Chapter 2 - DON’T ASK QUESTIONS
Dinner was the strangest meal of my life.
Margaret cooked steak.
Paige opened another bottle of wine.
They talked too much.
People do that when they’re scared.
They fill silence because silence gives you time to think.
“So,” Paige said, chewing casually, “how long are you staying?”
I looked up.
“This is my house.”
Her fork stopped halfway to her mouth.
“I know. I just meant before you have to report somewhere.”
“I’m done for a while.”
Margaret smiled too quickly.
“That’s wonderful.”
Gwen sat beside me.
She barely ate.
Every time her fork touched the plate, I noticed her hand shaking.
“Not hungry?” I asked.
“I ate earlier.”
Paige laughed.
“No, she didn’t.”
Gwen immediately looked at her.
Paige shrugged.
“What? You didn’t.”
My jaw tightened.
“Then eat.”
“I’m okay.”
I lowered my voice.
“Gwen.”
She looked at me.
For one second, I saw the woman I remembered.
Then something shut behind her eyes.
“I’m fine.”
That sentence followed me all evening.
I’m fine.
Nothing happened.
Don’t worry.
Everything is okay.
Every lie sounded rehearsed.
After dinner, Margaret insisted Gwen clean the kitchen.
I stood.
“I’ll do it.”
Three people stared at me.
“You just got home,” Margaret said.
“So?”
“You should rest.”
“Then Gwen should rest too.”
Paige rolled her eyes.
“David, seriously. You don’t know what it’s been like here.”
“You keep saying that.”
Nobody answered.
I cleaned the kitchen myself.
At midnight, the house finally went quiet.
Margaret took the guest room.
Paige went upstairs to what used to be my office.
Apparently, it was her bedroom now.
Gwen and I went to ours.
Even there, everything had changed.
New bed.
New curtains.
New furniture.
But our wedding photograph was gone.
I closed the door.
Gwen stood near the dresser.
Neither of us spoke.
Finally I said, “Take off the hat.”
Her face changed.
“No.”
“Gwen.”
“Please.”
I stepped closer.
“What happened to your hair?”
She touched the beanie.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I don’t want you to see me like this.”
“I’m your husband.”
“That’s why.”
I reached for her hand.
This time she let me hold it.
Her fingers were ice cold.
“I sent almost a hundred thousand dollars home,” I said. “You told me everything was okay.”
“I know.”
“Where did the money go?”
Her lips trembled.
“David…”
“What happened to you?”
She started crying silently.
No sound.
Just tears.
Then she leaned toward me.
“I tried to tell you.”
My chest tightened.
“What?”
“I tried so many times.”
A floorboard creaked outside the bedroom.
Gwen immediately stepped away from me.
Her whole body stiffened.
Someone was standing outside our door.
I walked toward it.
Gwen grabbed my wrist.
“No.”
I looked back.
She shook her head desperately.
“Please.”
The shadow under the door disappeared.
Footsteps moved down the hallway.
I waited ten seconds.
Then twenty.
“Who was that?”
Gwen whispered,
May you like
“They listen.”
---
