Chapter 2: The Man at the Gate
Inside the box were every gift Vanessa had given Irvin—her cookies, handwritten notes, and the scarf she claimed he had left at her house.
Vanessa snapped the lid shut.
“You had no right to bring those here.”
“They were in my home,” I replied.
“And that scarf has never belonged to my husband.”
Neighbors began whispering.
Irvin stepped beside me.
“I told you to stop contacting me, Vanessa.”
Her face hardened.
“That isn’t what you said when we were alone.”
A shocked silence fell over the yard.
I turned to Irvin.
“Were you ever alone with her?”
“Once,” he said.
“But not for the reason she wants everyone to believe.”
Vanessa smiled triumphantly.
“Then tell your wife what happened.”
Before Irvin could answer, a man near the gate called her name.
Vanessa froze.
I recognized him from an old photograph in her house.
It was her former husband, holding a thick envelope.
“You’ve been telling the same lie again, haven’t you?” he said.
Vanessa rushed toward him.
“Leave now.”
But he raised the envelope so everyone could see it.
“Irvin isn’t the first married man she tried this with—and your wife deserves to know why.”
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What was inside the envelope, and what had Vanessa done before moving next door?
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