Part 2: Six Months of Lies
Then Vanessa wiped chocolate frosting from her cheek.
“You recorded that?”
“Yes.”
“And you think that excuses attacking us?”
I looked at her ruined dress.
“No. What I did was wrong.”
She stared at me.
“But you knew about that second cake.”
Vanessa looked away.
Sam came closer.
“Rachel, please. Mom twisted everything.”
“Have you been seeing Vanessa?”
He swallowed hard.
“We’ve talked.”
“How long?”
“Six months.”
Six months.
While I was planning his birthday.
While he was kissing me goodnight.
Vanessa spun toward him.
“You told me you were separating.”
Sam shut his eyes.
“I said things were complicated.”
“You said you were sleeping in separate rooms.”
I nearly laughed.
“We sleep in the same bed.”
Vanessa gaped at him.
“You told me Rachel knew.”
“Can we discuss this privately?” Sam whispered.
“No,” I said.
“You’ve had six months for private conversations.”
Patricia stepped forward.
Then slowly wiped icing from her silver hair.
“Sam was unhappy. Vanessa understood him long before you came along.”
Vanessa whirled around.
“Don’t pretend you’ve always wanted me around.”
Patricia blinked.
“Excuse me?”
“You spent 11 years telling me I wasn’t good enough for your son.”
“That was different.”
“How?”
Vanessa’s voice shook.
“You criticized how I raised Lily. You called me selfish for working. You even told Sam I was a terrible mother.”
Patricia drew herself up.
“I was trying to help.”
“You made me miserable.”
Vanessa turned to Sam.
“And every time I asked him to defend me, he said you didn’t mean it.”
I watched my husband fix his gaze on the floor.
“That’s why you divorced?” I asked.
Vanessa nodded.
“I begged him to choose our marriage. He kept promising things would change.”
She touched one diamond earring.
“Then I left.”
I thought back to our second date.
Sam had sat across from me, telling me about his divorce.
“Vanessa stopped loving me,” he’d said.
I had reached across the table.
Held his hand.
Promised I would never abandon him.
Now I faced Vanessa.
“He told me you walked away because you wanted someone better.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“He told everyone that.”
Patricia scoffed.
“Well, you did leave him.”
“After 11 years of being treated like an outsider.”
Vanessa turned back to Sam.
“When you called me six months ago, you said you’d changed.”
Sam said nothing.
“You said you’d finally learned to defend the woman you loved.”
Something inside me caved in.
Vanessa dabbed her eyes.
“I believed you.”
Then she looked at me.
“And I was cruel tonight. I wanted you to feel like I’d won.”
She glanced at the wrecked cakes.
“I hadn’t won anything.”
She faced Sam.
“And I’m not coming back to you. Not now. Not ever.”
I wanted to hate her.
Part of me still did.
But another part recognized that exhausted look.
I’d seen it in my own mirror.
Then Vanessa scanned the table.
“Where’s Lily?”
Patricia went rigid.
“She couldn’t come.”
“She told me last week she wanted to.”
Sam answered too quickly.
“She changed her mind.”
I frowned.
“Sam told me Lily refused weeks ago.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“She bought you a present.”
Sam glanced toward the door.
“Vanessa, stop.”
“She told me she wanted to surprise you. When did you tell her not to come?”
A chill ran through me.
Three weeks earlier, I had asked Sam whether we should invite his daughter.
He’d been standing in our kitchen.
Slicing an apple.
“Don’t bother,” he’d said.
“She doesn’t want anything to do with us.”
I’d suggested calling her anyway.
He had shaken his head.
“Rachel, please. You’re only making things worse.”
Now Vanessa was reaching for her phone.
“I’m calling her.”
Sam grabbed her arm.
“Don’t.”
Vanessa yanked free.
“Why?”
He had no answer.
She dialed.
Lily picked up after three rings.
“Mom?”
“Sweetheart, where are you?”
“Home. Why?”
“Your father’s birthday dinner is happening now.”
A pause.
“Dad told me not to come.”
I watched Sam close his eyes.
Vanessa’s voice softened.
“Why?”
“He said Rachel wouldn’t be comfortable having me there.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“What?” I whispered.
Vanessa switched the phone to speaker.
“Rachel’s here, Lily.”
Another pause.
Then a quiet voice.
“She is?”
I stepped closer.
“Lily, I wanted you here.”
Nothing.
Then Lily said something I will never forget.
“That’s not what Dad told me.”
I turned to Sam.
Eight years.
Eight years of believing his daughter hated me.
And the look on his face told me the lie went back much further than tonight…
