“She has copies of messages. Photos. Proof of the affair before Sarah died. She says if I leave her, she’ll tell the police I knew she was at the crash scene from the beginning.”
Grandma said, “Did you?”
Dad didn’t answer fast enough.
I closed my eyes.
“Get out.”
“Chloe—”
“Get out.”
“I’m trying to make this right.”
“No. You’re trying to make yourself look less wrong.”
He stood frozen.
Grandma opened the front door.
Dad walked to it like an old man.
At the threshold, he turned.
“I love you.”
I looked at him for a long time.
Then I said, “Mom loved me better.”
He left.
Grandma shut the door.
I expected the house to feel quieter.
Instead, it felt honest.
The wedding was supposed to be canceled.
It wasn’t.
Three weeks later, a thick ivory envelope arrived at Grandma’s house.
No return address.
Inside was a wedding invitation.
Valerie and Jack invite you to witness their union…
My father’s name beside Valerie’s.
My hands went cold.
Grandma read it once, then set it on the kitchen table.
“Well,” she said. “She’s doubling down.”
“She?” I asked.
“Your father is a coward. Cowards drift. Valerie steers.”
There was a handwritten note tucked behind the invitation.
Chloe,