Chapter 8 - THE MESSAGES
We moved into a side lounge because the wedding had officially stopped pretending to be a wedding.
Music still played in the ballroom.
Nobody danced.
People whispered in clusters.
Mason’s mother had started crying.
Vanessa’s father had disappeared.
And I sat on a velvet couch reading messages that destroyed the last few good memories of my marriage.
The first message was five years old.
VANESSA:
Julian is asking about the transfer.
MASON:
Tell him the investor moved the closing date.
VANESSA:
He’s not stupid.
MASON:
Neither is Claire. People believe what they need to believe.
I stopped.
Julian sat across from me.
“I’m sorry.”
I kept reading.
VANESSA:
Can you get Claire to sign?
MASON:
Eventually.
VANESSA:
You said she doesn’t ask questions.
MASON:
She asks. I answer. She trusts me.
That one hurt.
Not because he called me stupid.
He didn’t.
That would have been easier.
He knew I trusted him.
And he used it like a weapon.
I kept scrolling.
MASON:
Once Riverside works, everybody gets paid back.
VANESSA:
Including Julian?
MASON:
He’ll be gone by then.
VANESSA:
And Claire?
MASON:
Claire loves being married more than she loves knowing the truth.
My vision blurred.
I blinked hard.
Nora sat beside me.
“You don’t have to keep reading.”
“Yes, I do.”
I scrolled.
Two years later.
Only months before my divorce.
VANESSA:
She saw the hotel bill.
MASON:
I handled it.
VANESSA:
How?
MASON:
Made it about jealousy.
VANESSA:
That worked?
MASON:
It always works.
My stomach twisted.
I remembered that fight.
Mason standing in our kitchen.
Me holding the credit card statement.
Chicago Grand Hotel.
One room.
Two guests.
“You’re embarrassing yourself,” he had said.
“You’re sleeping with her.”
“Do you hear yourself?”
“I’m not crazy.”
“I didn’t say crazy.”
But he had smiled like I was.
He had left the house that night.
I apologized the next morning.
I actually apologized.
I pressed my fist against my mouth.
Julian looked away, giving me the smallest amount of privacy anyone had given me all night.
Then another message caught my eye.
Sent six months before we separated.
MASON:
If Claire starts digging, we have a bigger problem.
VANESSA:
What could she find?
MASON:
The original guarantee.
VANESSA:
You said Peter fixed that.
MASON:
He fixed the paperwork. Not the signature issue.
I looked toward Peter.
He was standing near the door.
“You knew?”
His face went gray.
“I did not forge anything.”
“But you knew there was a signature issue.”
He didn’t answer.
Nora stood up.
“Oh, you need your own lawyer.”
Peter snapped, “I am a lawyer.”
“Not tonight you aren’t. Tonight you’re evidence.”
Mason walked in.
“That’s enough.”
I looked at him.
“For who?”
“For everybody.”
“No. Just you.”
He came closer.
“Claire, I’m offering you a way out.”
“By signing a confession?”
“It’s not a confession.”
“It says I approved the transaction.”
“You benefited from Riverside.”
“How?”
“The apartment. The settlement. Your lifestyle for years.”
I stared at him.
“You’re saying I owe you because I was your wife?”
“I’m saying nothing is as simple as you’re making it.”
Julian stood.
“It’s pretty simple. You used people.”
Mason turned.
“And you’re what? Her hero now?”
Julian’s jaw tightened.
“No.”
Mason smiled.
“Good. Because she should probably know why you really came tonight.”
I looked at Julian.
He went still.
Mason saw it.
And smiled wider.
There was something I didn’t know.
Again.
I was suddenly exhausted by secrets.
I stood.
“What is he talking about?”
Julian didn’t answer fast enough.
Mason did.
“Ask your boyfriend when he figured out whose wedding this was.”
My stomach dropped.
I looked at Julian.
“You said you didn’t know.”
“I didn’t.”
“At first,” Mason said.
May you like
Julian closed his eyes.
And I knew there was another truth coming.
