Chapter 3
On the drive home, Edgar spoke the way people do after near-disasters they want to shrink into anecdotes.
“At least nobody got bitten.”
“At least the wildlife guy got them out.”
“At least it’s over.”
I kept my face turned toward the window and said very little.
I could still hear the rattling.
Still see the way Edgar had looked at Kristina first.
When we pulled into the circular drive, most of the lights in the house were off except the kitchen and the landing lamp upstairs. Kristina had stayed awake to meet us.
Of course she had.
She sat at the marble island in a cream robe, a teacup in front of her, as if she were waiting for news after a family member’s surgery.
“How are you feeling?” she asked, rising.
I did not answer immediately.
Edgar stepped around me. “She’s fine. Just shaken.”
Kristina put one hand over her heart. “The Lord was watching over you.”
The Lord, apparently, had also been responsible for placing two rattlesnakes under my blanket.
I looked at her carefully. “Were you in my room this afternoon?”
She didn’t even blink. “Only to straighten the bed for you.”
“Did you notice anything strange?”
“No. Should I have?”
The lie was flawless.
That frightened me more than if she had fumbled.
Edgar sighed. “Nora, I know this was traumatic, but what are you asking?”
There it was.
Not Mother, what is she asking?
Not because he was confused.
Because he was repositioning me already.
Making me sound irrational.
Making the room tilt subtly in his favor.
I swallowed. “I’m asking how two rattlesnakes ended up in our bedroom.”
Kristina folded her hands. “We live near woodland.”
“We live in a gated estate,” I said. “On a manicured acre with quarterly pest control.”
Edgar’s jaw tightened. “Let’s not do this tonight.”
Do this.
As if the problem were my tone.
I went upstairs without another word.
My bedroom had been remade.
Fresh sheets.
Fresh duvet.
No trace of what had happened except the dent in the nightstand where I had hit it.
I stood in the doorway and felt something cold move through me.
Someone had cleaned the scene before I returned.
I slept in the guest room with the door locked.
At 2:14 a.m., I woke to the sound of low voices in the hallway.
I eased out of bed and pressed one eye to the crack beneath the guest-room door.
Two shadows stood in the pool of light near the staircase.
Edgar’s voice came first, urgent and sharp in a way I had never heard him speak to his mother before.
“You said one.”
Kristina answered with deadly calm. “And you said she’d lie down faster.”
My body went rigid.
“I told you she had a migraine,” Edgar hissed.
“You told me she was obedient.”
A long silence followed.
Then Edgar said, in a strangled whisper, “She could have died.”
Kristina’s reply was even quieter.
“Then you should have chosen a more reliable wife.”
I clapped one hand over my mouth.
The hallway fell silent again.
Then Edgar said the words that broke something permanent inside me.
“We have to make sure she tells this as confusion. Stress. Hallucination if necessary.”
I backed away from the door so quickly I nearly fell.
I was pregnant.
May you like
My husband knew his mother had put snakes in my bed.
And together they were deciding how to make me unbelievable.
