Chapter 12 - THE KIND OF LIE THAT GROWS LEGS
I recognized the torn paper immediately. Paige had taken the envelope from my handbag, just as the unknown texter implied. She was no longer bothering to pretend she hadn't touched my things.
The investigator assigned to the theft asked Brooke to list everyone who had a key. Paige was on the list. So was Graham's event coordinator, who had borrowed the spare during wedding preparations.
Meanwhile Ryan drove to the apartment he had planned to share with his wife. He asked a friend to come along, partly because he didn't trust himself to argue calmly. He collected his clothes while Paige followed him from room to room.
“Your mother has poisoned everything,” she said.
“My mother didn't push herself into a pool.”
“I made a mistake.”
“A mistake is spilling a drink. You aimed for her injured side.”
Paige stopped in the doorway. “You think marriage is easy? You think I haven't spent two years trying to get her to accept me?”
“She did accept you. She gave you her grandmother's pearls for the rehearsal dinner.”
Paige looked away. She had worn the pearls and called them vintage in a tone that made vintage sound like a disease.
Ryan noticed a printed calendar beside her laptop. Several entries listed supposed medical appointments I had missed. He photographed it before leaving.
At Teresa's office, we compared the dates. Two of those appointments had never existed. A third had been canceled by the clinic, not by me.
Then Ms. Alvarez called to say the anonymous report about my mental state had mentioned those exact dates.
“Somebody was feeding them a story,” I said.
Teresa agreed. “We need proof of who created it.”
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A reply arrived from the camera company. The pool footage still existed on a protected backup. The technician wanted us to know one detail before he sent it through legal channels.
“There was a second person directing the bride,” he said.
