Chapter 4: The Lie Everyone Could Hear
“Marian deserves the truth,” Irvin’s recorded voice said.
“I should have told her weeks ago.”
Vanessa stopped the audio.
My name seemed to hang over the yard.
“What truth?” I asked.
Irvin shook his head.
“That sentence was about your mother.”
Vanessa laughed.
“Your mother?”
“You asked why Marian was spending so many evenings away.
I told you her mother’s medical tests were private.”
“And the part about not pretending?”
“That came from a call with my brother.
His marriage was ending.”
Vanessa lifted the phone.
“Convenient.”
Daniel held out his hand.
“Send me the original file.”
“No.”
“Because there isn’t one?”
“Because you have no right to anything on my phone.”
June hurried across the lawn.
“Come with me, Marian.
My camera stores thirty days.”
Vanessa stepped into her path.
“That camera points into my yard.”
“It points at my gate.”
“You recorded my guests without permission.”
June stopped inches from her.
“You weren’t worried about permission when you recorded another woman’s husband.”
Someone near the grill laughed, and Vanessa’s cheeks reddened.
She turned to Irvin.
“Tell them where you were Thursday at six.”
“At work.”
“That is another lie.”
I faced him.
“Were you?”
Irvin pulled out his phone.
“My timecard and parking receipt are both on here.”
Vanessa pressed a finger to her screen.
“Then perhaps your employer should hear your little recording.”
“Don’t involve his work,” I said.
“You involved the neighborhood.”
“You invited the neighborhood to watch you humiliate me.”
Vanessa leaned close.
“You walked into my party with that box.
Whatever happens next belongs to you.”
Her phone chimed.
Irvin glanced at the screen.
“What did you send?”
“The truth.”
Daniel reached for the phone, but Vanessa stepped back and raised her voice.
“Touch me, and everyone here will see exactly what kind of man you are.”
Daniel’s hand dropped.
Vanessa smiled at me.
“You wanted an audience.
Now you have one.”
June took my arm and led me through the gate.
Irvin and Daniel followed us to her porch.
June opened the security application on her tablet.
“Tuesday, four fourteen,” she said.
“There she is.”
On the screen, Vanessa stood near our fence holding her phone beneath a folded towel.
Irvin’s voice drifted from our open kitchen window as he spoke to his brother.
“I can’t keep pretending everything is fine,” he said.
“I’ll tell her soon.”
June moved to another clip.
Vanessa stood beside our driveway while Irvin left me a voicemail.
“We can stop hiding the test results once your mother is ready.”
Daniel pointed at the screen.
“Those are the pieces she joined together.”
Irvin exhaled.
“She made the recording from conversations she overheard.”
I stared at him.
“Why didn’t you tell me she had been recording you?”
“I didn’t know.”
His phone rang before I could answer.
He looked at the name and put the call on speaker.
“Irvin, this is Conrad from personnel,” a man said.
“We received an audio file and a written complaint involving your conduct with a neighbor.”
“It was fabricated.”
“Until we review it, you’re suspended from client duties.”
Vanessa appeared at June’s gate.
“I hope your wife still thinks that gift box was clever,” she called.
May you like
Then my phone began ringing.
Our daughter Sophie’s name filled the screen.
