by HC Michaels
They even asked her once if she thought it was possible Dean was still alive. Apparently, they’d spoken to her mother who insisted he still visited her at the nursing home. They either didn’t understand very much about dementia or they were getting desperate for answers.
She just hoped that whatever answers they came up with, they did it quickly. As long as they were the right answers, of course.
She’d already come clean about everything she’d done. All her secrets were out in the open now, flapping in the breeze like sheets on the line. The problem was that everyone had it in for her. They wanted to believe she killed Theo. It didn’t matter she’d already fallen from grace. The public wanted her to fall further.
“Oh, Theo,” she said, collapsing to her knees and burying her face in her hands. Sobs shook her body and she gasped for air. How could she go on like this?
She’d wanted some drama in her life, but she never wanted this.
Skye settled into Dr Addison’s chair and picked absentmindedly at a loose thread on the label of her hat while she waited for him to indicate he was ready to begin.
Despite the way her first session had ended, she’d enjoyed it a lot more than she thought she would. It felt good to talk to someone. It didn’t matter that Dr Addison didn’t seem to like what she was telling him. He couldn’t call her a bitch or a murderer like the rest of the world seemed to enjoy doing. He had to just sit there, take her money and listen. It was a pretty cushy job. Maybe she should’ve become a psychologist?
No.
She’d always liked talking more than she liked listening.
“I’m pleased to see you again,” said Dr Addison, indicating the session had started. “Would you like to talk about why you seemed so upset when we finished up last time?”
“If I wanted to talk about it, then I would’ve talked about it last time.” She crossed her arms.
“Right.” He shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “Then perhaps we should leave the topic of your mother and get back to Theo today. You told me how you lied to him about your cancer. I’d like to continue on from there. Did he ask to go to any medical appointments with you?”
“He did, but I told him it wasn’t necessary. He was in the middle of a big trial. He couldn’t get away from court, so I told him not to worry. Although, he was really insistent when I had my surgery.” Skye’s eyes welled with tears at the memory of how concerned Theo had been.
“Just to be clear, did this surgery actually happen?” He wrote something down on his notepad.
“Of course, it did. I’m not that much of a liar,” Skye huffed. “It just wasn’t the surgery he thought I was having. I had a cyst on my right ovary, you see. While they had me on the table, they took a close look at my left ovary, too. I didn’t want Theo to come with me to the hospital. It would take him all of about five seconds to figure out what kind of surgery it was.”
“So, you used this cyst as part of your plan?” Dr Addison scribbled madly in his book, not even looking up at her to ask his question.
“It was the cyst that gave me the idea.” Skye shrugged. “Nobody wants to read about ovarian cysts. But ovarian cancer ... that’s a different story.”
“And Theo never tried to visit you in hospital?” he asked. “Even in the evenings after work?”
“He tried to once, but thankfully I had the foresight to put an obstacle in his path.” Skye tapped a temple, proud of her ability to think ahead.
“An obstacle?” Dr Addison’s brows shot up. “Would you like to elaborate on that?”
“Not particularly,” said Skye, toying with him.
He sighed. “Skye, if you’re going to hide things from me, then I’m not sure how much help I can be to you.”
Skye waved a hand in front of her. “I sent an anonymous email to his most notorious client blackmailing him in exchange for not releasing an incriminating video to the media. I never intended to do it, of course, but the threat would be enough to keep Theo busy for a while. I knew his client would freak. And when he freaks, the first person he calls is Theo.”
“That sounds fairly…extreme.” Dr Addison scratched at his chin. “So, Theo was happy to leave you in hospital on your own?”
“I wouldn’t exactly say happy, but I wasn’t on my own. I had Elle looking after me.” Skye smiled widely, not caring if her teeth showed.
“You haven’t mentioned Elle before. Is she a friend?” he asked.
She nodded. “She was my support person throughout this. Theo was a bit unsure as he only met her once briefly, but she sent him a friend request on Facebook and they bonded that way.”
“And Elle knew the truth about your cancer?” He wrote down another note while he waited for her answer.
Skye shook her head. “Nobody knew the truth. I took myself to hospital. It was only day surgery. Then I stayed two days at a hotel to make it look like I was gone for longer.”
“Sorry, I thought you said Theo spoke to Elle online.” Dr Addison’s grey eyebrows pulled together as he tried to figure this out. “Weren’t you worried she might tell him she wasn’t going to the hospital with you?”
“This is where it gets a little complicated,” Skye said. “I had to be one step ahead of Theo, which as you can imagine wasn’t easy. The only way I was able to do it was with Elle. She was my secret weapon.”
“You mean you manipulated her?” he asked.
“Manipulated? No! I invented her.” Skye sat back in her chair and laughed at her own genius. “That’s the best bit about all of this. Elle doesn’t even exist. I made her up.”
“I’m not sure I understand.” Dr Addison’s brows were drawn together so tightly now they looked like a single unit.
“I thought if I made up a friend who Theo thought was supporting me through this then he’d be more comfortable leaving me to it. The last thing I needed was him pulling out of his court case somehow.” She smiled, proud her plan had worked so successfully.
