Chapter 5 - What Marissa Knew First
Delaney returned to McLean the next afternoon.
Not to move back.
To get answers.
Marissa was sitting alone in the breakfast room with a cup of coffee, wearing sunglasses despite being indoors.
She removed them when Delaney entered.
A faint red mark remained on her cheek.
Neither woman mentioned the slap.
Delaney placed the fundraiser photograph on the table.
“You were my mother’s emergency contact.”
Marissa’s expression changed.
Only slightly.
But Delaney saw it.
“How did you find that?”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Marissa pushed her coffee away.
“Your mother called me once when your father wasn’t available.”
“Why you?”
“Because I was there.”
“Where?”
“At the hospital.”
“Why?”
Marissa looked toward the doorway.
“Ask Grant.”
“No. I’m asking you.”
Something brittle entered Marissa’s voice.
“You think I wanted to be dragged back through your mother’s final year?”
“You dragged us there yesterday.”
Marissa stood.
“I said something I shouldn’t have.”
“You said my father slept with you while Mom was alive.”
“He did.”
“After they separated?”
Marissa’s mouth tightened.
“Yes.”
The admission robbed the accusation of some of its poison, but not all.
“Did Mom know?”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell her?”
“No.”
“Then how?”
Marissa’s eyes shifted.
“She knew before Grant and I did.”
Delaney stared at her.
“That sentence doesn’t make any sense.”
Marissa walked toward the window.
“Your mother was very observant.”
“Stop being vague.”
Marissa turned.
“Elise knew her marriage was over. She knew Grant was lonely. She knew I was lonely. She noticed things.”
“You expect me to believe my dying mother was matchmaking?”
“No.”
For the first time, Marissa sounded tired rather than cruel.
“I expect you to understand that your mother was much more complicated than the saint everybody turned her into after she died.”
Delaney stepped closer.
“Don’t.”
“There. That.”
“What?”
“That look.”
Marissa gestured toward the portrait Delaney had brought back with her.
“You all do it. Grant does it. Diane does it. You most of all. Every disagreement ends with Elise becoming the standard nobody living can meet.”
“So you threw her away?”
Marissa looked ashamed for half a second.
Then defensive again.
“I wanted one room that didn’t feel like a memorial.”
“You could’ve asked.”
“I did.”
Delaney stopped.
“When?”
“Three times.”
Grant had never mentioned that.
Marissa picked up the fundraiser photograph.
“Your mother called me the night she decided to leave your father.”
Delaney’s anger disappeared beneath surprise.
“She didn’t leave.”
“No,” Marissa said. “Because the next morning, she got test results that changed everything.”
May you like
Then Marissa looked at the picture in her hand.
“And your father still doesn’t know what she asked me to do that night.”
