Welcome to Case Closed.

You're listening to The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins,

narrated by Emily Schaefer, Lauren Fortgang, and Kirby Haybourne.

Let's pick up where we left off last time.

Chapter 9. April.

Whirlwind.

It's hard not to use that word to describe my relationship with Eddie, but every time it comes into my head, I remember B, meeting Eddie on vacation.

She called it a whirlwind, too.

But maybe that's just what being with Eddie is like.

Maybe every woman who's ever come into his life gets swept up in the same way

because once he's decided he wants you, it's the only way he knows how to behave. I give Eddie

the second chance he wanted, but set it on my terms. No dates in Mountain Brook, neutral territory.

He thinks it's because I'm worried about the other people in Thornfield Estates finding out. I don't want them to know about us yet, and I don't want

to risk another fuck up like the thing with Chris, but it's not because I'm worried about my job.

My dog walking days are ticking down so steadily I can practically hear the click.

No, I don't want anyone to know yet because I like having this secret.

The biggest piece of gossip in the neighborhood, and it's mine.

They'll find out eventually, I know, but I'm determined that when they do, I'll be so deeply entrenched,

there won't be shit they can do about it. So as February slides into March, March into April,

we go to fancy restaurants with menus I can barely read. We walk through parks, our shoulders

and hips touching. We go to movies and sit in the

back like teenagers. His hand is always on me, resting against my palm, tracing the line of my

...