What's Done In the Dark(76)

“I’m sorry. It was a mistake.”

I couldn’t help it. I reached back and slapped her as hard as I could. She grabbed the side of her face but didn’t respond.

My chest was heaving as I stepped up in her private space. She cowered but stood her ground. “You come in here, pretending like you’re this lost little puppy who didn’t know what was going on, oblivious to everything that was happening all around her, and then calling it a mistake? That’s moronic stupidity, and a lame throw at redemption. You can call the encounter whatever you want, temporary amnesia or carnal mind block. It was selfish, and you didn’t care about anyone but yourself.”

“I made a mistake,” she whispered, nursing her cheek. “A horrible, horrible mistake. I’d been drinking, and we both just happened—“

“Don’t give me that blame-it-on-the-alcohol mess,” I hissed as my chest heaved up and down. “The fact that it’s so easy to blame circumstances instead of yourself makes me sick to my stomach!”

“I’m not trying to make excuses.” Tears were streaming down her face. “I just want you to know I’m so, so sorry. I just bumped into him at the hotel. I was sad. He was sad.”

“And you gave him a shoulder to cry on. You comforted him right to the point of ecstasy.” I hoped my words stung because each of them was meant to pierce what little soul she had left.

“It just happened.”

I slammed my hand on the wall right behind her head. “That’s not an excuse! You don’t just happen to screw your best friend’s husband. If you bump into him at a hotel and you’re upset and he’s upset, and you’re drunk and he’s drunk, worst case, you sit there all night and commiserate and then you take your ass home!”

“I know.”

“No, obviously you don’t.” We stood in a face-off until finally I said, “I guess you want to say this is my fault for how I treated him. I guess you want to tell me how he never loved me anyway and only married me because I was pregnant with Tahiry.”

Her eyes grew wide. “No, I would never say something like that.”

“You think I don’t know that? Neither one of us really loved each other at first. We just tried to do the right thing in the beginning and make it work. And I thought we had. But the two of you convinced me that that you were just friends. Yet you were sleeping with him all along.”

“Mom?”

I turned to see my daughter in the doorway, her eyes filled with tears. “Oh, my God, Tahiry.” I raced to her side. We’d never told her that I was pregnant when we got married.

But if that fazed her, she didn’t let on. She stepped around me and toward Felise.

“Is it true?” she said. “What you told my mom? That it was only one time?”

“Tahiry, no,” I said, grabbing her arm.

“No!” She snatched her arm away and stepped toward Felise. “I know you think I’m too young to know the truth, but I know you used to love my dad. That’s what Liz said. Is that why you did it?”

Her words tore at my heart, and I hated Felise even more for what she was putting my baby through.

“Tahiry, I’m so sorry,” Felise cried. “It was a horrible one-time mistake I will regret the rest of my life. Please don’t hate me.”

Tahiry stood shaking for a moment—before she bolted into Felise’s arms. “I don’t hate you, Nana. I don’t! I know you’re sorry.”

My mouth dropped open in horror as Felise wrapped my daughter in the tightest of embraces as both of them released a river of tears.





55


Felise


I SET DOWN THE GROCERIES, dropped my purse on the floor, and made my way into the kitchen. Today had been the most draining day of my life. I wanted to slip into my tub, take a nice, long, hot bubble bath, and pretend that these last six weeks had never happened.

I glanced at my shoes and purse in the middle of the floor, and I found myself longing for my husband to chide me for leaving them. Never in a million years did I think I’d miss his quirky ways. I knew he was staying at the Hilton, but he wouldn’t talk to me. The last thing he’d said was that his attorney would be in touch. I guess that meant he’d be filing for divorce, although I prayed it was just his anger talking.

I headed into the living room and flipped the light switch on. Liz was curled up on the couch, her cell phone in her hand.

“Hey, honey.”

I could see her eyes were puffy and red.

“What’s wrong?”

“That was Dad. He wants me to come live with him.”

My heart sank. I’d lost Greg. I couldn’t lose my daughter, too.