The Bad Jokes #2: The Blonde

Chapter 5 (Gracie): That's Not How It Was

***TW for miscarriage discussion***

I froze when Wyatt said Sheena was gone for good. That phrase always meant something sinister when you heard it in novels.

He came up from the basement, covered in blood, his eyes growing huge when he saw me.

"I made sure she'd never bother you again or be a problem for us. Now that you're pregnant with our quadruplets, I couldn't take a chance."

"You...killed her? For me?" I almost swooned.

"Of course, my darling love."

I burst into tears at the sweetness of the gesture, wanting to run to him, but not willing to risk getting blood on my one-of-a-kind designer dress, but then he --

"Gracie?" Wyatt's voice called me out of the scene.

"You...you killed her? Holy shit. I mean, she was a total bitch, and I get it, but still. Where's the body? No, don't tell me. I don't want to be an accessory. I don't want to know anything if the police drag me in for questioning."

"You done?" He knew where my mind had gone and his look was indulgent. Possibly exasperated.

I nodded.

"Sorry to burst your plot bubble, but Sheena's still among the living and is driving out of town right now."

Well, that was certainly a really boring, but much more legal, end to her than the one I'd been imagining. Unless he was only saying that to throw me off track, to make me think he hadn't really --

"Can I see your basement?" I blurted out.

He gave me a look that said he was on to me. "Feel free. You won't find anything different than the last time you were down there, other than I moved the stair stepper next to the rowing machine."

I decided to let it go since there were no visible blood stains on his shirt and he did use his basement as a home gym. He'd invited me to work out with him one time when I spent the night, and while he worked out, I sat on his weight bench, ate a bag of barbecue chips and watched a movie on the wall-mounted TV he had down there. Then, pumped and slightly sweaty, he'd joined me on the weight bench...and I forgot about my movie. And my chips.

"Gracie, are you ready to talk? So I can explain things?"

"Yeah, Wyatt. I was ready to talk since the night you blew me off and I found you with your ex on your couch and you apparently lost the power of speech. I'd love to have the conversation we should have had before you started up with your ex again."

"I'm sorry about that. She took me by surprise, Gracie. That night, she showed up unexpectedly and I was going to talk to you the next day."

"So, you put me off instead of her. Just a few days after coming back from the most romantic vacation ever, after eight months together, after becoming so close -- or so I thought -- you moved me to second place without a second thought. As if the time we'd spent together had meant nothing to you."

"It meant everything to me, Gracie."

"It didn't mean enough to keep you from going back to her. It didn't mean enough to explain things to me. It didn't mean enough to tell me why you lied to me all those months and said you were ready to move on."

"Gracie, can we sit and talk about this?"

"Like you were sitting and talking about things with Sheena on this couch? No, thank you."

He walked toward me and then stopped abruptly.

"I was with her for just under a decade, Gracie. Almost nine years. And contrary to everything you saw, I never saw Sheena act nasty like she did with you when she and I were together. She was loving and sweet and kind. I loved her and couldn't wait to marry her -- and then she walked away from me. Just left me a note and ended things without saying why. I never got to find out what happened for her to end us like that. I was gutted and it was months before I got my act together and could function."