The Sick Wife Read online

  My mother picked up the comb to style her hair. And my soul was trapped inside forever.

  I was forgotten to the world.

  That nightmare comes into my mind now, as I’m drugged out of my mind and being used for Mike’s pleasure. It was such a frantic, horrible feeling, screaming for my mother to hear me, and her not noticing that I was inside the hair comb.

  But now, my mother is gone. My father is gone.

  Who do I scream to for help? I don’t want to bother Veronica. I don’t want her to see me like this.

  And I can’t talk to Gabe.

  My dreams drift toward Yvette. Her hand picks up the comb that I am trapped in, and she begins using it to style her hair. Her hair is beautiful, and she expertly uses the utensil to make it even more attractive. She doesn’t know I’m stuck in here. I don’t want to scream for her help, because she was trapped inside a comb too, for so long. I don’t want her to be sucked in here with me. She puts it down, and she goes over to Gabe, and sits on his lap. They are talking and laughing and happy. He is kissing her and holding her, and they seem perfectly content.

  I smile through my tears. If they are happy, it’s all okay. I don’t mind being trapped here.

  They are the important ones, and I’m disposable.

  I was just in the way.

  I belong here.

  * * *

  Mike lets me wake up sometimes to shower or eat, but I don’t have much of an appetite. He supervises all of my awake-time, so I can’t try to escape or call someone. One day, he’s being particularly friendly.

  “Milla, you’ve been so good to me lately. You’ve made me so happy since we got married. I know you haven’t had a chance to talk to any friends or family, so I was wondering if you wanted to call someone?”

  “Call someone?” I repeat dumbly. Sedation really takes a toll on your brain. I feel so foggy all the time. Yvette just seemed to mentally snap out of it so easily. I wish I could be more like her. But I do think he’s adding some sort of hallucinogen to the sedatives.

  “Here is your cell phone,” Mike says, stretching out his arm. “You seem to have a lot of missed calls and messages. I thought you might like to have a brief phone call with Veronica, or someone else you care about. Just to say hello and let them know you’re doing well.”

  I take the phone tentatively. I haven’t touched it in so long.

  I am almost about to give the phone back to Mike and say that there is no one I need to call, when I see Gabriel’s name. He called me. Several times.

  My heart jumps in my chest. I suck air into my lungs deeply, as if I’m coming up for air after being underwater for years. My whole body buzzes with energy. And suddenly… I’m alive.

  “Yes,” I say, struggling to fight back tears and remain calm. “There’s someone I want to call.”

  “Go ahead,” Mike says kindly. “Just let them know that you’ve been caught up in the honeymoon phase with your new husband, and we haven’t been able to keep our hands off each other.”

  I look at him with my eyebrows raised. I probably wouldn’t have been able to keep my hands off Mike if he had given me the option to move my hands… Anyway, ignoring this, I pick up my phone and casually try to call Gabriel. I try to think of what I can say to alert him that I’m in trouble.

  The phone rings. And then it rings some more. And then it rings some more.

  Oh my god. Is he not going to answer?

  It goes to voicemail.

  I hang up in frustration.

  “Never mind,” I say to Mike. “There’s no one I need to call. But I do have another special request.”

  “Anything for you, my love,” he responds.

  I have to struggle not to raise my eyebrows again. Although, I must admit, it is very nice to be able to raise my eyebrows at all. “Can you read me a story tonight, before you give me my injection?” I ask Mike. “A fairytale.”

  “Of course. What story would you like?”

  “The original Sleeping Beauty. Not the Disney version, one of the earliest published forms.”

  Mike smiles. “Of course. A story about a sleeping princess, for my sleepy princess.”

  “Thank you,” I tell him softly. Hopefully, it will keep me from nightmares about being stuck in a hair comb.

  Chapter 39

  Yvette

  I am sitting on the plane beside my husband, and we are about to land in New York.

