Chapter 31
Allison
I leave my meeting with Bruce Ghadiali on shaky legs, squinting in the piercing sunlight. How, I keep asking myself. How, how, how could this have happened? Trinity’s bag, Trinity’s lipstick, became my bag and my lipstick in the trunk of that Toyota.
I reach the parking lot and get inside the car. I grip the steering wheel like I’m trying to rip it off the dashboard and bellow out a yell, angry and primal, until my voice cracks.
When I’ve gotten that out of my system, my throat aching and head throbbing, I slow my breathing and start thinking.
The how is not hard to figure: I must have screwed up when I scouted the alley behind Trinity’s fitness studio.
There must have been a security camera. Which means a video.
A video of me planting the pills in the trunk of Trinity’s car. Trinity caught me red-handed.
And then, under the theory that turnabout is fair play, she swapped out her bag for mine, her lipstick for mine.
But how did she get hold of my lipstick and shopping bag?
She would have to know that I use a particular shopping bag that could be easily traceable to me and would have DNA and prints on it.
And more to the point, she would’ve had to take the risk of breaking into my house to steal the bag and lipstick.
No. Trinity didn’t act alone. She had help. Only two people would know about the shopping bags I use, would know where to look for them, stashed in the mudroom. Only two people would have access to my home in the first place.
But Luke doesn’t make sense. Why would he willingly allow himself to get arrested and lose his job? He’d be risking everything he ever worked for, cutting off his nose to spite his face. No, no way it was Luke.
That leaves only one person. That person lives in my house.
That person is sleeping with Trinity Casto.
I misread you, Finley. I knew you felt inadequate. I knew you were bitter, resentful. But it’s one thing to get your jollies with another woman to build up your self-esteem. Inexcusable, unforgivable, pathetic—but at least I can understand it.
But this? This is worse than all that. This is turning against me, taking her side over mine. That’s more than unforgivable.
That’s a declaration of war.