“What is that?”
I handed it to her.
She read the first page.
Her hands started shaking.
“Where did you get this?”
William answered.
“Desmond.”
“He gave you our messages?”
“He gave them to his wife first.”
Vanessa’s expression changed again.
Not guilt.
Betrayal.
That told me something.
“You’re angry at him.”
She looked at me.
“What?”
“You’re reading messages proving you lied to both of us, and the first thing on your face is anger because he showed them.”
“That is not what—”
“You told him I knew.”
Vanessa looked away.
“Roland.”
“Did you?”
“It was complicated.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“It was a sentence.”
She swallowed.
“I told him our marriage was basically over.”
“Did you tell him I knew you were sleeping with him?”
Silence.
“Vanessa.”
“I told him you had stopped caring.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Marlene wiped her face.
“Answer him.”
Vanessa snapped:
“Mom, stay out of this.”
Marlene stared at her daughter.
“You brought me into it months ago.”
Vanessa frowned.
“What?”
“You told me Roland was paranoid.”
“He was checking up on me.”
“You told me there was no one else.”
Vanessa’s mouth closed.
Marlene continued.
“I defended you.”
Her voice broke.
“I told your husband he needed to trust you because you stood in my kitchen and looked me in the face and said nothing was happening.”
“Mom—”
“No.”
It was the first time I had ever heard Marlene speak to Vanessa with real anger.
“You don’t get to use me as part of a lie and then tell me to stay out.”
Vanessa sank into the chair nearest the stairs.
For a few seconds, nobody spoke.
Then she looked at Eleanor.
“Desmond told me his marriage was over.”
Eleanor’s face tightened.
“He may have.”
“He said they were only together for the children.”
Eleanor nodded sadly.
“He said that before.”
Vanessa looked up.
“What?”
William answered.
“Three years ago.”
The room became very still.
Vanessa stared.
William continued.
“The last woman believed the same thing.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is.”
“He told me that was different.”
Eleanor laughed once through tears.
“Of course he did.”
Vanessa’s eyes moved rapidly between them.
“No.”
William leaned forward.
“Desmond is responsible for what he told you.”
He paused.
“But do not use my son’s dishonesty to erase yours.”
That was the first moment I respected William Vale.
He was not there to convince me Vanessa had been seduced by some monster.
He was not shifting his son’s guilt onto her.
He was separating them.
Two adults.
Two sets of choices.
Vanessa looked at me.
“Roland, can we talk privately?”
“No.”
Her eyes widened.
“Please.”
“We have had months to talk privately.”
“This is humiliating.”
The word hit me almost physically.
I stared at her.
“Humiliating?”
She realized too late.
I continued.
“You came home at four this morning smelling like him and told me not to ask.”
Her face crumpled slightly.
“I was drunk.”
“You’ve been drunk for ten months?”
“Roland.”