Unfaithful: An unputdownable and absolutely gripping psychological thriller

by Natalie Barelli

  Carla thumps downstairs. “What’s going on?”

  I straighten myself, run a hand over my hair. “Nothing, sweetie. Dad and I are just talking.”

  “We’re good, Carla. Go back upstairs. Mom’s over-reacting. Go back upstairs, Carla!”

  After she’s gone I turn back to him. “Mom’s over-reacting? You think that was over-reacting?” I open a cupboard and grab a pile of plates, four, five of them.

  “Anna, don’t,” he whines.

  “You want over-reacting?” I ask, dropping them on the floor. “I haven’t even started yet.”

  Carla reappears, this time with Matti by her side. “What’s going on? Dad?”

  “Carla, can you please not ask your father anything? He doesn’t want to be at your beck and call. Also, if you could look up to him that would be great. And make him feel good about his art, otherwise—”

  But Luis has taken hold of my wrist and twists it. “Shut up,” he hisses. “Don’t do this here. Let’s go outside.”

  He releases my wrist and I shake my shoulders. He goes to the children and puts his arms around them. “I’m sorry, my darlings. We were having a fight. We’re fine now.”

  But I’m breathing through my nose so hard it’s making my nostrils flare. I don’t think anyone would believe I’m fine. The children glare at me over his shoulder. He speaks to them in a low voice and after a while Matti picks up Roxy in his arms and the three of them go back up the stairs.

  I sit back down, exhausted and deflated. I’m still there when Luis returns.

  “I was trying to end it,” he says, “and that’s the truth.”

  “You were?”

  He reaches for the other tumbler, fills it with wine and knocks it back in one swill.

  “That’s why I didn’t want her to come to dinner that night.” He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.

  I raise my chin, stare at him. Liar. I saw you. You kissed her. That wasn’t the kiss of someone trying to end things. And what about the baby?

  Then, suddenly, I understand why he’s telling me this now. “Do the police know?”

  He nods. I notice how gaunt his face is then, how crumpled his clothes are. How sad and thin he looks. Like the life has been drained out of him.

  “Yes.”

  My eyes begin to swim. “What did they say?”

  He looks at me, his eyebrows knotted together, and he tilts his head slightly but sweetly, like a puppy. “They wanted to know about you.”

  Thirty-Five

  I didn’t sleep at all last night. My brain did its zapping thing, Zap! Zap! Like there was a lion tamer venting his rage with a bullwhip. Next to me Luis looks as peaceful as a lamb. But then that’s Luis. Always. Can sleep through an earthquake, he’d say proudly. Unless I wake him up.

  In between zaps I kept going over what Luis had said.

  “They wanted to know about you.”

  “What about me?”

  “Where you were the other night?”

  “But why me?”

  “Because they know about me and Isabelle,” he said finally. And it’s just as I thought. There were texts and emails that would have left little to the imagination.

  “What else did they ask about me?”

  “Where you were, what time you came home.”

  “What did you say?”

  “Babe, what could I say? I told them the truth! But it’s okay, it’s okay because you were with June so there’s no problem, they won’t even suspect you.”

  “Suspect me of what?”

  “I don’t know, they didn’t tell me anything, they just asked questions.”

  I nodded, feeling lost.

  “But you were with June, so it’s good, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, it’s good.” I said. No, it’s not good. Not good at all.

  On the way to work, I confirmed with HR that there are no claims against me, so that’s something, I guess. There never was, they said. Just as I thought, it was a hoax. Geoff must lie awake at night thinking up new ways to torture me, turn the screws that little bit tighter, just so he can watch me suffer.

  I stand outside his office. The door is ajar and I can see him staring at his computer. He types slowly, looking at the keyboard, then at the screen then back at the keyboard. He types the next letter or two then he pushes his glasses further up his nose and does it again. I stand there, my eyes burning. I could walk in right now and tell him I know everything. That his career is over and he is going to die in a rat-infested jail where the only way to tell the difference between rice and maggots is whether it moves or not.