“Right.” Dr Addison let his brows relax at last as the penny dropped.
“I got the idea when I ran into Theo in the city when I was on a coffee run with one of our interns. Luckily for me she had certain assets that made her memorable to a man like Theo. All I needed to do was create an online profile for her.” Skye pointed towards the computer sitting on the otherwise bare desk.
Dr Addison’s jaw fell open. “You stole her identity?”
“It’s not like I used her real name. I didn’t even use her real photo.” Skye rolled her eyes. “I just created an account as Elle Thomas, then trawled the internet to find the right images for her profile. It’s amazing how many people on social media don’t have their settings locked down. You can just go in and copy any photo you like.”
She’d made several photo albums for Elle, selecting pictures of hot brunettes mostly wearing sunglasses and cowboy hats. They could easily pass as the same person. Then she selected her favourite as the profile picture. It was of a girl in South America wearing a bright green bikini. She was gorgeous, her body so hot Theo was extremely unlikely to look too closely at what was visible of her face. Elle had quite the convincing account.
“Then I sent out hundreds of friend requests to complete strangers. You wouldn’t believe how many of them were accepted. These desperadoes started posting comments on some of the photos and I posted comments on theirs in return. I then logged on to my own account and left comments on Elle’s page to show what good friends we were. Theo had no idea the page was a fake.”
Dr Addison nodded, so she continued.
“I bought a second phone, paid for with cash and accessed the page with that. If Theo had met Elle and seen us interacting online then he was sure to believe she was real. He would never think to doubt it. It worked brilliantly ... until I lost the bloody phone. I turned the house upside down looking for it and it never turned up. I still don’t know where it is.”
“Do you think Theo found it?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Even if he
did, it wouldn’t have mattered. It had a passcode on it. I reckon our housekeeper probably took it. It’s the only thing that makes any kind of sense. Sometimes I noticed some of my clothes going missing, too. I know it was her. I mean, she was the only other one who ever went into my dressing room, so it had to be her. I let it go, though. Most of the stuff she took was last season stuff and would only have ended up going to charity anyway. This just cut out the middle man. Pathetic, hey?”
Skye lay back in her chair, aware her eyes were wide, and her heart was racing. She was enjoying telling this story. If only she could write a blog about it. Maybe she could write a book one day…
“So, getting back to Elle,” said Dr Addison. “When you said Theo was messaging her online, he was actually messaging you?”
“I know, it’s crazy.” Skye shook her head, laughing at the absurdity of it all. “I thought it’d be fun to talk to him as another woman. It’s always the ones you least suspect who are running around behind your back. I knew all his buttons to push and he bit back each time. I was surprised. Then I pushed too far, and he backed right off.”
“What happened?” Dr Addison was hanging on her every word, making Skye wonder how much of this was therapy and how much was his own curiosity.
“Disaster happened,” she said. “Well, near disaster. Theo proved himself to be a faithful husband, but in the process blew my plan to pieces. He organised for his brother’s wife to pick me up from hospital and told Elle not to bother. I was already in the hotel by this stage and was freaking out, until I decided to text Sophie first thing Thursday morning saying I was discharged early. I met her out the front of the hospital. I figured she wouldn’t question me too much. It wouldn’t be right to interrogate someone with cancer.”
“You don’t get along with her?” He wrote something in his notepad.
“She doesn’t get along with me,” Skye corrected. “I’m sure she was only picking me up as a favour to George. Or maybe she wanted a mention on my blog.”
“I read one of your posts last night,” said Dr Addison.
“Really? Are you allowed to do that?” Now it was her turn to be surprised.
He laughed, although it sounded more like a cough. “Of course. It’s in the public domain. It was the one with all the movie parallels. Can you tell me what it felt like to write?”
“I tried to make it a light-hearted piece about a serious topic.” Skye smoothed out a crease in her trousers. “Nobody wants to read anything written by a whinger. They want to hear from brave people they can turn into heroes. It also meant I could avoid going into too much detail about my treatment. That’s how people get caught out. Best to keep it light and assume people know enough about cancer these days to be able to fill in the blanks for themselves.”
“And was it a successful post for you?” he asked.
“Within a minute there were already over a dozen comments. Hundreds more followed.” Skye flushed with pride at the memory. “They were all positive comments too, attacking each other and not me.”
Dr Addison nodded slowly. “What did Theo think of it?”
“He was busy. I’m not sure he ever read much of what I wrote very closely. You know, he was so disappointed my chemo sessions always seemed to clash with his court appearances. It almost made me feel guilty.”
Apart from his lack of sexual desire in the last months of their marriage, Theo had been the perfect husband. Leaving her alone when she requested it and holding her hand when she needed it most. She was glad he’d never find out about her lie. She couldn’t even imagine how he would’ve reacted. A man as black and white as Theo would either laugh it off and forgive her, or never talk to her again. She couldn’t decide which way he would’ve gone.
“Would you like to talk about how you lost your hair?” asked Dr Addison, noticing her fidgeting with her hat.
