Chapter 12 - THE NIGHT BEFORE OUR WEDDING
Five years earlier, the night before our wedding, James had disappeared for three hours.
He told me at the time that his best man had dragged him out for a last-minute drink.
That part was true.
It wasn't the whole truth.
"Lauren showed up," he said.
We sat in our parked car outside daycare while snow collected on the windshield.
"Where?"
"At the bar. She said she needed to talk to me privately."
My stomach tightened.
"About what?"
"You."
Lauren told James I was cheating. She claimed she had screenshots, dates, even the name of a man from my office. She offered to show him everything if he came with her.
"Did you?"
"I stepped outside. She showed me messages on her phone."
"And?"
"They looked fake. The wording didn't sound like you. The timestamps didn't make sense."
He confronted her.
Lauren changed tactics.
She told him I would ruin his career. That I was needy. Weak. Jealous of his service. Then, according to James, she touched his chest and said he still had time to make a better choice.
I stared at him.
"She hit on you?"
"Yes."
"The night before our wedding?"
"Yes."
"And you never told me?"
His face tightened. "I should have. I thought telling you would destroy your relationship with your sister the day before you got married."
I laughed bitterly. "Everybody keeps protecting my relationship with Lauren by hiding what Lauren does to me."
James nodded. "You're right."
Then he reached into his phone and opened an old archived folder.
"I kept this."
It was a screenshot Lauren had sent him after he left the bar.
A single message:
SHE ALWAYS GETS WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN MINE.
The exact same grievance as the note at our mailbox.
But there was something else in the screenshot.
A phone number at the top.
Not Lauren's current number.
May you like
I recognized it anyway.
It belonged to the anonymous account that had recently contacted Dad's attorney.
