Chapter 7: The Morning Tyler Came Back
He knocked at seven in the morning.
I had slept maybe three hours.
I was already dressed, already had coffee in my hand when I heard it.
I opened the door and looked at him standing on his own porch like a visitor.
"Can I come in?" he said.
I stepped back.
He came into the kitchen.
He looked like he hadn't slept either.
He sat down at the table without being asked, which was such a Tyler thing to do that it made my chest ache for a moment before I pushed it back down.
"I need to explain more than I did yesterday," he said.
"I know about the money," I said.
He went still.
"I know about the texts she's holding.
I know about the loan on the truck." I sat down across from him.
"I know she's been blackmailing you for three years, Tyler."
He put both hands flat on the table.
"Danny."
"Don't be angry at Danny.
Danny is the only person in this situation who told me the truth without being forced to."
He looked at the table for a long time.
"I didn't know how to get out of it."
"You could have told me."
"She said if I told you, she'd go straight to the department.
She'd send everything.
I could lose my job, Amanda.
My certification.
Everything I've worked for—"
"And you decided that was worth lying to me for five years."
"I was trying to protect—"
"Stop saying that." My voice came out harder than I expected.
"You were trying to protect your career.
Your secret.
Your version of the life we had.
Don't dress it up as something you did for me."
He didn't argue.
That was almost worse — I had expected him to push back, and he didn't.
"What are you going to do?" he asked.
"I have an appointment with an attorney on Thursday," I said.
"Her name is Carol Marsh.
I'm going to find out what my options are."
"Amanda—"
"And I'm going to find out what Diane's options actually are.
Because I don't think a woman blackmailing a married man with texts from an affair she knowingly entered into has as much legal power as she thinks she does."
Tyler looked up.
"She's been scaring you," I said.
"For three years she's been telling you what she'll do, and you've been paying her to stay quiet, and it hasn't made anything better.
It's made everything worse." I looked at him across the table.
"I'm not going to keep paying for a secret I didn't make."
"What does that mean?"
"It means I'm done being the last person in the room to know things." I stood up.
"It means things are going to change.
And it means that if Diane wants to send those texts to your captain, she can.
Because I'm going to talk to him first."
Tyler's face went pale.
"Amanda, you can't—"
"I can," I said.
"And I'm going to.
Not to hurt you.
But because I am not going to let that woman hold this family hostage for one more day."
He sat at my kitchen table and said nothing.
I picked up my coffee cup and walked to the sink.
May you like
"You can stay or go," I said.
"But I'm not changing my mind."
