Chapter 10 - The Truth Marissa Could Never Defeat
The movers left.
The piano stayed.
Marissa went upstairs and locked the bedroom door.
Grant remained in the foyer.
Delaney was about to leave when he said, “There’s more.”
She turned.
Grant sat on the bottom stair.
“I told you Marissa and I became involved four months after your mother and I separated.”
“Yes.”
“That’s true.”
“But?”
“But I didn’t tell you why Elise knew.”
Delaney waited.
Grant looked toward the portrait wall.
“Because she was the one who told me Marissa had feelings for me.”
Delaney frowned.
“No.”
“I didn’t believe her.”
Grant explained.
During the months Marissa helped Elise research the practical details of separation, Marissa spent more time around the family.
Grant and Marissa argued constantly at first.
Marissa thought he was selfish.
Grant thought she encouraged Elise to leave.
Then Elise noticed the hostility changing.
“She told me one night that Marissa watched me the way she used to when we were younger.”
Delaney’s stomach turned.
“What did you say?”
“I told her that was insane.”
“What did Mom say?”
Grant gave a small, painful smile.
“She said, ‘Grant, we’re divorcing. You’re allowed to notice other people. Just don’t lie to yourself because you think guilt makes you loyal.’”
The pieces rearranged themselves.
Elise thanking Marissa.
Elise insisting Marissa was not the problem.
Diane discovering that Marissa had initially been helping Elise leave.
Grant saying Elise knew before they did.
Marissa’s furious need to remove every photograph.
The major betrayal was real—but not the one Delaney had imagined.
Grant had not secretly replaced Elise while pretending their marriage was happy.
The marriage had already broken.
Elise knew Grant and Marissa were becoming close.
She even refused to condemn it.
But that mercy had become the thing Marissa could not tolerate.
Because it meant Marissa could never honestly claim she had defeated Elise.
Elise had stepped aside before Marissa had ever won anything.
Delaney whispered, “She hates Mom because Mom didn’t hate her.”
Grant closed his eyes.
“I think so.”
Marissa spoke from above them.
“That’s not what happened.”
She stood at the top of the stairs.
Her eyes were red.
“You think Elise was generous?”
Neither answered.
“She was dying, and she got to be gracious about everything. She got to forgive Grant. She got to tell me she understood. She got to make herself impossible to resent.”
Delaney stared at her.
“You helped her.”
“Yes.”
“Then what changed?”
Marissa came down one step.
“Grant.”
Grant looked up.
Marissa’s voice cracked.
“After she died, every time he felt guilty about being happy with me, he turned her into someone perfect.”
Grant started to speak.
She cut him off.
“You compared everything.”
“I never—”
“My cooking. The garden. Christmas. How she handled Delaney. Even how she argued.”
Grant went quiet.
Marissa laughed bitterly.
“So yes, I took down pictures. I changed rooms. I wanted something that belonged to me.”
Delaney looked at her mother’s portrait.
“And when that didn’t work, you started trying to erase her.”
May you like
Marissa said nothing.
Which was finally an answer.
