Chapter 6 - The True Cost Of The Test
Vanessa pointed at my phone.
“This is unbelievable. You secretly recorded everyone.”
“After you aimed a garden hose at me.”
“You were already recording.”
“Yes.”
That answer unsettled Ethan.
I could see it.
He turned back toward me.
“You came expecting something bad.”
“No,” I said. “I came needing an answer.”
“About Vanessa?”
“About the person you were planning to build a life with.”
He looked hurt then.
Not embarrassed.
Hurt.
That mattered more to me than anything Vanessa had done.
“Why didn’t you trust me to figure that out?” he asked.
I could have defended myself.
I could have reminded him how love can make intelligent people explain away things they would recognize instantly in someone else’s relationship.
I could have said I was protecting him.
Instead, I gave him the answer he deserved.
“I was afraid you wouldn’t see it until it cost you more.”
He looked down at the wet grass between us.
Vanessa stepped closer.
“Ethan, listen to what she’s admitting. She manipulated this entire situation because she already hated me.”
“I never said I hated you,” I told her.
“You obviously did.”
“No. If I had already decided who you were, I wouldn’t have needed to come.”
For a moment, Vanessa had no answer.
Then she changed direction.
She turned toward Ethan and softened her voice.
“I made a mistake because I thought she was trespassing. I was stressed. There are important people here. Your investors are inside. Your mother knew exactly what she was doing by showing up like this.”
Ethan’s eyes lifted toward the mansion.
Less than fifty feet away were the financiers who had traveled from Dallas, Atlanta, and Chicago.
May you like
People whose opinions mattered professionally.
People Vanessa apparently believed mattered enough to justify cruelty toward someone who didn’t.
