Chapter Thirty-Five
“What are you doing here?” Lizzie asked as I marched into her hotel suite.
“We need to talk, and I’m not leaving until I get some answers. Real answers this time.”
She closed the door and regarded me warily. “How did you find me?”
It wasn’t hard. The extended-stay hotel was less than a mile from the facility Mrs. Martins lived in. For the first time in my life, I’d actually bribed someone, giving a hotel maid fifty dollars to tell me which room Lizzie was in.
I surveyed her space, which was more like a one-bedroom apartment. Beyond the small kitchen near the entrance was a sitting room with a door that led to a sleeping area containing a king-size bed. “Nice place.”
She crossed her arms, rounding her shoulders so that she caved into herself. “How did you know which room I’m in?”
“That’s not how this is going to go,” I told her. “I’m going to ask the questions.”
“Please.” Her eyes watered. “There’s honestly nothing to say. Please just go and leave me alone.”
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me why Ali bought you a house.”
“I’m going to call the police if you don’t leave,” she said, her voice shaky. “Please don’t make me.”
“I just came from seeing your mother. I learned some very interesting things.”
“You saw my mother?” Her face paled. “Where? When?”
“At the Meadows. It seems like a nice place.”
“You had no right to bother my mother.”
“She was very happy to see me.” At least at first. “She even hugged me. Your mother says you visit often but that you didn’t mention Ali’s death. That’s strange. Why is that?”
Something flashed across Lizzie’s face before vanishing. Was it fear? “I didn’t want to upset her.”
“Why would she be upset about an old college boyfriend who broke up with you more than twenty years ago? And why would Ali visit your mother on the day he died?”
“I have no idea.” Lizzie exhaled. “My mother knew Ali was helping me.”
“Helping you how?”
She paused. “I’ll tell you everything as long as you promise not to bother my mother again.”
I didn’t trust that she would, but still I agreed. “Go on, then.”
“Ali didn’t pay for the Cozy Glenn house. I sent him the money, and he made the payments so that ownership of the house couldn’t be traced back to me.”
“Traced by whom? You make it sound like you’re laundering money or something. What were you hiding?”
She exhaled, dragging two hands down her face. “You might as well take a seat.”
I was too agitated to sit. “Thank you, but I’ll stand.”
“I’ve been stalked by a man who terrorized me for years.
” Lizzie slid into a chair, looking like she’d lost all strength in her legs.
“It began almost as soon as I separated from my husband. The harassment started with dead flowers left on my doorstep. And once someone chalked the word ‘bitch’ on my apartment door. When this person started threatening my children, leaving notes that said I didn’t deserve to be a mother, I moved far away and stopped seeing them, my own flesh and blood”—her voice shook—“to remove them from any potential danger.”
“Someone is stalking you?” Suddenly, Lizzie’s jumpiness, her constant state of fear or being on edge, made sense. “How did Ali figure into this?”
“I begged him to help me. He was an accountant, so I figured he’d know how to set up a payment system to hide my ownership. I didn’t want the stalker to find me.”
I sat in the chair opposite her. “And he eventually agreed to make the payments for you.”
She nodded. “You’ll see that I regularly transferred money into one of Ali’s bank accounts to cover the house payments.”
“Why didn’t Ali tell me about this?”
“He wanted to. But I begged him not to. I was petrified of anyone finding out about Cozy Glenn. It was the only truly safe space that I had.” She shivered. “The stalker always seems to know what I’m doing, where I’m going.”
I turned this new information over in my mind. “Even if you are telling the truth, Ali still should have told me.”
“I am not lying. Check your bank account. You’ll see a clear record of my payments for the house.”
I stood, eager to check right away. “Don’t worry. I will.”
She followed me to the door. “And, Amira.”
I faced her. “Yes?”
“Please don’t tell anyone where my mother is.”
“Are you still being stalked?”
“Sort of.” Lizzie shook her head. “I recently discovered who it is. He tracked me after all of that publicity about your suing me about the house. After he found me in Durham, I left in the middle of the night and drove here. I checked into this hotel and have been here ever since. But he traced me again. He came here to my hotel just a few days ago. He keeps showing up everywhere I go.”
I felt a stab of guilt. “Did you call the police on him?”
“Yes, but he hasn’t broken any laws yet.”
“I thought you said he made threats against your children? Is that legal?”
“I didn’t report the early incidents in Maryland. There’s no proof that he’s done anything wrong. The cops told him to stay away from me.”
“I wish you’d told me the truth from the start,” I said. “I wouldn’t have had to sue you.”
“At least now you know everything.”
If only that were true. “What about Caryl Daryus?”
“It’s my grandmother’s name. I used different names and spellings in different places to make it harder for anyone to track me.”
“Another thing,” I said. “Why didn’t you tell me that Bill Warren is your brother?”
Her mouth fell open. “You know Billy?”
“He works at my husband’s firm. You must know that.”
“I didn’t realize you’d met him. It’s not as if you and I have ever had a reason to talk about my brother.”
“Are you two close?”
“Not super close. But we are siblings,” she said. “We always have each other’s backs.”
“Meaning that you look out for each other?”
