The Arrangement

by Kiersten Modglin

  “Because she’s my best friend.”

  He gave me a patronizing look, leaning forward so our faces were merely inches apart. “Because she doesn’t have her own marriage to worry about.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Seth’s gay, Ainsley. A hundred percent gay. Never slept with a woman in his life.”

  “That’s impossible—”

  “It’s not. Ask Glennon. Ask her, and she’ll tell you the truth.”

  “But…I don’t understand. Why would she marry him if that’s the case? Why would she be leaving him now? Did she know when they got married? She had to if…”

  “She’s always known. It’s why they don’t have kids, why he’s always away on business trips. Seth’s family are devout Catholics. When he came out, they threatened to take him out of the will, take away his trust fund, if he didn’t marry a woman.”

  “That’s…awful,” I said, feeling my anger dissipating. “Poor Seth… But I don’t understand. If that’s the case, why didn’t Glennon tell me? Why would she agree to it in the first place?”

  “I guess they’re just good friends,” he said. “You know Glennon cares about other people way too much. She’s always the first to jump up and sacrifice herself for the greater good. She’s always taking care of you, and the kids… Seth needed help, she was his best friend, and she helped him. From what Seth says, it was as simple as that. Plus, Glennon’s been taken care of. He’s not the only one benefiting from their arrangement. Seth was able to get her the best care when she was sick all that time. And he’s been funding her nonprofit since it opened. It was a trade-off, and they’ve been making it work all these years.”

  I nodded. What he was saying made sense in a weird way, but I still felt like I was in an alternate reality. It all felt like it was some big joke. Like Glennon and Seth were going to jump out of the kitchen any minute, laughing about how hard I’d fallen for it.

  How had I missed it? I’d seen them together so many times. How had I not picked up on the fact that they weren’t…together in that way? I’d seen them kiss, hadn’t I? I thought back, recalling several pecks on the cheek and forehead. Nothing more. Then again, who makes out in front of their friends? It wasn’t the weirdest thing to be a bit private.

  But Glennon wasn’t private about anything else…

  “So, if she knew he was gay, I guess I don’t understand. Why is she leaving him now?”

  “Because of you, Ainsley. Because he hurt you. Because I hurt you. If there’s one thing she could never forgive, it’s anyone hurting you.”

  I thought back to what she’d said on the phone, remembering her tears coming as she’d said she didn’t want to lie to me or hurt me. Realization swept through me as every piece of the puzzle clicked into place. It was my turn to put my face in my hands, trying to pull myself together.

  “Oh my God…” I whispered breathlessly. No other phrase seemed to fit the way I was feeling.

  “She said you told her you’d leave me if I cheated on you,” Peter whispered, touching my arm.

  “That is what I said,” I told him, nodding in my hands.

  “Is that still the truth? Do you want to leave me?”

  “I just…need time, Peter. You can’t ask me that right now.”

  “Please, Ainsley. Please don’t do this. I love you.” I looked up, watching a tear drip off the end of his nose. “Please. This is it. This is our moment of total honesty. We get all our secrets out, and then we move on. We can do it. I know we can. We have to. I can’t lose you.”

  I moved to stand up. “I can’t, Peter. I can’t do this right now. I need to go see Glennon. I need to be with her. I need to make sense of this all.”

  He reached for my hand. “Wait.” His grip tightened.

  “Let me go!” I cried, jerking it away from him at the exact moment I heard a knock on the door.

  Both our eyes widened as we looked toward the sound. Peter walked past me, wiping his eyes and putting a hand up to keep me back as he pulled open the door. “Can I help you?” he asked.

  I walked around him until I could see who was standing there, surprised to see the officers had come back. Maybe Peter had been right after all… With Illiana gone, would they start looking at us again? Maybe they’d never stopped.

  “Are you Peter Green—” As Officer Chad recognized me, he stopped short. “Good evening, Mrs. Greenburg. Did we catch you at a bad time?”

