Page 74 of Checkmate
She held her breath, his answer suddenly important. She wanted him to tell her he was thinking about their marriage. His part in the distance between them. The ways he planned to help them improve.
Even if she knew it was a wasted effort, she wanted him to show that he cared. That he wanted to fight for their marriage.
“Nothing important,” he said, staring through her.
“Nothing… I’m sorry. Did you say nothing important?”
He shrugged and stood, pouring himself another drink that he immediately finished in three swallows. “I need to call Sophie.”
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. On the one hand, this was a good thing. It meant he was playing right into her hand and the plan was working.
But on the other hand, was he fucking serious?
“We have an important meeting in the morning. I need to make sure she’s got her shit together.”
He took a step towards her, kissing her cheek. “I’m glad you’re home, Eri. Don’t wait up though, okay?”
Before she could protest, he left her in the silence of their living room. Important or not, Alex had never needed to call an emergency meeting, and she highly doubted he needed to now.
Pulling her phone from her pocket, she dialled Marcus’ number, sneaking into the hallway to listen for Alex.
“Marcus,” she whispered as he answered. “What are you doing?”
Above her head, she could hear Alex’s rumbling voice as he spoke to someone on the phone.
“I’m still driving home. Why?” He paused. “Are you okay? I swear if he’s upset you—”
“I’m fine,” she assured him. “He hasn’t. I think I upset him.”
“Shame that. A real shame.”
She bit her lip to stop her giggle. “He’s on the phone to Sophie. I think he’s trying to meet her.”
“Now? That’s bold of him.”
“I have a crazy idea,” she confessed.
“Am I going to like it?”
“Not even a little. In fact, I don’t even know why I’m suggesting it, because I’ll hate it too.”
“Oh, well, it sounds like a barrel of laughs,” he said, his tone teasing. “Sign me up.”
“I think we should follow them,” she said, the words releasing quickly on one breath.
“You’re right. I fucking hate it. Why would you want to do that, Erica?”
“You know how you always wanted us in view of the cameras?”
“Yeah,” he said with a sigh. “I said it’d help to have evidence of our innocence when it came to divorce.”
“And it would help to have evidence of their infidelity,” she replied. “Undisputable evidence that neither of them can deny.”
Marcus sighed again, and Erica had a horrible suspicion he was about to turn her down. “You realise you’re going to cause yourself a massive amount of pain?”
“Yeah, I know,” she admitted. “And if you really think we shouldn’t, or more importantly, you can’t handle it, I’ll drop it. I don’t want to see it either, and yet I do. I just… I think it’ll give me some closure.”
“You’re fucking crazy,” Marcus said.
