Chương 6
“I’m sorry.”
He shook his head.
“Not you.”
His voice was low.
My mother heard him anyway.
She straightened.
“So I suppose you think I’m some monster now.”
Aaron looked at her.
“I think tonight probably isn’t the night to ask me that.”
Susan stood across the room.
For a second I thought she was coming over.
Instead, she picked up her purse.
Aaron’s father rose with her.
My chest tightened.
Aaron saw them.
“Mom.”
Susan looked at him.
“I’m going upstairs.”
“We can talk.”
“Not right now.”
Her voice was not angry.
That was worse.
She gave me a brief look I could not read and walked toward the hotel elevators.
Aaron’s father followed after squeezing his son’s shoulder.
The ballroom door closed behind them.
I stared at it.
There it was.
A consequence my mother could not control and I could not dismiss.
My wedding was not some protected event waiting safely outside the family wreckage.
It was already inside it.
Aaron leaned closer.
“Don’t.”
I looked at him.
“Don’t decide what my parents think before they tell us.”
I hated that he knew me well enough to say it.
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“Fine.”
He gave my hand one quick squeeze and released it.
My father looked toward the empty chairs where Susan and Michael had been sitting.
Then he turned on my mother.
“You accused Claire of cheating in front of them.”
“I did not accuse her of cheating.”
“You told Aaron to ask about a man she was hiding.”
“Because Caroline showed me the photo.”
Caroline jerked her head up.
“Don’t put that on me.”
“You sent the picture.”
“To Aaron.”
“You told me about it.”
“Because I thought she was lying to him.”
“You thought what I told you to think.”
My mother stared at her.
Caroline stood again.
This time her voice did not shake.
“You said Daniel was married.”
I looked at my mother.
Daniel raised one eyebrow.
“I am divorced.”
Caroline continued.
“You said Claire had been traveling to New York without Aaron knowing.”
Aaron let out a short breath.
“She told me about both trips.”
Caroline looked at him.
“You said you didn’t know why she was going.”
“No.”
“I said I wasn’t going to discuss Claire’s private business with you.”
Caroline’s face reddened.
My mother looked at Aaron with something close to accusation.
“So you were testing us.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“I was waiting to see how far this would go.”
I turned toward him.
He had not said that to me before.
“What does that mean?”
His gaze met mine.
“I knew the photo was cropped.”
“How?”
“The metadata was stripped, but the dimensions were weird.”
He shrugged slightly.
“I asked the hotel in New York if their lobby café had security footage from that day.”
Daniel looked surprised.
“They gave it to you?”
“No.”
Aaron almost smiled.
“They told me absolutely not.”
Despite everything, Daniel laughed.
It was the first normal sound he had made all evening.
Aaron continued.
“So I asked Claire.”
I looked at him.
“You asked me what?”
“I asked who was at the meeting.”
Memory caught up.
One Sunday morning in January, while I was making toast, Aaron had casually asked whether Daniel had brought anyone from the old firm.
I had told him about the attorney and the two former employees.
Then I had complained about the coffee and moved on.
“You already had the picture then.”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“No.”
My anger returned immediately.
Different target.
Same heat.
“Why?”
“Because you were barely sleeping.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I thought it was Caroline.”
Caroline blinked.
Aaron kept his eyes on me.
“And if I told you she was sending me photos and trying to convince me you were cheating, you would have confronted her before you had the documents from New York.”
“You decided that for me.”
“Yes.”
The word came without defense.
That made it harder to fight.
I stood.
“I need a minute.”
Aaron started to rise.
“No.”
He stopped.
I walked toward the side corridor near the restrooms.
The carpet outside the ballroom was patterned with gold leaves and dark blue squares, the sort of hotel design meant to be noticed by nobody.
I stood beside an ice machine and listened to it hum.
A family came out of the elevators wearing swimsuits under towels.
A little boy complained that the pool had closed early.
His father told him it had not closed early, he had simply refused to get out when asked.
They passed me without looking twice.
I nearly laughed.
The world remained offensively ordinary.
I pressed my palms against my eyes.
A minute later, footsteps approached.
I expected Aaron.
It was my father.
He stopped several feet away.
“I can go back.”
“No.”
He stayed.
For a while neither of us spoke.
Then he looked at the vending machine.
“Three dollars for a Coke.”
I let out a tired breath.
“That’s your contribution?”
“I’m trying not to say the wrong thing.”
“You’ve had nine years of practice.”
The words were cruel.
He absorbed them.
“Yes.”
That took some of the pleasure out of saying them.
He rubbed his thumb along the edge of his wedding ring.
“I should have asked questions.”
“Yes.”
“I thought your mother knew you better than I did.”
I looked at him.
“She knew how to sound certain.”
He nodded.
“That’s not an excuse.”
“No.”
He looked down the corridor toward the ballroom.
“I believed her because believing her was easier than believing something was wrong in our house.”
There was no speech in his voice.
No polished remorse.
Just a man saying something he disliked about himself.
“I went to the garage,” he said.
I almost smiled despite myself.
“You always went to the garage.”
“I know.”
“You reorganized the same socket set for fifteen years.”
“It was a very organized socket set.”
A laugh escaped me.
It hurt.
May you like
Then I started crying.
Not dramatically.