  No wait, that’s me.

  “What are you doing?”

  I spin around. “June! Hi, I was day-dreaming.”

  She looks toward the office.

  “About Geoff?”

  “You could say that.”

  “Takes all sorts, I guess.” Then she leans closer. “What happened last night? Did you find him?”

  I grab her arm and pull her into my office, closing the door behind us.

  I sit her down and tell her everything. I have to go back to that day in the store cupboard for it to make any sense. I have to go back further than that, to Chicago. The conference Geoff and I attended together.

  “You know, I really don’t want to make excuses here, I really don’t, but the next day Geoff kept joking about how drunk I was, how much I knocked them back. But I don’t remember doing that. Maybe I was tired. Maybe that’s why the alcohol went to my head. Not that it’s any excuse.”

  She actually wipes a quick tear. “I can’t believe it. I mean, I can. He’s such a creep. He’s always trying to get me to go out drinking with him in a suggestive way that makes my skin crawl. And I hate the way he’s always standing too close when I’m in his office.”

  “No! You never said!”

  She shrugs. “What’s there to say? That’s what he’s like.” We’re both silent for a moment. “So what will you do?”

  “I don’t know. What do you think I should do?”

  “Will you report them to the police?”

  “I don’t think much will happen if I do. It’s Ryan’s word against mine whether I was aware of him taking the photo or not.”

  “But you can’t let him get away with it!”

  “I’m trying, June. I’m just not sure how. The only way for him to be prosecuted is if he does something like this again. And then we’d still have to prove it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Say he and I were in a compromising position”—I make air quotes as I say this—“and he was taking a photo unbeknown to me. How could I prove I wasn’t aware of it? Or even that I wasn’t doing it willingly? I just don’t know the finer points of the law. I suppose we could find out.”

  “You said Ryan used Geoff’s phone, right?”

  I nod.

  “So he must have the passcode.”

  “True.”

  “Ask him what it is. Then you can get rid of the photo.”

  “He’ll have copies saved on the cloud, probably on a computer as well.” We’re both silent for a moment. “We should get to work,” I say. “But thank you for listening. It means a lot.”

  She leans forward and blurts out, “He set you up.”

  It’s like I haven’t spoken just now. “I know! I just—”

  “You can’t let it go, Anna.”

  “I know that! But what do you want me to do?”

  “I don’t know! But you can’t let him get away with this! I mean, what happens when he becomes the dean? What if he does this to other women?”

  I tilt my head at her. “What do you mean, becomes the dean?”

  “He’s got his panel interview this afternoon. He must be in the running, especially with you and the prize. It might have been your work but you’re in his department. He’ll take credit for it, Anna. You watch.”

  “He’s applying for Dean of School?”

  “You didn’t know?”

  “No.”


  She shrugs. “They’ll give it to him, Anna.”

  “They can’t.”

  “They will.” After a moment she says, “I could get his cellphone. We could take it to the panel, tell them what he did.”

  “What time is the interview?”

  “Two o’clock.”

  I think about this. I know what these interviews are like. They take place in the executive office of the administration building, in a large room, with state-of-the-art audio visual equipment.

  I check my watch. “Let me make a phone call.”

  Twenty minutes later, I call June back into my office.

  “Is Geoff going out for lunch today?” I ask.

  “He always does. Twelve thirty on the dot, returns between one and one thirty.”

  “Okay, that’s good. In case he doesn’t for some reason, you think you can get him out of the office anyway?”

  “I’ll try, why? What’s going on?”

  I don’t reply, I have to think this through. “And his interview is at two, you said?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Can you go to him at say, quarter to two, and tell him they’ve asked to postpone it by thirty minutes? Tell him the other candidates are taking longer than expected, something like that.”

  She chuckles. “He won’t like that.”

  “Good. Even better.”

  “And if he’s not in his office at quarter to two?”

  I sigh. “I don’t know. I’ll think of something else.”

