I snapped my head to Paxton, wondering when he got there. My zone had everything zoned out. I hadn’t even heard him come out there.
“Come on, Rowan. Tricia is coming to get you guys for a while.”
“Yay!” Rowan called from the pool. We hadn’t seen any of them at all, not even gymnastics. Candace moved Chance to the afternoon class to keep from seeing me, but I was okay with that. I would have done it had she not beat me to it.
“Paxton? What are you doing? I don’t want them going over there.”
“Shut up. Don’t say one word.”
Oh shit. Something was up. The evidence he’d just received was bad news. Or some news. I didn’t really know what the deal was, but it was big. How big was right around the corner.
Paxton tossed Rowan a towel, rushing her out of the pool. He scooped Ophelia up from my side and carried her in the house, talking to her in a quiet voice. I stared after him for a minute, trying to decipher what was real and what wasn’t. Why did Tricia have to take them? My heart beat loud in my chest with the rush of nerves, pumping fast through my veins. I had no idea what he was up to. None whatsoever.
I pulled myself together long enough to follow him inside, slipping a dry shirt of Rowan as we walked.
“Paxton, what are you doing?”
Nothing. He didn’t say one word to me. He walked across the open floor plan to the front door and handed off our girls. I didn’t even get to say goodbye. Tricia gave me a peculiar look when Paxton dropped Ophelia to the floor, but she didn’t speak.
“I’ll come get you guys in a little bit,” he said with a kiss to each little cheek.
They both agreed with happy nods. They loved Tricia.
“What are you doing?” I asked as soon as the door was closed. His expression instantly changed, and I was scared. My knees knocked together when he stomped toward me. Two steps closed the distance between us.
“Come here,” he said through gritted teeth. His hand squeezed my arm hard and he shoved me toward his office. Right to his chair.
“What? What are you doing?”
“Shut the fuck up. I’m about to show you. Didn’t I tell you I’d find the truth, Gabriella? Didn’t I? Or should I say Isabella?”
My lips parted, ready to ask him what he was talking about when the email opened. Paxton hit play and I watched the surveillance camera. A black SUV pulled to a parking spot right in front of the camera. Just like mine, only black. A small white Honda parked crookedly right beside it. I looked back at Paxton’s angry face, wearing a puzzled expression. He shoved my face back to the computer. It was gone. The change in his eyes over the past few months. Gone in an instant. Paxton hated me.
I watched with wide eyes as two girls embraced for a long time. Tears swelled in my eyes while I witnessed the reunion.
“Is that Izzy and me? Oh, my God. It is. It’s her.” My hand covered my heart and I stared in total disbelief.
“No. It’s you and Gabriella. You’re fucking good. I mean like Emmy award good.”
I looked back with a twisted frown, trying like hell to decipher what in the world he was talking about.
“This is genius. You’re a fucking genius.”
“What do you mean?” I asked in mouse-like tone.
Paxton walked around his desk and paced, back and forth.
“I presume amnesia is probably pretty easy when you pretend to be somebody else. That’s fucking single white female shit. Like I can’t even wrap my head around what has gone on here. You should put this shit in a book. I can see it now. Big screen. I think Ben Affleck should play the idiot husband, don’t you?”
“You think I’m Izzy?”
“Oh I know you are. It’s all out. You can stop with the act.”
His hands came down hard on the desk in front of me, loud and firm. I jumped and cowered from his glare. “Where the fuck is my wife? Tell me, Isabella. Where is my wife? You know the one. The one you killed.” His voice changed to an eerie low. Creepy, and I was scared.
“I didn’t kill her. I love her. I wouldn’t hurt my sister.”
“Right. Sure. Was it for the money? Huh, Isabella? Did you think you were going to waltz in here and take what’s mine? Everything makes so much sense now. You’re background check tells it all. Stop me if I’m wrong.”
Paxton paced the floor in front of me while I sat in his big leather chair. Alone and lost. All I could do was listen.