Chapter 10 - THE BRIDE WHO WANTED OUT
I should have walked away.
Instead, I followed Vanessa into the bridal suite.
Maybe I was stupid.
Maybe I was curious.
Maybe part of me wanted to watch the woman who helped destroy my marriage explain why she suddenly looked more trapped than victorious.
She locked the door.
I stayed near it.
“Talk.”
Vanessa removed her veil.
Her hands were shaking.
“You think I won.”
“I think you got what you wanted.”
“No.”
“You got Mason.”
She laughed bitterly.
“That’s not the prize you think it is.”
“I don’t think he’s a prize at all.”
That stopped her.
For one strange second, we almost understood each other.
Almost.
Then I remembered five years of lies.
“Why did you help him forge my signature?”
“I didn’t.”
“Stop.”
“I’m serious.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
The word hung there.
“I knew after.”
“How long after?”
“Months.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I was already in too deep.”
I laughed.
“You stole money from Julian.”
Her face hardened.
“It wasn’t that simple.”
“Apparently that sentence is contagious.”
She sat down.
“Julian and I were failing.”
“He said the company was doing well.”
“The company was. We weren’t.”
“So you emptied the account?”
“Mason told me Riverside would triple the investment.”
“And you believed him?”
“I loved him.”
I stared at her.
There it was.
The excuse everybody uses right before admitting they did something cruel on purpose.
She looked down.
“I thought Mason was going to leave you.”
“He told you that?”
“For years.”
“Congratulations. Eventually he did.”
Her eyes flashed.
“You think he left because he loved me?”
“Didn’t he?”
“No.”
The room went silent.
I frowned.
“Then why?”
Vanessa looked at me.
“Because you started asking questions about the business.”
I stopped breathing.
She continued.
“The hotel bill wasn’t what scared him.”
“What did?”
“You asked why a company statement had your old signature on it.”
I remembered.
A piece of mail.
Northstar Development.
A signature page.
I had asked Mason why it looked strange.
He had kissed me and taken the envelope.
Two weeks later, he told me he needed “space.”
My knees felt weak.
“You’re saying my divorce was about Riverside.”
“Partly.”
“Partly?”
“He needed you angry.”
“What?”
“He needed the divorce to look personal. Emotional.”
I stared at her.
“He told everyone I couldn’t handle his success.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because if you started telling people he had financial secrets, they’d assume you were a bitter ex-wife.”
The cruelty of it was breathtaking.
It wasn’t just cheating.
It was strategy.
My humiliation had been insurance.
Every rumor.
Every story.
Every friend who stopped calling.
All of it had protected him.
Vanessa’s voice cracked.
“I helped.”
I looked at her.
“Yes. You did.”
She started crying.
I felt nothing.
Not yet.
“What changed?”
She wiped her face.
“Three months ago, I found out he was doing the same thing to me.”
“How?”
“Another woman.”
Of course.
I almost laughed.
“Who?”
“His assistant.”
“You still married him?”
“My family spent two hundred thousand dollars on this wedding. Investors are here. Clients are here. My father tied money into Mason’s company.”
“So you stayed because leaving was embarrassing.”
She looked at me.
“Yes.”
For the first time, she sounded honest.
Then she reached under a stack of makeup bags and pulled out a second phone.
“I started copying things.”
“What things?”
“Messages. Contracts. Emails.”
My heart kicked.
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
“Against Mason?”
She nodded.
I held out my hand.
“Give it to me.”
She didn’t.
“Vanessa.”
“If I give you this, my life blows up.”
I stared at her.
“You helped blow up mine.”
She looked down at the phone.
Then someone pounded on the door.
“Vanessa!”
Mason.
Her entire body stiffened.
“Open the door.”
She whispered, “He can’t know I have this.”
Another pound.
“Vanessa!”
She shoved the phone into my purse.
May you like
And whispered,
“Then make sure he never finds out.”
