“Why are you driving a U-Haul?” Charlie’s voice was filled with contempt and rage. If Melissa could close her eyes, she would not know that the person speaking to her was her husband.
“I don’t know. Why are you holding me at gunpoint?”
His eyes narrowed as one corner of his mouth tilted into a half smile. “I always admired your skill for a quick comeback, but you’re not in a great position to mouth off right now.” He had immediately jabbed the muzzle of the gun against her ribs once he was in the passenger seat of the truck, and now he demanded that she leave the diner parking lot to head back to the South Fork. They were on the same isolated two-lane road that she had taken to Riverhead. She scoured her memory, hoping to recall an open gas station or roadside bar where she could possibly escape, but came up with nothing.
“Where’s Riley?” she asked.
“Why don’t you tell me?” He looked pleased with himself. She wondered if his face had always been so smug, or if he had somehow managed to alter his physical appearance. “Because from what the police have told me, you drove Riley to Shelter Island and drowned her because you never wanted children and could no longer handle the pressure.”
“Why are you doing this to me?” She hated the pleading sound of her own voice, like an unfed animal teased with a dangling piece of meat. “Is it money? We don’t have a prenup. You could get a windfall out of this without staging a kidnapping and framing me for it. You made up this elaborate story about Linda and Norway, and then signed up for group counseling so you could find an easy mark. Of all the people in the group, why me?”
The half smile returned. He was enjoying the fact that he knew everything, and she knew nothing. “I almost pulled the plug after a few months of knowing you.”
“Is this the part where you tell me that it started out as a con, but then you really, truly fell in love with me?”
He shook his head. “Sorry, babe, but nope. It’s always been a con, if that’s the word you want to use. I almost pulled the plug because you’re too smart. Even watching a show on Netflix, you’ve got the whole thing figured out by the third episode. Thanks for spoiling all the endings, by the way. But when it comes to real life—at least, your real life—you don’t see the truth at all, do you? Guess it’s all that choose to be happy nonsense.”
Her phone rang on the dashboard in front of him. She could see her brother’s name on the screen.
“Don’t even think about it,” he hissed.
She kept both hands on the wheel as one unanswered ring after another sounded.
When the truck cabin fell silent, she asked, “So, what’s the truth that I’m missing?”
He jabbed the muzzle of the gun into her ribs even harder. “No more questions.”
She prayed that the partial message to Katie had gone through. Katie would call the police. They would find her, and then they would find Riley. Please, God, I don’t want to die.