CHAPTER FOURTEEN
PRESENT
I don’t waitfor the room to reset before I launch into the culmination of my story. “Wife number five is the reason you never met anyone I was involved with until tonight.”
There’s no room for joking in my voice. There’s no humor when we broach how we almost lost Cassidy.
Thinking of this one hurts every time I imagine that viper. Clearing my throat, I mutter, “Vanessa came into my life during my divorce from Rita. It was one of those ‘meet cutes’ you girls keep waxing on about. She spilled her coffee on me. I told her it was okay. She demanded my number to pay for the clean up. I gave her the business line. She called, asked me to dinner.”
“Thought she was good natured. A breath of fresh air. She knew from the beginning I was coming out of a messy divorce. Nothing happened until that was done. Then it was a whirlwind.”
Then shame hits when I admit, “She reminded me of Mara. So much, it was like having a second chance.”
The room is silent.
“It wasn’t her physical looks. But she knew how to play her part in the ways that mattered. Sweetness. Kindness. The way she listened like no one else mattered.” I let out a breath through my nose. “I should’ve known better. But grief—especially the kind you never resolve—rewires your instincts. You lean toward familiar instead of your instincts warning you against the truth.”
No one interrupts me.
“Everyone claimed they were happy for me, even if they weren’t.” I huff out a breath. “I remember Phil mentioning during a quick lunch in the city that it was good to see me smiling again. And I internalized that meant I was finally doing something right.”
“By then, Laskey had sold up and I was working full time for Hudson Investigations. I was still keeping track of my kids. Before Caleb even knew Cassidy existed, he passed me in the hall one day. Mentioned I was less grumpy. Still, because of the class of data I had access to, he insisted Vanessa have a background check. It came back clean. No flags.”
Caleb’s head twists, anger a pulsing tic at his temple. I remind him, “None of us knew how deep the rot went at Hudson.”
“This isn’t on you, Charlie,” he bites out.
“It’s not on you either,” I retort.
He jerks his chin up in ascent. “What none of us knew was Vanessa was studying me. Mapping me. Using proximity to collect information I didn’t even realize I was giving and feeding it to someone who was laying a trap.”
I look around the room, meeting eyes one by one. “She was part of the larger scheme to dismantle this family.”
A sharp growl comes from somewhere near the couch. Since I’m not looking in that direction, I can only surmise it’s Keene recalling what we went through in those few minutes when we almost lost his sister—Caleb’s wife.
“She fed what she learned to people who were paying her for the information. One woman in particular who didn’t care who was hurt so long as her image was preserved as she eliminated any threats against her.”
My hands curl slowly into fists. “And one of those threats was Cassidy.”
I recall running into the library, brandishing my weapon on Caleb’s mother—shock and horror fighting for equal space until I shut myself down. Keene falling apart. Blood spilled—Cassidy’s blood. The paramedics rushing her out the door.
“Until she woke up, I’m certain none of us slept.” I don’t dress it up. “I—we—stood watch over her. We memorized exits. I ran scenarios in my head trying to figure out who leaked the information. Then, Caleb called in the Feds.”
I swallow hard. “When I was questioned, they made me replay every conversation I’d ever had with Vanessa. Nothing I’d ever mentioned about Cassidy or her family was in the files atHudson, but it was enough for the inside analysts to start digging without triggering any alarms. Essentially, I’d handed over my family on a silver platter because I refused to admit I wasn’t still broken from something that happened a decade and a half earlier.”
My voice hardens. “When the Feds took her away, I stood there and wished—just once—I could play judge and jury instead of handing her over for questioning.”
Everyone, either through living it or hearing it from their family, knows exactly what kind of rage I’m feeling. “She was charged. Convicted. Accessory to attempted murder.” I give a short, humorless laugh. “And it wasn’t enough. Because no conviction changes the fact that Cassidy almost died. No sentence erased the fact that I was the door Vanessa walked through to get close enough.”
Understanding starts to settle in when I say bluntly, “For a long time, I didn’t trust myself. Not my instincts, not my judgement. Not the ability to tell the difference between kindness and manipulation.”
I gesture vaguely at the entire room. “And I wasn’t willing to gamble with your lives again just because I was lonely.”
The women’s eyes fill with tears but I can’t let it affect me. I reach for my water and swallow a few gulps. Once I’m certain my voice is steady, I continue, “So I stopped dating. I stopped letting anyone get close enough to matter. I built a perimeter around all of us.”
By now, even the men’s eyes are damp. Caleb’s scrubbing his forearm against his cheek even before I say, “I chose isolationbecause it was safer than risking you. I lived with that choice willingly.”
Then my head turns and I meet Rhoswen’s dark eyes head on. “Then, I took my vacation, which included a bus tour in Scotland. There was this stranger—a pretty American— chastising the tour guide for giving out inaccurate information. She called him out in front of every passenger for his inaccuracy of the fall of the MacDonald clan to the Campbells. I used my multi-tool to dig up a rock for her to keep as a keepsake from where her people slaughtered my ancestors. It was forty degrees, and my hands froze, but she wanted it. So I did it.”