  I tell her of my plan. She listens, one eyebrow raised. When I finish, she grins. “Genius. I love it. You think it will work?”

  “No idea, but it’s all I have right now.”

  I spend the rest of the morning distracted, but I feel good. Better, at any rate. It’s what I need, this feeling of doing something. Of taking control, of being in charge of my own destiny.

  As June predicted, at twelve twenty-five, Geoff exits his office, shrugging his jacket on, and locks his door. June pretends to do the same. She pops into my office with her coat on and her handbag looped over her shoulder. She removes both as soon as she enters.

  I call Steve, my new best friend. Steve, who looked so despondent the day of my Forrester lecture when I wouldn’t let him fix the connection. I wrote an email the following day to his boss explaining that I’d decided at the last minute not to use slides, and I apologized for putting Steve in that position. He called me to thank me. It’s the little things.

  “Coast is clear,” I say.

  “Roger that,” he replies, which makes me chuckle.

  I don’t see the next part, but I know that June will unlock the office and let Steve inside, ostensibly to do something about phone line repair, should anyone ask. He works in the audiovisual department, but I don’t think Geoff would know any different if he happened to return.

  Thirty-Six

  At one fifteen, June texts me to say Geoff has returned from lunch. At a quarter to two, I stand in the corridor outside his office. June is inside explaining that there’s been a delay, and the panel has requested Geoff attend at two thirty instead.

  My heart is thumping in my ears while I wait, chewing on a fingernail. Finally, June walks out.

  “Hi, Anna!” she says, sounding convincingly surprised to see me there.

  “Is he in?” I ask.

  “Yes, you’re in luck. Go on in,” she replies.

  I almost laugh at how ridiculous we sound. As we pass each other she whispers, “Good luck.”

  “What are you doing here?” Geoff snaps without looking up, as I close the door. “I hope—”

  I raise a hand. “Save it,” I say. I know he was about to bring up the Pentti-Stone notebooks, and I don’t want him to.

  “Something strange happened. I thought you might be able to shed some light on it. I called Janette from HR.”

  He looks up then. “Did you? And?”

  “There’s no sexual harassment complaint against me. There never was.”

  He leans back against his chair. “There isn’t? Well, fancy that.”

  “You made up the whole thing!”

  He laughs. “I was going to tell you it had been dropped. I just wanted to see you squirm a little longer. My bad. Should have done it sooner. Oh, well. Now if that’s all, I have things to do…”

  “It’s not all. I have decided to report you. To the police.”

  He gets up then, and in two strides he’s at the door. My heart is in my throat. He’s going to tell me to get out. I can argue all I like but he can easily have me thrown out.

  He opens the door a crack and checks outside. Then he steps out and yells: “I’m in a meeting, June. I’m not to be disturbed.”

  “All right,” she sings out.

  I’m so relieved I close my eyes for a moment and let a long breath out.

  “The police? And why would that be, Anna?” he says now. He has closed the door and returned to his desk.

  “You assaulted me, Geoff. Why do you think?”

  He cocks his head at me. “You’re sure you want to go there? Firstly, I don’t think I assaulted you. I only did what I thought you wanted me to do.”

  “I never wanted to have sex with you, and you know it.”

  He laughs. “Really? What about Chicago?”

  “You know, I’m glad you brought that up. I’ve thought a lot about Chicago lately. And it occurred to me that I didn’t drink that much that night. I just had some wine and one nightcap with you at the bar. Certainly not enough to explain waking up in your room, disoriented and confused.”

  He pushes against the back of his chair, and rocks back and forth. “You must have, since that’s exactly what happened. I’m not responsible for how much you drink, Anna.”

  “I think you spiked my drink.”

  “You can’t prove that.”

  I smile. Wrong answer. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

  “Hey, I just made it easier for you. That’s all.”

  “How was that easier for me?”

  I’ve been standing this whole time but it’s hard to keep up the bravado when my legs are about to give way. I reach for a chair and sit down.

