Chapter 9 - What She Thought She Deserved
Vanessa wasn’t at the airport.
She wasn’t halfway across the country.
She was at Ethan’s house.
His sister, Nora, called while we were still sitting in the cafeteria.
“Security won’t let her inside,” she said. “She’s making a scene at the gate.”
“Stay in the house.”
“I am. Where’s Oliver?”
“With me.”
“Good.”
In the background, I could hear Vanessa shouting.
“I have belongings in there!”
Ethan contacted Cole.
The police reached the house before we did.
By then, Vanessa had stopped shouting and started crying.
A patrol car sat beyond the gate. Two officers stood near her silver SUV.
She saw Ethan’s car and ran toward it.
“Ethan!”
He got out, leaving Oliver with Nora, who had come to meet us at the side entrance.
I stayed near the car.
Vanessa looked different in daylight.
No pink dress.
No diamonds swinging at her throat.
Just jeans, a cream sweater, and a face furious beneath the tears.
“Tell them this is a mistake.”
Ethan stopped several feet away.
“I watched the video.”
She went still.
Then she looked at me.
“You.”
“No,” he said. “Look at me.”
“She’s been filling your head.”
“I watched you open your hands.”
“He was supposed to go to her.”
“She was carrying a tray.”
“She could have put it down!”
“She did.”
His voice broke.
“She dropped everything to save him.”
Vanessa’s mouth tightened.
For the first time, the tears stopped.
“You don’t understand what it’s been like.”
Ethan stared at her.
“What?”
“That house is a shrine. Her pictures. Her clothes. Her baby.”
“My baby.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No. Say it.”
She glanced toward the officers.
“Not here.”
“Say it.”
Vanessa lowered her voice, but I still heard.
“I gave you eight months of my life. I held you together. And every time I thought we could move forward, he cried, and you went right back to her.”
Ethan looked as if she had struck him.
“Oliver is not something Claire left in your way.”
An officer stepped forward.
“Ms. Price, turn around.”
She jerked back.
“Ethan. Please.”
He didn’t move.
“You can’t let them take me.”
The officer repeated the instruction.
This time, she obeyed.
As the handcuffs closed, she looked past Ethan directly at me.
“You think this makes you special?”
I said nothing.
“You’re just the person who happened to be standing there.”
Ethan turned toward her.
“Thank God she was.”
The officer guided her into the car.
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But as they drove away, Ethan’s phone lit up with a message from an unknown number.
Ask your waitress why she was fired from her last job.