  I paid for WiFi during the flight so that I can text Veronica about the situation on the ground. She said that Mike took some time off work, and that the police went to his home, but could not find Milla.

  Basically, she’s missing.

  She’s been missing for days and no one noticed. “Veronica said that Milla was fired recently,” I tell Gabe, who is also busy looking something up on his phone.

  He looks up in surprise. “Fired? I didn’t even know that.”

  “Well, you said you haven’t been speaking to her. So, it makes sense that you don’t know anything about her.”

  “I was trying to focus on my pregnant wife,” he complains.

  “Excuses. Besides, you weren’t focused on me at all, you were too busy punching holes in the walls,” I say teasingly.

  “I didn’t know you knew about the holes in the walls,” Gabe says in a grumpy way.

  “I’m your wife. I know everything you think I don’t know.”

  “You know a lot more than I do,” Gabe says. “I’ve been looking up information on Mike Masterson, and it’s not good. Really not good. His first wife was found dead in an alley a few months ago. Opiate overdose.”

  “Oh my god,” I tell him softly. “When was she found? Was it before or after I started hooking up with him? God. This is insane. I sure know how to pick ’em.”

  “Thanks a lot,” Gabe says with annoyance. “So, how many times did you cheat on me with this evil doctor guy?”

  “Uhhh,” I say awkwardly.

  “More times than you can count?” Gabriel sighs deeply. “He’s potentially a murderer, Evie. A murderer. And you preferred to be fucking with him than home with me? How do you think that makes me feel? You don’t see me burning all your belongings and throwing tons of your expensive shit out the window.”

  “At least I didn’t get engaged to him, okay? Definitely not while you were sick. And by the way, you smashed a ultrasound machine, so that is way more expensive than all the things I destroyed.”

  “I think you underestimate the value of all the things you destroyed. Even if the machine costs twenty grand, it’s not as expensive as the paintings and furniture you burned.”

  “I’m sorry,” I tell him softly. Then I notice something on the article he’s reading. “Give me your phone.”

  He growls. “Haven’t you invaded my privacy enough?”

  “I’ve already seen Milla’s vagina, so it can’t get worse than that,” I tell him, taking the phone away. Then I’m flooded with guilt. Of course, I lied when I told her it was disgusting. It’s a perfectly good vagina. That was really mean of me to say. I hope I didn’t give her a complex.

  A sensitive girl like that… fuck. I bet Mike gave her tons of compliments. I bet she was more vulnerable to being manipulated by those compliments after I totally tore her down. I read through the article on Mike’s ex-wife, and I see that she was found dead before I met him on the dating app. Thank god. Possibly a murderer, but not a cheater. I couldn’t deal with the guilt of thinking he hurt her because of me…

  I already feel like maybe he’s hurting Milla because of me. At least… I should have warned her. I weakly hand Gabe’s phone back to him. “So, we have no idea of where they could be?”

  “It can’t be too far. I’m sure that he didn’t know we were going to find out about him. He didn’t know about your pregnancy,” Gabe says. “We’ll find him.”

  The plane is starting its descent now, and I lean my head back against the chair and look out the window sadly. “Gabe…” I whisper. “What’s going to happen t
o us next? You and me? If we find Milla alive and well?”

  “I don’t know, Evie.”

  “And if she’s not okay?”

  Gabe doesn’t answer. He just goes quiet.

  “I’m sorry, that was a horrible question,” I tell him softly.

  “It’s okay,” he answers. He reaches out to take my hand. “I don’t think that our relationship depends on Milla. I think it depends on us, and we’ve been failing.”

  “I know,” I tell him quietly. “I know we love each other, but it just doesn’t fit.”

  “I’m glad I got to spend more time with you, Evie. I’ll never regret being close to you, even if we drive each other insane.”