  I sniffled and ran a finger under my eyes. “No, of course not. Officers, this is my husband, Peter,” I said, a lump of fear forming in my chest. “Please, come in.”

  They stepped over the threshold, but this time, they didn’t sit down when I gestured that they should. Instead, Officer Chad nodded at Peter, then at me, and began to speak. “I’m sorry to bother you all. We won’t be staying long. We came by because I’m afraid we have some unfortunate news…”

  I squared my shoulders, bracing myself for whatever was coming.

  “As you may have heard, Illiana De Luca has gone missing.”

  “We did hear, yeah,” I confirmed when he paused. “It was on the news.”

  “Good. Okay, well, what I’m about to tell you hasn’t been released to the public yet, but we wanted to give you a heads-up before it is.” He sighed, looking around the room. “Are your children home?”

  “They are, but they’re in their rooms. Do I need to get them?” My heart fluttered at the thought. I didn’t want to involve them. Were they going to arrest us? Would the kids need to go to CPS? I wrung my hands together in front of my waist.

  “No, it’s better that they’re not here. They don’t need to hear what I’m about to tell you. It’s not…it’s not the kind of news we like to give.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t understand,” I said. Beside me, Peter was being quiet, for which I was grateful. I had built a rapport with the officers, I could tell. They trusted me somewhat. They held eye contact with me whenever they spoke.

  “Ma’am, there’s no easy way to say this. We have reason to believe Stefan De Luca is a serial rapist.”

  I took a sharp breath, stepping backward, my knees nearly giving out under me. “He wh—”

  “Inside his truck, we found a bag filled with several pairs of women’s underwear. We’re making an attempt to identify them, but we also found a rope that matches the ligature marks we’ve found on numerous victims over the past several years. It has a distinctive pattern of small, metal rings around it… In every case, the victim’s underwear had been removed. We’ve believed for quite some time that the perpetrator had been collecting them.”

  “Collecting…” I bent down, trying to steady myself as I processed what they were telling us.

  “I realize this is hard to hear, ma’am. We’re only telling you because we wanted to be sure Officer De Luca didn’t do anything inappropriate during your time together. We know that he’s a fellow officer, but please don’t think that will mean we won’t prosecute him to the full extent of the law when we find him, or that we won’t take your accusations seriously. I know you said he was kind to you on your date, but if you’d been lying for any reason, now’s the time to tell us. It could mean the difference in saving a life.”

  I shook my head.

  “No, he…he didn’t. He wasn’t… Um, he…he was the perfect gentleman.”

  The officers exchanged a glance and nodded. Officer Andrews said, “Then I’d say you were very lucky, ma’am.” His tone was kind, but I couldn’t bear to look at him.

  I blinked rapidly, rubbing my eyes as my breathing grew irregular. I put a hand over my chest, squeezing my eyes shut as I tried to focus.

  “And…and Illiana? Did he…did he hurt her?” I looked up at them.

  If it were possible, Officer Chad’s face grew more grim as he prepared to answer the question.

  “We believe…” He seemed hesitant to say more, and I worried, briefly, that he wouldn’t. “We believe Mrs. De Luca has been…involved in her husband’s c
rimes. Whether or not she planned them or helped him carry them out, we aren’t sure. When we asked Mrs. De Luca about the bag, she claimed not to know anything about it. But now, she’s gone missing, too. We’re very concerned that she may be on the run, but we can’t be sure of anything right now.”

  “As we’ve said,” Officer Andrews added, “it’s an ongoing investigation, and this is all sensitive information, which is why we’d appreciate your discretion with what we’re telling you. ”

  “Why are you telling us this, though? What have we got to do with any of it?” Peter asked, finding his voice.

  It was Officer Andrews who answered. “Because we believe your wife was meant to be De Luca’s next victim. Now, she may be perfectly safe, but we wanted to warn you that if either of them were to contact you, we’d like you to call us straight away. Don’t talk to them, don’t engage. Call us or, if you believe you’re in immediate danger, say if they were to show up here again, call 911. Do you still have our number?”

