Chapter 74 Katie Morrow
Katie Morrow
They probably wouldn’t even notice if she didn’t come back. She’d driven past the house around midnight, and all the lights had still been on. They had probably stayed up all night drinking and laughing and had wild gymnastic sex on their bed with Willow screaming like a whore.
Katie wouldn’t even tell Mark about the baby.
She’d just let him see her big belly at the divorce proceedings.
His stupid mouth would close in a small O of surprise, and her attorney would bring up child support, and he would drop to his knees and beg for her to take him back and she would be stoic and strong and tell him he had done this. Him and her.
Katie sat in her car, two homes down, and weighed her options. It was almost noon, and Mark hadn’t called to see what time, if any, she was coming home. It felt like she would be limping across the finish line in last place if she just walked in, tail between her legs, sullen face on.
A car nosed through the gates of their house, and she winced when the older Jeep Cherokee swung in her direction. She opened the glove box and pawed through it, looking for something—anything—to explain why she was sitting on the shoulder of the road like a pathetic psycho.
Any hope of Willow driving past without noticing her ended when the Jeep pulled over on the opposite shoulder of the road and parked.
The door opened and the tall brunette stepped out.
She was wearing a long red cardigan and jeans with Birkenstock sandals.
She had on a white baseball cap and wrapped the cardigan tighter around her waist as she crossed the street without looking.
She rapped on Katie’s window and gestured for her to roll it down.
Katie did. “Hi, Willow,” she snapped.
“Let’s go for a walk.” Willow stepped toward the front of Katie’s Porsche and waved at her. “Come on.”
A walk. Katie considered, for the briefest of moments, rejecting the order, but her curiosity was stronger than her spite. She glanced in the side mirror, double-checking that no one was coming, then put on her hazard lights and turned off the engine.
The breeze was stiff and she paused in the cold blow, then opened the back door and grabbed the windbreaker she kept for emergencies. Shrugging it on, she met Willow at the hood.
Her husband’s ex was rubbing her hands in an attempt to get warm, and blew into them, then nodded toward the sidewalk. “Come on.”
They walked past the McCormicks’, then the Shays’. Katie glanced through the open gates of her home, but there was no sign of Mark or what was happening inside the house. Maybe he was still asleep. Hungover on liquor and sex.
“We didn’t fuck, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Willow said, her sandals crunching over a group of dead leaves on the sidewalk.
Katie pinned her lips together in disbelief.
“I’m on my way out. I found a house-sit in Sedona that I’m going to head to. Need to be there in three days.”
On her way out. It was both a relief and a letdown.
Mark should have been the one to kick her out, to insist that it wasn’t appropriate, her staying with them.
Instead, it just felt like Willow was running again and likely taking a piece of her husband’s heart with her.
“So, what, we’ll see you again in five years?
Or when the next dead body turns up?” Katie said bitterly.
“Look, I haven’t been fair to you.” Willow stopped walking and turned to her. “But I want to give you a parting gifts, of sorts. About your husband.”
Katie squinted up at Willow. She should have grabbed her sunglasses. Right now, the sun was streaming through the overhead trees and right into her eyes. “Forgive me if I don’t trust your gifts.”
“Sure, I get that. Here, let’s move out of that glare.” She grabbed Katie’s arm and guided her out of the light and beside one of the big live oaks. It blocked the wind, and the chill lessened.
“Just tell me, Willow. Whatever it is.”
“I left Mark because our relationship was violent. Abusive. That’s why I ran away and didn’t give him a way to contact me, and why I stayed off the grid.”
“Bullshit,” Katie spat. “Mark’s not like that.”
“You’re right, he’s not.” She paused. “I am. And Mark liked the way I was.”
It took a moment to process the double punch the woman had just delivered. “You were abusive?”
“Yes. I was rough with him during sex. I tied him up to punish him. I hurt him until he begged me to stop, and I locked him in a cage in the basement when he was bad.”
Katie choked out a laugh. Now she understood the issue: The woman was insane. “No, you didn’t.”
“Yes, I did.” Willow didn’t act insane. She spoke as if she knew exactly what she was talking about. “And he liked it.”
“N-no one would like that,” Katie sputtered.
“Mark did. And he still does. Which might be a problem in your marriage, if you don’t figure out a way to handle it. He’s drowning right now. He needs structure and discipline, or he’s going to lose his mind.”
Katie felt like her legs were going to give out. She turned away from Willow and covered her mouth with both hands, processing the information. This was bullshit. She was exaggerating. She had to be. “You’re lying,” she said weakly.
“It’s why I left. The more I tried to withdraw, the clingier he got.”
Katie took a step away, then another, stumbling back toward the car as she attempted to process the lies. Lies, definitely. Had to be.
“You can pretend it’s not true,” Willow called out. “But it is.”
When Katie made it back to the safety of her car, she pulled her Balenciaga bag into her lap and yanked it open. Then she leaned forward and vomited into it.