  I laugh softly. “Me too. These last few weeks meant so much to me. Even if I burned most of your belongings, and you put your fist through every wall in the house…” I see more text messages from Veronica appear, and I frown. “Veronica says Milla was suffering from serious depression, and taking medication. She was missing a lot of shifts and unable to perform. And then her father died…”

  “Oh, no,” Gabe responds. “That’s horrible. She doesn’t have any other family…”

  “Of course. Doesn’t that sound like the perfect victim for Michael? A vulnerable, lonely girl that no one will miss,” I say softly. “No one noticed she was gone. He disappeared her so easily.”

  “Well, Michael was wrong,” Gabe says. “I miss her. And I’m going to find her.”

  I turn back to look out the window with worry as the plane touches down. “I miss her, too.”

  “Shit!” Gabe curses.

  “What?”

  “She called me!” he shouts, so loudly that everyone in the plane looks over. “I only just got my cell reception back. She called my cell phone. Fuck!”

  “Call her back,” I say briskly. “Ask where she is.”

  But he’s already calling.

  “There’s no response,” Gabriel says angrily. “God, Evie. What if she thought I ignored her? When she’s going through this? I ignored her so many times before because I didn’t want to upset you.”

  “She’ll forgive you,” I tell him.

  “Why would she forgive me?” he asks hoarsely. “I’ve made her feel so abandoned that she married a monster to forget about me. I’ve ruined her life.”

  I squeeze his hand. “She called you, right? In her darkest moments, she reaches for you. She’ll forgive you, because she loves you. And if she’s anything like me… there’s nothing you could do that she wouldn’t forgive.”

  “That’s really sweet, Evie.”

  “No, it’s not. It means that me and Milla are certifiably insane with no self-esteem.”

  Chapter 40

  Milla

  Fun fact about Sleeping Beauty. Okay, not so fun fact.

  Did you know that in the original version of the fairytale, the princess is raped and impregnated while comatose? By a king. Who is married? To someone else.

  It’s true—look it up. The Sun, The Moon, and Talia from 1634. Disney didn’t let the kiddies hear that part of the story. My charming husband, Mike, kindly read the story to me last night, before he immobilized me with drugs. And I dreamt about it all night long. Better than being stuck in a comb. Now, waking up alone while being unable to move my body… the story is still swirling in my brain.

  Can you believe it? Sleeping Beauty was not actually the princess. She was the mistress! Shout out to all my girls feeling crappy right now because they are the side chick. Guess what?

  It’s not all bad. Sure, sometimes you get a coma. Sometimes you get murdered.

  But sometimes, just sometimes, you might get the prince.

  Like another famous woman with my name: Camilla Parker Bowles. One of the most notorious mistresses and side chicks of modern times. Guess what happened to her? Oh yeah, she’s going to basically be the Queen of England someday! Queen Consort? I don’t know how it works.

  But they seem happy. And it’s a second marriage. Not to mention, the Prince’s first wife was one of the most beautiful and beloved women in the world… and she still wasn’t right for him. His heart always belonged to someone else. I learned all this from binge watching The Crown. But I never thought I would relate to it this much, or be feel so inspired by that story, which was mostly sad and horrific because of what happened to Diana.

  Maybe I wasn’t a complete and total idiot to dream of being with Gabe? Maybe it could have been possible for us to be happy and be together… if life had worked out that way. If I was stronger or better somehow… if I didn’t make all these mistakes, and get so unlucky. If I didn’t get married to the villain of the fairytale.

  These are the things you think about when you’re heavily sedated. And when your prince doesn’t come to save you.

  Now what about the pregnancy in the story? I don’t know where I am in my cycle.

  I haven’t made any real attempts to stop Mike from what he’s doing to me, because I’ve felt like it’s pointless. But now I have to think about consequences to all this.

  What happens in the future?

  The Sleeping Beauty story made me feel like there could be a future. If she could be cursed for a hundred years, and still wake up and live happily ever after—and if Evie could be in a coma for forty-seven days, and still wake up walk again so soon, and even have a healthy pregnancy…

  Maybe I could be okay in the end of this, too.