  I nodded. “Yes, of course.”

  “Good. We’re going to have an officer patrol your area for the next few nights to be on the lookout, but you need to be vigilant as well. The De Lucas have done extensive research on you. They know where you work, where you live… From what we’re discovering, they are very dangerous people. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  I nodded again, unable to speak.

  “Do you have any questions for us? Anything else we should know?”

  I shook my head as I felt Peter’s arm slink around me. He rested his chin on the top of my head.

  “Thank you, Officers.”

  The men nodded, making eye contact with him, then me.

  “Take care now. And be safe.” With that, they saw themselves out, leaving us in silence as what we’d been told sank in.

  Peter spun me around after a moment, looking me in the eye.

  “Did he try something with you?” I pulled myself from his grasp. “You need to tell me the truth.”

  “No, Peter, of course not. I would’ve told you.”

  “You swear it?”

  “I swear,” I told him.

  “I’d never forgive myself if something happened to you.”

  “I was fine. He didn’t try anything.”

  “I can’t lose you, Ainsley. God, I don’t know what I’d do if—”

  “You won’t,” I promised. “We’re in this together, right?”

  “Together,” he said, pulling me into his chest. “You and me.”

  I squeezed him tighter, feeling our hearts beating together. “But you can’t lie to me anymore, Peter. No more secrets between us. I can’t handle any more. Our marriage can’t survive any more. We have to both agree.”

  “No more secrets,” he said. “I promise you. No more secrets, no more lies. If we can survive what we’ve survived over these last few days, we can survive anything.”

  At his words, I pulled away, staring up at him.

  “Are you sure?”

  “I love you, Ainsley. I will fight for you every single day. I’m not letting you go. Not now, not ever.”

  “You swear it?” I asked, pinching the skin around my nails. “We can forgive each other for anything?”

  “If you can forgive me for what I did, I will never let you go. I’m in this with you if you’re in it with me.” He kissed my lips. “We can be the people we were before. Is that what you want? Can you forgive me? Can we work through this together?”

  I looked down, pinching my cuticle again. As I broke the skin, I looked down, staring as the blood began to pool. I watched the red dot as it grew, spilling out into the crevices of my thumb nail.

  “Ainsley?” Peter said, and I got the impression he’d already said my name once. I’d been lost in my thoughts. “Can you forgive me?”

  “I can,” I said softly, chewing on my bottom lip as I swiped my bloody thumb onto my pants. “If you can forgive me.”

  The smile faded from his face. “Forgive you for what?”

  “For what I’m about to tell you…” I whispered, my chin quivering. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to form the words.

  “What is it? What do you have to tell me?”

  “You should sit,” I said. “It’s about Stefan. About why he died. About why I had to do it.”

  “Why you had to do what?”

  I pressed my lips together, inhaling deeply through my nose. “I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t think it would actually work. I didn’t know if I could pull it off. I mean, it’s a relief, right? Knowing that we’re going to get away with it. Knowing that we actually pulled it off and they don’t suspect us. I’d been living with such guilt and worry and—”

  “What are you talking about, Ainsley? You aren’t making sense… I mean, sure, it’s a relief that they don’t think I killed him, but I wouldn’t say we’re off the hook just—”

  “That’s just it, Peter. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

  “What are you trying to tell me?” he asked, letting a desperate, breathy sigh escape his throat.

  “You didn’t kill Stefan.” I took another deep breath, stilling my shaking hands. “I did,” I said. And then, I told him everything.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  PETER

  I stared at my wife, listening to a story that came straight from a nightmare. It wasn’t possible, and yet, she’d have no reason to lie. No reason to make herself look like such a monster. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it.

  Rage? Of course.

  Relief that I knew the truth? I wasn’t sure.

  Relief that she was alive? Above all else.

  “I had to do it. I had to fix us. I needed to come up with a solution… I know it sounds stupid, but I needed you to…to owe me.”

