"You drugged her."
"She was foolish enough to believe me when I said I came to apologize for my past mistakes."
Ava continued.
"I put her in my car and took her home. I left her in the basement. I had clothes ready. Her phone. Her bag. Everything."
"How long were you planning this?" Brooks asked.
"Years."
The room went still.
"I studied her online. Photos, posts, and people she worked with. I knew enough."
"You didn't know where we kept the coffee mugs," I said.
Her eyes flashed.
"I would have learned."
"You didn't know our life."
"I knew the important parts."
"No. You knew only what we shared with the world."
She lunged toward me.
The officers pulled her back.
"I could have made you happier than she did!"
That was the moment I stopped seeing her as a confused woman.
She knew exactly what she had done.
She had not mistaken herself for Alma.
She wanted to erase her.
A police radio crackled.
Detective Brooks listened.
Then she looked at me.
"They found your wife."
My knees nearly gave out.
"Is she okay?"
"As good as she can be."
I covered my face.
The next several hours came in pieces.
Ava in handcuffs, a detective collecting the laptop, and an officer driving me to the hospital.
Alma had been in the basement for five days.
Ava left water, crackers, and canned food. She had installed the camera so she could check that Alma was still there.
She told officers that she planned to return every weekend to check on her.
She believed she could disappear for a day, visit the basement, and come home before I became suspicious.
At the hospital, a nurse led me into a private room.
Alma was sitting in bed beneath a white blanket.
For one terrible second, I hesitated.
Then Alma looked at me.
"Victor," she whispered.
I crossed the room.
She wrapped both arms around my waist and pressed her cheek against my chest.
The way she always had.
I held her so tightly that the nurse asked me to be careful.
"I'm sorry," I said.
Alma pulled back.
"For what?"
"I didn't know."
"You did know."
"Not fast enough."
"You found me."
Her voice broke.
"She kept saying you wouldn't notice. She said she had studied me so well that you would never know the difference."
I touched her face.
