Then she started speaking and from the first sentence, I knew, nothing was ever going to be the same.
Chapter 58
Who made up the saying that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger? I’d like to punch that person in the face.
“Katy, I know why your mother went to visit your father that day.”
Danica started her confession with one sentence and it had enough of an impact to make Brooks put his head down and me to hold my breath.
“Do you honestly think this is going to solve anything that’s going on now? Don’t hurt her more with the past, Mom. Whatever it is, just leave it be.”
I grabbed his arm. “No. I wanted to know since it happened. Please. Tell me why she was there.”
Danica covered her face with her hands and began to sob. She finally looked up at me with tear filled eyes. “I just want you to know that no matter what, I do love you like you’re my daughter. I’ve never done it out of guilt.”
I was so confused. “What are you talking about?”
“We didn’t know she was there. She told your dad that she had a PTA meeting at the school. We wanted to tell her, in fact that’s why I was there.”
I threw my hands up in the air. “What are you talking about? Where were you? Who were you with? I’m so lost.”
Brooks grabbed my hand. “I think I know what you’re going to say. Mom, please don’t do this to Katy. Don’t do this to our family.”
Again, I was so confused.
“Your father has known since the night before they died. I told him first. We had decided to separate and I walked next door to tell your father.”
Then, as my mind started to wander, it was all coming together.
Danica cried harder. “Katy, I loved your father. I wanted to be with him, and I had ended things with Walt thinking that he wanted to be with me too.”
I felt Brooks slipping his hand inside of mine. We didn’t look at each other though, because of the shock of what Danica was saying to us. “Please don’t tell me that you were having an affair with my father. He wouldn’t. He loved my mom. I know he did.”
I was beginning to freak out.
“I saw you kiss him and you told me that I was mistaken. I believed you. That’s what I saw wasn’t it?” Brooks was getting agitated and he was taking it out on my poor hand. When he noticed what he was doing, he loosened his grip, but didn’t let go. “You lied right to my face.”
“You both need to understand that we’d all been friends for so long. It just happened and we couldn’t stop it. I tried to stop, I swear I did.”
I was crying, but it was more in anger, because I felt so betrayed. “So she caught you? Is that what happened?”
“Yes,” she sobbed. “We’d been having a heated argument and I followed your dad into his bedroom. We could hear you three in the tree house and thought we were alone. He rejected me, Katy. You’re father told me he couldn’t do it. He said he wouldn’t ever leave your mother.”
“Then how did she catch you? She caught you talking about it?”
I looked over at Danica, but she was too busy crying to answer.
“Mom, answer us. What did you do?”
She shook her head. “I was so hurt. I’d ended my marriage for him and he wouldn’t leave her. So, out of desperateness, I threw myself at him, begging for one last night together.” She was quiet for a second. “And he didn’t resist.”
I pictured my mother, always so kind and loving, walking in on her one true love and her best friend. The bile rose to my mouth imagining it in my mind. I pulled away from Brooks and started to walk to the bathroom, on account of not being able to run.
“How could you do something like that? She trusted you. Dad trusted you.”
“Brooks, don’t walk away. You need to hear everything.”
B came into the bathroom with a doll in her hand. “Mama, boosh hair.”
While sitting on the floor, feeling nauseous, I brushed her baby doll’s hair. When I was finished she touched my cheek where a tear was in the process of falling. “No cry.” Then she ran out of the room.
Brooks was standing at the door, still in his military dress attire. He’d removed his hat, or whatever those barrette looking things were, and stared at me. “I can’t listen to her.”
“I know what you mean, but I need to know the whole story. This doesn’t just involve you or my dad. It involves all of us, even Branch.”
“I just had to bury Bobby, and now she’s making things worse. I can’t do it, Brooks. Find out what she has to say and then make her go. Buy her a ticket and send her home.”