It’s easier to find Adam than I thought. He’s in his bedroom. He’s got his flashlight on and he seems to be ripping apart his room. When he sees me at the door, he looks like he’s about to jump out of his skin.
“Sylvia!” he cries. “Come in here a minute.”
I step into the room, and before I can say anything, he shuts the door behind me. Even with the dim light of the flashlight, I can see how freaked out he looks. I can take a guess at why.
“Sylvia,” he says in a low voice. “Do you… do you have any idea…” He rakes a hand through his hair. “Look, I’ve got to tell you something.”
I can’t stand another revelation right now. “Okay…”
“The thing is…” His eyes dart around the room. “There was a gun in my closet. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. It was Victoria’s and I never used it. Well, once I did—she made us go out and practice firing it. But it was hers. And after her accident, I just put it up in the closet.” He takes a shaky breath. “And now it’s gone.”
This is my cue to tell him everything. But the words are stuck in my throat. “Oh…”
“This probably sounds nuts to you,” he mumbles. “I know. Half of what happened when I was married to Victoria seemed nuts to me. I thought she’d be better out here on the island, but it just got worse…”
“What got worse?”
“The paranoia.” He sinks against the bed. “She was so insanely jealous. When I told the doctor about it in rehabilitation after her accident, he thought she might’ve been an undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenic.”
Oh my God. “He did?”
“Well, in retrospect, it fit.” He sighs. “He gave me this antipsychotic medication to try on her. So she’s been getting that since the hospital, but it’s hard to know if it works considering… well, how she is now. And it’s kind of too late anyway.”
And also, she’s not getting it anymore. But we don’t need to mention that part.
“The night of her accident…” He shakes his head. “I thought after she got pregnant, things might change. Maybe she’d trust me more. But nothing changed. Just the opposite—she was more paranoid than ever.”
I don’t know if I want to hear the rest of this.
Adam squeezes his fists together. “Then one night, when she was at the end of her first trimester, she just lost it. She started threatening me with her gun. Telling me she was going to kill me for cheating on her. I thought for sure she was going to pull the trigger, so when I saw a chance…” He lifts his green eyes, which look black in the dim light of the room. “We were at the top of the stairs. So… I pushed her.”
He buries his face in his hands. I can’t even imagine how horrible he must feel about the whole thing. He killed his unborn child. He nearly killed his wife.
“Please believe me,” he says. “I wouldn’t have done it if there were any other way. I thought about just letting her kill me. After everything I’ve been through with her, it almost didn’t seem so bad…”
I sit beside him on the bed. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“Of course it was my fault,” he insists. “I should’ve tried harder to get her help after she got fired from the hospital. I should have insisted. I could have…”
My heart is pounding in my chest. “Adam, I’m the one who took the gun.”
Instead of looking angry, he just looks relieved. “You did? Why?”
“It’s a long story, but… You can have it back. I think it’s safer with you.”
There are a hundred questions in his eyes, but he just nods. “Okay.
Where is it?”
“It’s in a trunk in Victoria’s room.”
“What?” He stands up abruptly. “It’s in Victoria’s room? What the hell is it doing in there?”
“Relax.” I stand up and try to reach for his arm but he shrugs me off. “It’s safe there. Victoria is not going to get at it. She’s paralyzed in half her body.”
He turns to stare at me. “You don’t know Victoria the way I do. You have no idea what she’s capable of.”
He crosses the room and yanks open the door to his bedroom. I expect him to dart down the hall, but instead, he freezes. I start to ask what’s wrong, but then I see for myself.
Victoria is sitting in her wheelchair, right in front of his door. And she’s holding the gun.
