.” She lowered her voice. “This needs to stay entirely between us—no matter what you do or don’t find.”
Philip looked at her with a blank expression that, on anyone else, would have indicated a lack of comprehension. Jessica now knew him well enough to realize it was exactly the opposite.
He nodded. “Understood.”
Chapter Forty-Three
HOLLY
You can truly be yourself only at home.
—“How I Lied about My Name and Discovered My Truth,” a TED Talk by Jon M. Wright
Holly happened to be passing through the front hall when she heard the telltale sound of someone using the keyless entry system. Her thoughts were still outside with Alderman, who was being rehomed next week, and whom she’d just taken for a long ride, enjoying the unseasonably warm afternoon.
Six beeps and then the door latch rattled. Access denied.
Holly raced to the back door, then the side doors, throwing dead bolts and hooking chains. She took a mental inventory of her children: all home, all safely inside.
Cautiously, she returned to the foyer.
Six quick beeps. A frustrated rattle.
Jack.
Despite his visionary brilliance, he’d never been one for detail and had never bothered to learn how to reprogram the lock. Sliding closer in her socks, she heard him insert a key into the mechanical lock and try to turn it.
The “god damn it” was unmistakably his voice.
When he pressed the video doorbell, she answered right away, hoping to catch him before the kids realized he was there.
“Will you buzz me in?” he said, peering into the fish-eye lens.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
“I completed my inpatient therapy. I know I still have a long way to go, but I want to share some things I’ve learned, and realizations I’ve had.”
“Like what?”
Jack was working hard to keep smiling. “There’s so much, Holly, but mainly, I can’t imagine a future without you. We’ve accomplished so much together. Made a beautiful family.”
Holly knew she should open the door and let him sing his song of contrition, pretend to accept it, and let him continue to think she believed his bullshit. Play the game for now. She reached for the screen and the unlock button.
And then let her hand fall to her side.
“I’m not ready to talk.”
“I told Jessica I’m fully committed to my marriage and she can’t expect anything from me. I can’t fire her without getting sued, but, if necessary, I can open an office for her to run in Siberia. In other words, she knows she needs to move on from Cancura as soon as possible.”
“What about the others?”
Jack’s face froze in a rictus grin. “Others?”
“You can’t expect me to believe there haven’t been others,” she said carefully.
“I’m doing the work, Holly. I want to make things right between us.”
“I’m not ready for that.”
“Then when?”
“I’ll let you know.”
On the screen, Jack turned and stalked to the edge of the porch, where he stopped and rubbed his face like someone trying to wake up. She could just hear his footsteps through the stout oak door. As far as she knew, the kids were still unaware, still pretending to do their homework while they texted, Snapchatted, and sneaked peeks at TikTok. Hopefully with headphones on.
Suddenly, he whirled around, lunged at the door, and started pounding on it.
“Let me in now, Holly! This is my house! Bought with my money! Do you think you don’t need me to keep living like you do? To squander money on your precious horses?”
When he started kicking, she took an unconscious step backward, glancing over her shoulder and afraid that Ava, Paige, or Logan would suddenly materialize behind her. But the sprawling old house had advantages that outweighed its constant need for maintenance, including thick
