The Offer: Thrilling Suspense (The Deadly Decisions Collection) by D.L. Wood

Author:D.L. Wood [Wood, D.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Silverglass Press
Published: 2023-08-04T16:00:00+00:00

19

ADDIE

Addie knelt over Monica, shaking her without effect. “Monica! Monica!” she begged, her voice quivering. When Monica didn’t move, Addie sat back up and reached into her pocket for her phone.

It wasn’t there. She had left it in the kitchen.

“Richard!” she yelled, turning toward him. Disbelief washed over her. He was still in the same position, his expression blank. “Call 9-1-1!”

But he didn’t reach for his phone. “It’s too late,” he murmured, at last moving to stand beside Addie, looking down on his wife. “She’s dead.”

“You don’t know that!” She grabbed Monica’s wrist, pulling it toward her and searching for a pulse. Even as she did, one look at Monica’s glassy stare told her she wouldn’t find one.

Richard was right. Monica was dead.

A cry threatened to erupt in Addie’s throat, but she choked it back. With shaking fingers, she gently laid Monica’s hand back on her chest and swiveled to Richard. “Why didn’t you do something? You could have tried. You could have called 9-1-1. Does she have a heart condition? What medication is she on?” Then another horror occurred to her and her stomach plummeted.

An allergy! Does she have an allergy she forgot to tell me about?

“Does she have an allergy?” Addie bellowed at the comatose Richard. “She does, doesn’t she? Why didn’t she tell me?” He didn’t reply. “Richard,” she pressed, “I need you to answer me.”

No tears filled his eyes. No concern was etched into the lines of his face. He straightened, dropped his shoulders, and spoke evenly. “Addie,” he said, cocking his head slowly, “What have you done?”

The bottom dropped out of Addie’s world. “What…what do you mean, what have I done?”

“You’ve killed her.” His face was hard and his eyes, dark.

“I…” Addie rocketed up and stepped back from him. The room tilted and she grabbed onto the table for support. “I…she didn’t tell me she had an allergy…I didn’t…”

“Was this your plan once you realized Monica had hired you? When you realized who she was? Get rid of Monica—the reason we couldn’t be together?” His words were cold and calculated, though nothing he was saying made sense.

“What? That’s ridiculous. Stop it, Richard, and call 9-1-1. She could still be…”

“She isn’t anything. You made sure of that.” He stepped around Addie, over the body of his wife without sparing her a look, and stopped behind Monica’s chair. Addie followed his gaze to Monica’s martini glass. He gestured to it but said nothing.

The shock addled his brain. He’s not thinking straight.

If help was going to be called, Addie was going to have to do it. She started for the door to the kitchen, intending to get her phone, but Richard caught her arm and yanked her back. She nearly tripped on Monica, stumbling over her own feet to avoid trampling on the body, causing her to fall into Richard. He caught her and spun her so Monica’s martini glass was in her eyeline.

“You did this. You knew about her antidepressant meds. I told you about them while we were dating.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.