“Yes,” she affirmed. “Always. Are you satisfied? Will you go away now?”
The more time I spent with this woman, the more I felt I could trust my instincts, which screamed that Ali hadn’t been unfaithful to me with her or anyone else. But I still had questions.
“I can’t understand why Ali risked our marriage to help you when he could have sworn me to secrecy.”
“What does it matter?” she asked wearily. “He loved you. There was never anything intimate or sexual between us once he met you. Ali would never be unfaithful once he made a commitment.”
“I do know that.” Satisfaction washed through me to hear her confirm what I already knew in my heart. There’d been no affair. Ali was faithful to me. Our mutually loving marriage was real.
“I was devastated when Ali broke up with me,” Lizzie told me. “Is that what you want to hear?”
“I want the truth. That’s what I’ve always wanted.”
“The truth is that I wasn’t all that surprised when Ali broke up with me. I always knew I loved him more than he ever loved me.”
The words reverberated through me. “You’re not the one that got away,” I said.
“I was never the one,” Lizzie said coolly. “I always thought you were.”
“Do you believe her?” Ayla asked when I FaceTimed the kids from the parking lot of Lizzie’s hotel. “Maybe she’s just telling you what you want to hear so you’ll leave her alone.”
“That’s possible.” I actually felt a little happy for the first time since Ali died. “But I do believe her.”
“So do I.” Relief etched Adam’s face. “I never could imagine Dad cheating.”
“Right.” Ayla made a face. “Because Dad was such a saint.”
Her scornful reaction worried me. It was almost as if she wanted—needed—for the worst to be true. “Why aren’t you happy, Ayla?” I asked her. “This is good news. It means your dad was, for the most part, who we always thought he was.”
Her lip curled. “You believe this Lizzie person because you want to believe her. You need to believe her.”
“What’s your problem?” Adam snapped at his sister. “It’s almost like you’re disappointed Dad didn’t have a side chick.”
“Or maybe I’m the only one here who’s being realistic,” Ayla shot back. “If Dad was so innocent, why didn’t he tell Mom about the secret house?”
She had a point. “I told you that Lizzie begged him not to,” I said. “But he should have told me. I’m not saying Dad was perfect. I’m just saying I believe he didn’t cheat. His coworkers, his college friends, Uncle Nasser, they also don’t believe that Dad would be unfaithful.”
“Whatever,” Ayla said. “I have to go. I have a class.” She disconnected before I even had a chance to say goodbye, leaving me feeling a little deflated. I had FaceTimed the kids expecting them to be as pleased as I was.
“She’s psycho,” Adam said after Ayla was gone. “She’s been so weird since Dad died.”
“We have to be patient with her. We all grieve in our own way.”
“It looks like Ayla’s way of grieving is to believe Dad was an asshole so she can stay mad at him.”
“Maybe that’s what she needs to do right now in order to be able to cope.”
As relieved as I was about Ali, I was now more worried than ever about Ayla. It felt like something else was going on with her. I needed to find out what it was before she spiraled and was beyond help.
“I know why you’re here.” Bill Warren slipped into the coffee shop booth across from me the following afternoon. “Lizzie texted me after she spoke to you, so I wasn’t surprised when you reached out.”
“She did say that you siblings always have each other’s backs.”
“Having Lizzie’s back can be a lot of work.” His words had an edge. Not exactly the demeanor of a loving brother. “You may have noticed that my sister is on the needy side. As her big brother, I’m used to being called in to save the day.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that Lizzie was your sister?”
“What was the point of telling you? It had no bearing on anything.”
“Most people would naturally mention something like that.”
“Being in Lizzie’s orbit can be a lot. I don’t make a habit of talking about my sister. Besides, I knew you’d ask me about the North Carolina house and I wanted to stay out of it.”
“Your sister claims that her romantic relationship with my husband ended before he got married.”
“I’m sure that’s true. As far as I knew, they barely had anything to do with each other after you married him.”
Bill Warren might not be a trustworthy person, but hearing him confirm what Lizzie said still made me feel better. “Is your connection to Lizzie the reason Ali got you the job at his firm?”
“Probably. I never asked him directly, but I’m not an idiot. I assumed that’s why he wanted to help me.”
Bill Warren made a show of being open and transparent, but I still felt there was something else behind the facade. More he wasn’t saying.
“Do you still have a job?” I asked.
“I’m on probation pending an investigation. I don’t expect things to go my way.” He shrugged. “I would never have gotten the job in the first place if Ali hadn’t gone to bat for me.”
“Why did he?” Ali had risked our marriage by keeping me in the dark about Lizzie’s house, and he’d risked his professional reputation to help Lizzie’s incompetent brother.
It didn’t make sense. Ali never was a risk taker.
He took pride in being careful and deliberate.
“Why would Ali go out on a limb to get you a job at the firm?”
“Beats me. Now you’re asking me things that I can’t answer. All I can say is that Ali was a good guy.”
But he wasn’t an idiot. And yet he’d gone out of his way to help both Lizzie and Bill Warren—at his own expense. It almost seemed like Ali had felt beholden to Lizzie and, by extension, her brother.
But why?