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 17.

Later, we sit outside in the big wooden Adirondack chairs in the yard,

a fire crackling away in the big stone ring in front of us. Nearby the grill

smokes and the scent of cooking meat reminds me of those summer nights in Phoenix. When the air was so

still and so dry, it felt like a loose spark could send everything up in flames. The grill turned

over. The burning coals spread over the gravel yard. Jane, the real Jane, crying.

Mr. Brock's red face, a sweating beer can in one hand, a pair of tongs in the other. His kiss the

cook apron with a giant frog on it, its lips red and obscene in a pucker. Me sprawled in the

rocks, my hands burning, my face stinging, thinking how stupid that apron was, how stupid it was

that a man like him had this much power over all of us. I haven't thought about that for such a long

time.

I've pushed it all away, but now, here it is, this ugly memory in this perfect place.

Looking down, I study my engagement ring again, turning my hands this way and that,

catching the light of the flames.

That's over. That can't touch you, no matter what John says.

Next to me, Eddie sighs, his long legs stretched out in front of him. He really does look good tonight. I think of how slightly ragged he was when I first met him, how those edges have

smoothed a little in the past few months, and I feel a little surge of satisfaction.

I did that, I think. I've made him happy. He's like this because of me. And soon, I'm going to be his wife. I think about the wedding dresses I saw

...