Chapter 9 - VANESSA’S FIRST HONEST SENTENCE
Vanessa contacted Margaret through an attorney.
She wanted to speak.
Margaret said no.
Then Vanessa offered something specific.
Access to her old phone.
Margaret reconsidered.
The meeting took place in a law office in Stamford.
Vanessa wore navy instead of red.
Margaret hated herself for noticing.
For months, Vanessa had existed in Margaret’s mind as one color.
Crimson dress.
Perfume.
Hand on Emily’s coffin.
Villain.
Reality arrived uglier because it was more ordinary.
Vanessa admitted the affair.
It began ten months before Emily died.
She had met Ethan through nonprofit fundraising work.
He told her his marriage was effectively over.
He said Emily knew.
Vanessa believed him longer than she now wanted to admit.
“Did you send the May 14 message?” Margaret asked.
Vanessa looked down.
“Yes.”
Margaret’s hands went numb.
“Why?”
“Ethan told me Emily wanted distance from you.”
“Did Emily dictate it?”
“No.”
“Then whose words were they?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“Mine.”
Margaret stood.
Her attorney touched her arm.
She remained.
Vanessa continued.
“Ethan said every time you came over, Emily got agitated and talked about leaving.”
“That was the point.”
“I know that now.”
“No. You knew she was dying.”
Vanessa flinched.
“I told myself I was helping him manage her.”
Margaret nearly laughed.
Manage.
Another word people used when control sounded too ugly.
Vanessa admitted sending several messages from Emily’s phone while Emily slept or was medicated.
But then she said:
“I did not send the messages pretending to be you.”
Margaret stared.
“Why should I believe that?”
“You shouldn’t. Check the device.”
The old phone used to impersonate Margaret was not Vanessa’s.
According to Vanessa, Ethan kept it in his study.
She had seen him using it.
Once she asked.
He said:
“Margaret gets dramatic. Sometimes you have to answer drama with drama.”
Margaret felt sick.
Vanessa’s first truly honest sentence came next.
“I thought he was protecting Emily from you because that made what I was doing easier to live with.”
She looked Margaret in the eye.
“Then I realized he was protecting himself from Emily.”
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The distinction mattered.
And it pointed toward the major twist still waiting inside Ethan’s motive.
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