Chapter 3 — The Woman in the Guest Room
Grace knocked gently before entering.
Katherine was sitting on the edge of the bed, her wedding dress now replaced with an old cotton robe Robert had found. Her hair was damp, her makeup completely gone.
She looked smaller than she had ever looked before.
Not fragile.
Erased.
“Sweetheart,” Grace said softly. “I need you to tell me what happened in that room.”
Katherine shook her head violently.
“No,” she whispered. “I can’t stay here. I can’t be near him.”
Grace stepped closer.
“He’s not coming in,” she promised. “Just talk to me.”
Katherine hesitated.
Then her voice broke.
“He didn’t touch me,” she said quickly. “It wasn’t that.”
Grace frowned.
“Then what scared you so badly?”
Katherine’s hands trembled in her lap.
“When the ceremony ended,” she said, “he told me we had to talk privately before the guests left.”
Her breath hitched.
“He asked me if I knew Beatrice.”
Grace felt her stomach tighten.
“I told him I’d heard the name in department emails,” Katherine continued. “That’s when his expression changed.”
She swallowed hard.
“He said, ‘Then you know what she did.’”
Grace’s voice dropped.
“And what did you say?”
Katherine looked up, eyes wide.
“I said I didn’t know what he meant.”
A pause.
Her voice became barely audible.
“He locked the door.”
Grace went still.
Katherine continued, shaking.
“He didn’t hurt me,” she said. “But he… he spoke like I had already done something wrong. Like I was already guilty of something I didn’t understand.”
Her voice broke completely.
“He said I had to feel what she felt.”
Grace covered her mouth.
“And that’s when I screamed.”
Katherine whispered:
“Because I realized he wasn’t talking to me like a wife.”
May you like
A pause.
“He was talking to me like a replacement.”
