The Widow's Husband's Secret Lie

by Freida McFadden

There is no possible way you could know the truth. There’s no way you could ever guess that the killer is actually Steve. Wait. Oh, crap. Ugh. Well, nobody reads the prologue anyway.

It was definitely not my husband standing in the middle of the drugstore and watching me while I chose shampoo and browsed sunglasses. It couldn’t have been. Because my husband has been dead for two weeks.

“The Boyfriend… Is this any good?” “Oh, yes—I love it. But I’m on page two, and I’m pretty sure I already know what the twist is going to be.” I take another tentative sip of tea. “Have you ever heard of the author, Freida McFadden?” “Nope.” “She writes psychological thrillers. The kind with short chapters and lots of twists that are shocking but also kind of completely out of nowhere.”

that—I haven’t ventured even once up to the attic, which contains a single room that locks from the outside. Grant says the room is used as storage for items that belonged to his late wife, Rebertha, who lived here before me and died in a tragic accident long before we met. I don’t even have the key.

He would have trusted him even less if he’d known the truth about our houseman’s dark past.

“My name is Marnie.” She looks me straight in the eyes. “And I am Grant Lockwood’s wife.”

Because I’m the one who killed him. And if he were still alive, he would be pissed.

The director of the psychiatric ward is my father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former college roommate.

My husband is standing before me. The one who died in a fiery car wreck only two weeks ago. And now here he is, still alive. I stare at him, the blood rushing in my ears. “Grant?” Those familiar eyes meet mine. “No,” he says. “I’m not Grant.” As much as I would love to believe that my husband didn’t somehow come back to life, there is nobody who can tell me the man standing in front of me isn’t Grant Lockwood. I was married to him, after all. I know what he looks like. And I know this is Grant. But the next words out of his mouth change everything. “I’m Brant. Grant’s identical twin.”

“She…” He squeezes his eyes shut. “She doesn’t like Nickelback. And I…” His Adam’s apple bobs. “I love them. There—I said it. Nickelback is my absolute favorite band of all time, and my own wife can’t stand them.”