  Maybe I could survive everything he does to me, and come out stronger and happier. With a few new scars, sure… but maybe I can find a way to be okay.

  Maybe I should fight for my freedom. And save myself. And not give a fuck if there’s a prince or not in my story.

  What if I get a baby out of this?

  Would I be able to love that baby, even knowing that Mike is the father? Even if I’ll always remember how it was conceived? These aren’t the ideal circumstances… but maybe no circumstances are ideal. And love is love.

  Maybe having a baby to love is what I need to live for. Something beautiful to imagine. A little white crib in my apartment—at least I won’t be alone with a cactus anymore. I’ll have a family member again.

  But how do I get away from him?

  And what if I get away from him… but I’m not pregnant? And I don’t have anything beautiful to hope for and dream about?

  It doesn’t matter. I’ll find something, somehow. I won’t let my depression defeat me. I won’t let Mike defeat me. I won’t let my depression continue to make me choose to be defeated by Mike. The truth is that I allowed this all to happen. I didn’t care what happened to me. I’m not a victim of Mike. I’m a victim of myself. I’m a victim of my own weakness and stupidity. And my childish infatuation with Gabe.

  I’ve been taking this situation lying down.

  I need to stand up and fight. But how the hell do I do that if I can’t stand?

  There will be a moment… I’m sure of it. There will be a moment I can break free and get away.

  I’ll be waiting, and I’ll be ready. I just hope my mental state will be as clear and full of conviction as it is right now. Knowing me lately, within the next five minutes, I could fall apart.

  Chapter 41

  Yvette

  Gabriel is driving the rental car while I text Veronica. We are on our way to pick her up.

  “She says that Michael’s dead wife was rich,” I tell Gabe. “And that her family owns a bunch of vacation homes. It’s possible that he still has access to one of them.”

  “Can you find out the addresses?” Gabriel asks. “We’ll search them all if the police aren’t working fast enough to find Milla.”

  “I’ll work on it,” I tell him, as the GPS guides us to Veronica’s house.

  As we approach, she is standing outside, wearing jeans and a leather jacket. Whoa. She looks different out of her nurse gear. Veronica hops into the backseat of the car quickly, giving me a small hug.

  “Hey, Evie,” she says. “Thank you so much for texting me about this. I’
m so sorry this happened to you.”

  “You look super hot when you’re not wearing pink,” I tell her with surprise.

  “This is my ass-kicking outfit. Because I want to kick the shit out of Mike Masterson for hurting you and Milla,” she says.

  “I still hope he hasn’t hurt Milla,” Gabe says softly.

  “So, this is the guy,” Veronica muses, leaning forward to study my husband. “This is the legendary Prince Charming that my best friend fell so deeply in love with. Looks like a pretty ordinary man from where I’m sitting. What’s so special about him?”

  “Well… uh. I can do some cool things.” Gabriel says. He looks around awkwardly. “I can… drive a car? I guess that’s a positive thing about me. But most people can do that, so I don’t know why I chose to mention that skill.”

  “He’s being modest,” I tell Veronica. “He’s got lots of very special skills. He even does this thing with his tongue—I’ll tell you about it later when he’s not paying attention.”

  “Evie!” Gabe complains.

  “What? I was talking about those cool smoke rings that you blow every time you have a cigarette,” I say innocently.

  “Can we just focus on rescuing Milla?” Gabe asks. “Give me any addresses that the police aren’t searching. We’ll go there now.”

  “Here’s one,” Veronica says, leaning forward and showing her phone.

  “The Hamptons?” I say with a low whistle. “At least Milla would be getting kidnapped in style.”

  “It’s not funny,” Gabriel says as he punches the address into the car’s GPS system. “Stop cracking jokes about it, Evie.”

  “Forty-seven days,” I remind Gabe. “I was totally unconscious and unable to make a joke for forty-seven days. I literally just had the spawn of Satan ripped out of my fallopian tube. I’ll make light of the situation if I want to.”