  “I know your type,” he says. “You want to play but you don’t want the guilt. So, I gave you a little nudge, that’s all. Made it easier for you to say you didn’t know what you were doing.” He winks. “I should have upped the dose.”

  I feel sick. I’m back there for a second, in that hotel room in Chicago. I can’t believe I came so close… I have an urge to lunge at him, scratch that smirk off his face, but I don’t. I’m not done yet.

  From the way he tidies up papers in front of him, I can tell he thinks our little chat is over. He starts to get up when I say, “I had an interesting visit with Ryan.”

  He sits back down, slowly. Up till now, he was smirking. Supremely confident that he could talk his way out of anything I put to him, but not anymore. His jaw locks and his mouth is so tight, his lips are almost white.

  “You coerced your own nephew into setting me up, so he could take a nude picture of me. On your cellphone. Then you used that photo to rattle me. You wanted me to feel paranoid and frightened. All the while pretending it was your nephew who was doing that. Do you have any idea how sick you are, Geoff?”

  He throws his pen on the desk. It bounces off and onto the floor.

  “You only have yourself to blame. You come on to me—”

  “What are you? Some kind of incel? You can’t accept that a woman doesn’t want to sleep with you?”

  He’s leaning on his desk now, arms crossed, a fierce look on his face. “There are consequences for women like you.”

  “And there are consequences for men like you,” I reply. “You scratch vile words on my car—”

  He laughs. “If you don’t like it, then resign, Anna. I’m not stopping you.”

  “You make an imaginary sexual complaint against me—”

  “Prove it. It’s your word against mine.”
He leans back again, crosses his hands behind his head. “All of it is your word against mine.”

  Then suddenly the door opens, and I’m thinking, Finally. Thank God. For a moment there, I was seriously concerned it wasn’t working. That it really would all end up being his word against mine.

  Geoff is on his feet. “June, I said—”

  “I think we’ve heard enough!” the dean bellows. Behind him are the four committee members, and Steve too. He gives me a thumbs-up.

  “You’re fired, Geoffrey,” the dean yells. His face is red with anger. “Effective immediately. Get out. Now.”

  “Me? No! Roy! Come on, man! Why?” Geoff is looking from one person to the other like he’s going to cry, and I start to laugh. I can’t help it. I think it’s my nerves, the tension uncoiling.

  “They’ve heard everything, Geoff!” I say finally. “No, wait, they watched everything.”

  “We’ll refer the matter to the police immediately,” the dean adds.

  “That’s right! I set you up!” I raise my hand. “Sorry, probably not fair to complain of you doing it to me, then to do it right back at you, but there you go. I told the panel—actually, June did—that you had a video for them to watch before the formal interview.”

  I give a little bow in Steve’s direction. “My cellphone is positioned on the shelf to your right, see? It’s streaming everything directly to that giant video screen mounted on the wall in the admin building. You know the one. I don’t think your interview is going too well, Geoff, by the way. Just saying. Oh my god! You should see your face!”

  I’m still laughing when I realize everyone is looking at me now. Even the dean. “Would you like a glass of water, Anna?” he asks.

  I cough, tap my chest. “No, thank you. Sorry.” I quickly wipe tears off my face.

  Geoff is closing and opening his fists and for a moment I think he’s going to spit at my feet. Then June pops her head in and says.

  “The police are here.”

  “Already?” I turn back to Geoff. “Wow, impressive. That was very fast. I told you it was against the law. Or maybe I didn’t, I can’t remember. Anyway.” I check off my fingers one by one. “Assault. Taking an intimate photo without the person’s consent, and distributing it. Spiking your colleague’s drink for nefarious purpose. Vandalizing private property—that’s my car by the way. Am I missing anything? Well, off you go, Geoff, what are you waiting for? Go on, hands in front of you for the handcuffs. You know the drill.” My voice is rising with every word, sounding increasingly hysterical. I’m about to shout, “Come on in! He’s all yours!” when June tugs at my sleeve.