CHAPTER NINETEEN
“How do I know this isn’t a prank?” Ally Rhodes demanded.
“I wish it was,” the man on the other end of the line said. “But this is very real.”
“You’re saying that my husband isn’t really my husband? That I’m one of four women he pretended to marry? And that two of them are dead? That sounds like a prank to me.”
“I understand that,” the man, who claimed to be some kind of special agent, said. “That’s why we’ve sent Fresno PD to your location. They should be there any minute.”
“Jesus, this can’t be real,” she muttered, looking at herself in the reflection of the foyer mirror. This didn’t seem to be a dream. She brushed her light brown hair out of her equally brown eyes. Her hand in her hair felt real enough.
But now that she was really taking in the man’s words, her stomach had started to twist into a knot so tight that she could feel a cramp coming on. She also noticed that her breath was coming in short hiccup-y gasps.
“Don’t worry, Ms. Rhodes,” the man said in a far from reassuring tone. “Our goal is to put you in protective police custody until this situation is resolved.”
The agent knew nothing about what had her worried.
Yes, hearing that these two women had been murdered was horrifying.
But she didn’t know them. She knew Jason.
And if the man on the phone was right, her whole world had just been blown up.
She felt sick to her clenched stomach. She also felt light-headed.
It occurred to her that she was hyperventilating.
“Are you all right, Ms. Rhodes?” the agent asked.
“Can’t breathe,” she mumbled. “Dizzy.”
Her vision was fading in and out and her fingers and toes had started to tingle. Her skin was clammy. The man on the phone said something else but she couldn’t really hear it. She noticed her legs felt suddenly weak. Then they gave out completely and she sensed herself falling to the floor.
She landed hard on her side and her shoulder screamed out in pain. She heard a muffled sound and tried to look up. After a moment, she realized that the sound was repeated banging on her front door. A second later, the door burst open.
Through blurred vision, she thought she saw a man in a police uniform rushing toward her. But before he got to her, everything went black.