Chapter 3: The Voice on Her Phone
Vanessa lunged for the envelope, but her former husband pulled it against his chest.
“Give that to me, Daniel.”
“You said you had stopped,” he replied.
“You said the divorce frightened you into getting help.”
“Daniel is bitter because I left him.”
Daniel looked at me.
“My name is Daniel Mercer.
I was married to Vanessa for eleven years.”
Vanessa pointed toward the gate.
“Nobody invited you.”
“You invited my sister.
She called me when she saw the box.”
A woman beside the drinks table lowered her eyes.
Vanessa stared at her until she stepped behind another guest.
Daniel opened the envelope and removed several printed pages.
“These are messages Vanessa sent to two married men before our divorce.”
“They were friends,” Vanessa said.
“He twisted everything.”
Daniel held up one page.
“You wrote, ‘His wife thinks she knows him.
Give me one month.’”
“That proves nothing.”
He placed a receipt on top of the box.
“And here is the receipt for that scarf.
Vanessa bought it herself four days ago.”
The whispering grew louder, but Vanessa raised her voice above it.
“Why are we discussing a scarf when Irvin came into my house alone?”
I faced my husband.
“Tell me why.”
Irvin took my hand, but I pulled it back.
“She sent me a message saying you had fallen in her kitchen,” he said.
“I ran over because I thought you were hurt.”
“You never told me.”
“I was inside for less than two minutes.
When I realized you weren’t there, I left.”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“That is his version.”
Daniel turned to her.
“Did you send the message?”
“I deleted it.”
“Of course you did.”
Vanessa’s mouth curved into a smile.
“Fortunately, I kept something else.”
She lifted her phone and tapped the screen.
Irvin’s voice came through the speaker.
“I can’t keep pretending.
I’ll tell her soon, and then we can stop hiding.”
Nobody moved.
Vanessa looked directly at me.
“Does that sound like a man who rejected me?”
Irvin reached for the phone.
“That recording has been altered.”
She pulled it away.
“Now you want to call me a liar because your wife is standing here.”
“Play what came before it,” he said.
“That is the entire recording.”
“No, it isn’t.
Those are pieces of different conversations.”
I studied Irvin’s face.
“What conversations?”
His jaw tightened.
Vanessa noticed.
“He hasn’t told you everything, has he?”
Daniel stepped between us.
“She did this to me, too.
She takes ordinary sentences and changes their order.”
Vanessa laughed.
“Your former husband appears with papers, and suddenly everyone believes him?”
A gray-haired neighbor named June moved closer.
“I heard Irvin tell you to leave him alone last Tuesday,” she said.
Vanessa’s smile disappeared.
“You were listening over the fence?”
“No.
You were standing beneath my security camera.”
Vanessa gripped her phone with both hands.
June pointed toward her own house.
“It records sound, Vanessa.”
Vanessa looked from June to Daniel and then back to me.
“You can search every camera in this neighborhood,” she said.
“It won’t change what Irvin promised me.”
“What did he promise?” I asked.
May you like
She tapped her screen again.
This time, the recording began with my husband saying my name.
