‘Why would I do that?’ Alexandra snarls back at me, but I just smile.
‘Because if you don’t then the police are going to be getting involved, and I don’t think you want that, do you?’
‘Tell the police. I don’t care. You don’t have much evidence.’
‘We have plenty, and I have a feeling we have only just started to scratch the surface,’ I say as I stand over Alexandra and glare down at her. ‘The police might not care about the lies you told, but I think they will be interested in the things you left in people’s homes and how you came to be in their homes in the first place.’
‘It’s just your word against mine.’
‘No, it’s your word against dozens of other couples who have had their lives ruined by you as well.’
Alexandra takes that on board, and she can see how deadly serious I am about ensuring she gets a criminal conviction if I am forced to go down that route.
‘Say I do what you want. How do I know you won’t just tell the police anyway?’
‘I guess you’ll just have to trust me. Just like I trusted you when you came to my door and told me a lie.’
Alexandra has nothing to say to that, and she lowers her head to avoid my stare.
‘Just be grateful that neither me or my husband are the kind of people who lose their tempers easily and commit acts of violence against those who have wronged us,’ I say. ‘Otherwise, you would really be in trouble then.’
With that ominous statement, I tell the room owner that it is time for us to leave her in peace but that she is being watched and that she should not board that flight in the morning if she wants this all to end without the police involved.
Then I follow Sam to the door, and he opens it to allow me out first.
‘How did you find me?’ Alexandra asks just before we leave, and Sam and I pause in the doorway.
We share a look, and I know we are both deciding whether to tell her about our neighbour’s camera and how this mystery all got unravelled from there. That would surely be a source of comfort for Alexandra to know what mistake she had made, but that’s exactly why neither of us feels like divulging that information to her. We don’t want to give her that closure, nor do we want to give her a heads-up about something she might end up looking out for in the future if she ever does anything like this again. Instead, we just walk through the door and allow it to close behind us, leaving Alexandra alone in that room to think about what she has done and what she is going to do next.
‘Do you think she will try and run?’ Sam asks me as we walk away down the corridor.
‘No, I think she knows what’s best for her, and I think she understood that I was telling her the truth about not getting the police involved if she stays,’ I say as we reach the lift that will take us back down to the ground floor. ‘Because unlike her, I am not a liar.’
I press the button to send for the lift, but before it can get to this floor, Sam takes my hand and turns me around so that I am looking right at him.
‘I’m not a liar either,’ he tells me and my heart breaks because I know he is right, yet I spent so long believing he had betrayed me.
I already said it when we were standing outside our house earlier this evening, but I will say it again because I feel like I need to.
‘I’m so sorry for not trusting you,’ I tell him, shaking my head. ‘She was just so convincing. She had so many tricks.’
‘I know,’ Sam says as he pulls me in for a hug and kisses my head. ‘But it’s over now, and the main thing is that we both know the truth.’
The lift arrives and the door slides open, but neither of us move, instead content to stay in each other’s arms for another minute. By the time we do decide to get into the lift, we are both ready to go home and get into bed. It will be the first night we have spent the night sleeping beside each other in a while, although I’m not sure how much sleeping will be getting done. I have some making up to do to my husband, and I’m sure he wants to make me feel better about myself too.
It doesn’t take long for the lift to deposit us into the reception area, and Sam and I walk hand in hand across the marble floor towards the exit, nodding at Erica as we go. She is staying here this evening to make sure that Alexandra doesn’t vanish again, and she is doing it because we are paying her a bonus to thank her for all that she and her assistant have done for us.
Our marriage was so close to being over. The lies had threatened to ruin us. The woman at the door almost won. But she didn’t. Instead, I won. Sam won.
Love won.
But love is a cruel game and not everybody can win, and as I get into the taxi that will take Sam and I back home, I can’t help but think of Ally, Alexandra and all the other people in the world who do desperate things in order to find love for themselves or others.
I know that I am lucky to have my husband, and he is lucky to have me. Not everybody is
