‘Sam, it’s fine, really. I’m okay.’
I’m surprised at how wound up my husband has got, and he really does look like he wants to call the police. But that is silly and not at all what I want. What would he say to them when they arrived? “Hi, officers. Sorry to bother you, but my wife almost died today because she was being stupid and not paying attention. But it’s not her fault. It’s the fault of a stranger who knocked on our door a couple of nights ago and said I was cheating on her.”
I can’t imagine the police officers will be too thrilled about having their time wasted on a silly thing like that. That’s why I take the phone from my husband’s hand and toss it across the bed so he can’t call 999 with it.
‘What are you doing?’ he asks me, clearly still riled up after the shock of what I have just told him happened to me today.
‘I don’t want you to call the police. And I don’t want to think about that woman anymore. I just want things to go back to normal. I trust you, and I promise I won’t let any of my paranoid thoughts put me in danger again.’
Sam listens to everything I am telling him, but I’m not sure he is really taking it on board. That’s because he looks back at his phone again as if anxious to still make that call.
‘I mean it,’ I say, taking his hand and pulling it towards me. ‘I’m okay. Saturday night was a shock, and it’s taken me a few days to get my head around it, but I’m going to be fine. We’re going to be fine. That’s because she was lying, wasn’t she? The woman at the door. She was lying, right?’
‘Of course she was lying.’
I nod my head because that’s the last thing I needed to hear on the matter.
‘Good. Now, how about some dinner? Shall we be naughty and have a takeaway on a Monday?’
Sam gives me a wry smile, and it’s clear that he is keen too. That’s why I allow him to pick up his mobile phone again and make a call, only this time it is to the local Chinese restaurant and not the local police station. I’m happy for him to answer the door to a man clutching a bag of prawn crackers in an hour’s time. I’m just glad he won’t be answering it to a couple of police officers.
And let’s hope we never have to answer it to that woman again either.
14
SAM
It’s a pleasant surprise to be eating a Chinese takeaway on a Monday night. There are certainly worse ways to start the week. But it was not a pleasant surprise to come home and find out that Rebecca was almost involved in a fatal accident at work today. It was even more galling to learn that it happened because of what went down with that woman on Saturday night.
If I was determined to find out who she was before, I am even more dedicated now.
I still have some of my food left, but I stop eating, not because I’m full but because I’m too distracted to concentrate and enjoy it.
‘Have you had enough?’ Rebecca asks me when she notices that I have put down my knife and fork.
‘Yeah. I might save the rest for lunch tomorrow,’ I say. ‘Gives me something to look forward to during the morning.’
Rebecca laughs and decides that she will do the same with hers, and two minutes later, the leftover food is back in its containers and chilling in the fridge where it will stay overnight.
‘Do you want to watch something?’ Rebecca asks me, but I tell her about that work email I need to read, and she doesn’t mind, saying that she fancied an early night anyway and heading for the stairs.
I tell her that I will be up shortly before giving her a kiss and heading into the kitchen, where I sit down at the table with my laptop and open it up. But even though I do need to read that email from Maria, it’s not work that I’m concerning myself with now.
Instead, I’m going to look for ways to track someone down.
I know it’s not going to be easy. For a start, I’m going to have to ask Steve if I can have a recording of that CCTV footage that he got on Saturday night so that I can give it to whoever I hire to try and find out who that woman is. But I have to do something. I had already decided to try and find out, but after what happened to Rebecca today, I’m not going to give up until I do.
But it’s not just about my wife’s paranoia surrounding this woman and what it might mean for our marriage. It’s about my paranoia too. I’m worried that this person might come back again, and she could say anything to Rebecca. She is clearly capable of lying, so who knows what else she is capable of telling her? What if this woman comes back and tells Rebecca that she is seeing me again or that I am planning on leaving her? Of course, it will all be lies, but Rebecca doesn’t know that for sure. She’ll worry, and she’ll be distracted. That could lead to another incident like today, only this time, she might not be so lucky.
As for me, how can I feel settled in my relationship knowing that there is a threat out there in the world who could come back at any minute and drop another bombshell? That woman had no right to make up a lie about me and risk everything that I have worked hard to build for myself. This home. This marriage. This life. She could have ruined everything,