  “Owe you?” I furrowed my brow. “What the fuck does that even mean?”

  “I knew about your affairs. All of them, or so I thought. I knew you were sleeping around. Not with Seth,” she added, as I felt my heart plummet. “He was the one you managed to keep from me. But I knew about the others. I’d seen the photos on your phone. I’d followed you a few times when you’d left the house to meet them.”

  “I don’t…I don’t understand.”

  “I was so angry with you. So angry. I’d been good to you. I’d been faithful. I’d stood by your side while you built a company. I’d given you three beautiful children, a beautiful home, and… I still wasn’t enough for you.”

  “You were enough for me, you are!” I told her, feeling my body begin to tremble. I didn’t know whether to feel more angry or afraid. I’d sworn to her I had no more secrets, and she knew I’d been lying. So why did I need to forgive her? She should be the one forgiving me…

  “I was heartbroken. I wanted to pay you back for the way I felt. I wanted you to hurt. I wanted you to have no choice but to stay with me. I told you when we got married, I’d never let you go. I never wanted to be a divorcée. I didn’t want what our parents have.”

  “I don’t want that either…”

  “So, when I suggested we see other people, I did it deliberately. I wasn’t sure if it was going to work, but I had a plan. One of the first questions I asked my matches was what they did for a living, because I knew what I needed. Stefan being a cop wasn’t an accident. He was so proud of his work, and I knew he would take me seriously when I told him my story. On our date, I told him that I was married. I told him my real name, though I pretended that was an accident. I told him that…” She paused.

  “That what?”

  “I told him that you were controlling. That you’d…that you’d hit me a few times.”

  “You what?” I screamed, leaping from the couch as anger overtook me. “Jesus fucking Christ, Ainsley. Why the hell would you do that? I’ve never laid a finger on you.”

  “I know,” she said, wincing. “I know. It’s just…I needed him to worry. I told him that I was trying to leave you, and that I needed to meet people and remember who I was before I ma
rried you. I told him that I was worried you’d do something awful, but that you had all the money and I was worried you’d take the kids if I didn’t stay with you.”

  “Ainsley…” I shook my head, running my hands through my hair incessantly. How was any of this possible? What was she telling me? “He was a cop. He could’ve come and arrested me.”

  “I made him swear not to tell. I told him I could handle it. That I needed a friend. It was awful, I know. And, the worst part is, when I left, I purposely didn’t message him back because I wanted him to come looking for me. I wanted him to worry about me. And when he came to the house, he just wanted to make sure I was okay. I didn’t know that you’d go through with it. I mean, I hoped you would. I hoped you’d be so scared and you’d have the bat… I hoped you’d protect me, but I couldn’t be sure… I know you so well, but I can’t always predict your moves. But when you did, when you did exactly what I’d hoped for, I knew I had you. I knew that secret…that was the kind of secret we’d take to our graves. Together. Because we are in it together.”

  Her face grew stony, though her tone remained sad. “For better or worse. Because your only choice now is to kill me yourself or stay with me forever. I own your secret now, Peter. I own you.”

  I swallowed, standing from the couch and stepping back away from her. “So he was never going to hurt you?”

  “That’s just it. Didn’t you hear what the cops said? If he was a rapist, then he actually was going to hurt me. You did save me, Peter. You saved my life. Right? If he was going to do something awful…”

  I shook my head, my vision tunneling as I tried to make sense of it all. “You didn’t have to do this. I was never going to leave you.”

  She stood, walking toward me. “No, but you were going to keep cheating on me and lying to me. Don’t you see? It’s fixed now. We’re fixed now. All the secrets are out on the table.”

  She gave a wide grin, as if she was proud of what she’d done. “We can be the people we were again. We can fall in love with who we are now. This is a fresh start for us. You promised we could get through anything as long as we were honest with each other. You promised we could fight to get back to who we were. As long as there are no more lies, and there aren’t. I’ve told you everything.”