The Jealousy Game novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: She Was Right

I closed the bakery at six and walked to the marina in the dark.

The shed door was down, with a line of yellow light under it.

I knocked, and it rolled up before my hand came away.

Casper stood there in his jacket, with the toolbox open on the bench behind him and the black notebook in his hand.

"Come in," he said. "Please. Sit."

"I'll stand."

"Okay."

He held the notebook out to me with both hands.

I took it.

The cover was soft from being carried in a pocket for fourteen months.

I opened it under the work light.

Each page had a line drawn down the middle.

On the left, in black ink, in Casper's small square handwriting, was a date, a place and a few words.

Aug 9. The Anchor. Lena takes Brett's glass from Maddie. Dean blows. Strike 1.

I knew that night.

I had cried in the car on the way home.

On the right of the line, in green ink, in the same handwriting, there was something else.

Aug 10. Maddie's car at Brett's apartment from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. I parked across the street. Photo taped below.

There was a photo.

It was a small, blurry picture of a silver car in a parking lot, with a timestamp in the corner.

And under it, underlined once, was a line: She was right.

I turned the page.

Strike 2, Sept. The farmers' market. Green: Brett and Maddie at her cottage on the lake road, 10 a.m. to dark. Photo.

She was right.

Strike 3, Oct. Dinner at his parents'. Green: same cottage. Same car. Photo.

Under it was a longer line.

I told her. She called me jealous. She said I wanted him for myself. She didn't speak to me for two months.

I turned the page, and turned it again.

Thirty-one entries.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Jealousy Game from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.