“I know everything.”
Ruth tried to smile it off. Mr. Collins laid the photographs on the table one by one. Ruth and Derek together. Ruth moving money. The lab report on the poison packet.
At last the smile vanished.
Michael looked at her with terrible steadiness.
“You betrayed me,” he said. “You stole from me. You cheated on me. And while I was in that wheelchair, when I could not walk and was still trying to understand what had happened to my life, you tried to poison me slowly enough that no one would question it.”
Ruth opened her mouth.
“Don’t,” Michael said.
There was nothing theatrical in his voice. That made it worse.
Mr. Collins placed the divorce papers in front of her.
“You have two days to leave this house,” Michael said. “Everything else goes through my lawyer.”
Ruth turned then, furious, and pointed at Abigail.
“This is her fault. She turned you against me. She’s nobody. An orphan with one bag, and you’re taking her word over your wife’s?”
Michael’s reply was immediate.
“She told me the truth when lies would have benefited her. She chose honesty when dishonesty would have given her everything. That is not someone against me. That is the only person in this house who has truly been for me.”
Ruth left.
But she did not leave quietly inside herself.
Before she was gone, she cornered Abigail in the kitchen and said, “You think he’ll keep being kind to you once you’re no longer useful? When this falls apart, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Abigail looked at her and answered, “I know what kindness used as a tool looks like. What Mr. Williams has shown me is not that.”
Ruth stared at her and walked away.
