“Can I sit down?”
Kelly Jo looked up into Ashley’s wan face and gave her a big smile. “Sure.”
Ashley set her plate of fresh fruit and glass of orange juice down and sat, unwrapping her silverware and spreading her napkin on her lap. “I heard you did well at the tables last night.”
“Yep. Just got lucky. I love baccarat.”
“I tried to follow along. It’s too confusing.”
“You should start with blackjack. That’s pretty straight forward.”
“I-I’ve never played blackjack.”
“Never?” Ashley shook her head, chewing on a chunk of honeydew. “Have you ever vacationed anywhere where there was a casino?”
“No.”
“Have you ever been to a casino?”
“Never had any money.”
“I thought you said you were married, Ashley. You mean to tell me that your husband wouldn’t give you a few bucks to play some games?”
“No.”
The hairs on the nape of Kelly Jo’s neck prickled. Something was wrong and she didn’t like what she thought it was, especially with Ashley’s wounds fresh on her mind. “Ashley, did your husband give you those wounds?”
“It was my fault.”
“Oh, my God.” Kelly Jo whispered. “Please tell me you don’t believe that!”
“It’s true, Kelly Jo. I knew that I shouldn’t talk back to him and I did. I had to be taught a lesson.”
“Ashley … “
“Don’t worry, Kelly Jo. If I still believed that, I wouldn’t be here.” Ashley took a deep breath. “I left him.”
“Does he know?”
“About what? Me leaving?”
“No, the scavenger hunt.”
“No. He never saw the invitation.”
Kelly Jo patted her chest in relief and picked up a slice of bacon, chewing thoughtfully. “So how’d you get yours?”
“It was taped onto one of my sheets.”
“In your house?”
“No, I had done laundry and the sheets were hanging outside, drying. When I went to take them down, it was taped onto the back of one.”
“That was ingenious. I swear, that’s as mysterious as this whole hunt. It’s like a ghost left them.”
“Yeah.” Ashley took a swallow of her juice. “He would never have let me go anyway.”
“I have a feeling that there’s precious little that he’d
let
you do.” Kelly Jo waited for a response that never came. “Am I right?” Ashley nodded. “Why would you stay?”
“Because I thought he loved me.” Seeing the look on Kelly Jo’s face, Ashley sighed, setting her fork down. “We’ve been together ever since we graduated from high school. Nearly nine years. I never imagined that … our love would degenerate to … whatever it is now.”
“It happens sometimes. You shouldn’t blame yourself.”
“But why didn’t I see it? Why didn’t I notice the changes?”
“He probably did it subtly. That’s how most of them do it. One day, you’re in love, then the next day, he’s telling you that this blouse looks better on you than that one, then he’s buying all your clothes for you.” Tears were dripping down Ashley’s cheeks. “Does that sound familiar?”
“It started with the TV set. He used to love to watch Jeopardy with me. He was always so proud that I knew most of the answers and he even said that I should be on the show because I was so smart.” She wiped her face and dabbed at her nose. “Then one day, when we were watching it, he turned the channel and said that he thought Wheel of Fortune would be a better show to watch. Finally, he just quit asking and started controlling what we watched. The only time I was allowed to watch anything was when he was at work. And then, he’d hide the remote so I couldn’t turn the channel.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I got my first lesson when I found the remote and forgot to put it back.”
“Oh, Ashley.”
“I don’t know why I didn’t leave right then but I stayed.” Ashley took a drink of her juice. “Then, he got into this ‘I-have-to-have-an-heir’ thing and he started fucking me every time he could, trying to get me pregnant. When nothing happened, he got angry and called my gynecologist, who told him that I was on Depo-Provera. You know, birth control. That was my second lesson.” She was silent for a long time. “But that wasn’t the worst.”
“Ashley, you don’t have to tell me.”
“Please.” The plaintive tone of her voice caught and held Kelly Jo’s attention. “I need to tell someone.”