“Theo found me in the bathroom clipping it off. I’d been snipping off clumps all week and leaving them around the house, wanting him to think it was the chemo. Once he caught me with the clippers, I had no choice but to ask him to shave my hair off for me and hope he didn’t notice how thick it really was.” She removed her hat and ran her hand through her short hair.
“And how did it feel to see all your hair gone?” he asked.
“To be honest, I thought I looked amazing. Better than Britney Spears when she shaved her head. It was hot. I had to bury my head in Theo’s chest, so he couldn’t see me smiling.”
She remembered how turned on she’d been seeing her hair like that. She’d felt a tingle run through her body as she pulled Theo towards the shower. She’d wanted to prove to him she was still a sexual being. For him to see the hot goddess she’d seen in the mirror.
She’d undressed him only to find him completely soft.
So, she’d slid down his body, kissing his chest, then his stomach, her lips trailing across his front, getting closer to her target. Closer and closer until slowly she felt him begin to respond.
Then he’d grabbed the back of her head and just like she’d stuck a pin in his dick, he deflated. She’d never felt less attractive.
“Skye, are you with me?” Dr Addison was staring at her, tapping his pen on his notepad.
“Sorry,” she said, crossing and uncrossing her legs, trying to shift the warm discomfort pooling in her groin. “Can I use your bathroom for a moment?”
She left the room, headed down the small hallway and pushed on the blue door to the toilets, wincing as the smell of cheap air freshener assaulted her nostrils.
The tap turned on faster than she intended and cold water splashed onto the floor. She reduced the pressure and held her hands under the flow, wishing she could scoop the water onto her face. But she didn’t want to ruin her make-up, even if she wasn’t wearing as much as usual today. Only a light smattering of foundation, her mascara and some lip gloss. Enough that if the press decided to take her photo, she’d look good, but not enough to make it look like she’d gone to too much effort. Widows didn’t normally go to great lengths with their appearance and she didn’t need the press attacking her any further than they already were.
Besides, perhaps it was better she presented herself to the world in exactly the way she felt.
Like shit.
The memory of seducing Theo in the shower had messed her up. She missed his cock almost as much as she missed him. The shower wasn’t the last time they had sex. There’d been one last magnificent time on Theo’s desk, even if she’d had to pretend she was Elle to get him in the mood.
She’d messaged him from his lobby as Elle, knowing exactly what he’d find a turn on—a hot woman in a bikini asking after his welfare.
Theo’s assistant didn’t recognise her in the dark wig and Burberry trench coat, and she had to tell her who she was before she asked to go through to Theo’s chambers.
Theo didn’t recognise her at first either. Well, not until she slid off her coat and revealed other more familiar parts of her body.
Damn, he’d felt good.
When would she ever have sex again? Especially if she ended up in prison.
She shuddered at the thought of losing her freedom, then quickly pulling herself together, she returned to the armchair in Dr Addison’s office and sat back down.
“Sorry,” she said. “It’s been a rough week.”
“You were talking about Theo,” he prompted. “And how you kept him away from the hospital. How did all those lies make you feel about yourself?”
“Well, they weren’t really lies,” she said. “More like distraction techniques.”
He wrote something down. “What kind of distractions?”
Like straddling him and putting her tits in his face? Men couldn’t fuck and talk, let alone fuck and think. But she couldn’t tell Dr Addison about that.
“Once, court was adjourned early and he went to the hospital, calling me when the nurses couldn’t find my appointment. So, I told him they’d rushed me through with a morning treatment and I’d retu
rned home. That kind of thing.”
“And you don’t see that as a lie?” he asked.
She thought about the way she’d put down the phone that day and hurried into the kitchen to find the meat tenderiser and repeatedly bashed the inside of her elbow to create a bruise, before twisting a steak knife into her skin to create a puncture wound. It’d hurt like hell, but the result was so graphic she knew Theo would never think to doubt her. She’d then run into the bathroom and wrapped her arm in a bandage and shaved a few chunks of hair from her head to scatter on her pillow. After applying some foundation so pale it made her look like a geisha, she’d crawled into bed, took some Ipecac and vomited into a bucket.
“Well, I was genuinely exhausted that day,” she said. “So, being asleep in bed wasn’t really a lie. If only I could’ve rested properly, but when Amber returned home from school, it was like she was having some kind of rave party downstairs. The only reason I could cope with it was because Theo had already suggested that Amber should move in with her mum.”
“You felt like things were falling into place for you?” Dr Addison made the humming sound he favoured.
Skye nodded. “I had a gain in popularity with a public who adored me. I had a husband who treated me like a queen. A mother who saw me for the first time in her life. A father who’d come out of hiding. And my husband’s daughter was finally going to get the hell out of my house. It was perfection on a to-do list.”
He wrote something down on his notepad. Perhaps he was making his own to-do list. “How are you coping with the public’s reaction to all of this?”
“You mean being shoved away and scorned? Treated like a liar and a murderer?” She tried to keep the anger out of her voice, suspecting she’d failed badly.
“And you don’t feel you deserve to be treated like that?” he asked.