Chapter 4: What Mavis Thought She Knew
Ryan was still standing beside me when I lowered the phone.
"That was your mother," I said.
"She just called mine."
He went very still.
"What did she say?"
"She's threatening to tell you something before the wedding.
Something she claims I've been hiding from you." I set my phone on the counter.
"She wouldn't say what it was.
Just that I would know."
Ryan turned toward the back door.
"Ryan—"
"I'm going to talk to her."
"Wait." I caught his arm.
"I need to tell you something first.
Before she does.
Whatever she thinks she has, I want you to hear it from me."
He stopped.
Turned back.
His face was open, patient, completely steady — and that steadiness was the thing that made my throat tighten.
"Last year," I said, "before we got engaged, I went through a hard stretch.
You remember I told you I had some financial trouble after I left my last job."
"I remember."
"What I didn't tell you was how bad it got.
I had to borrow money.
Not from a bank." I made myself hold his gaze.
"From my ex.
Daniel.
He offered, I was desperate, and I took it.
I paid it back in full — every cent — four months later.
But I never told you because by the time things were stable again, it felt like something that didn't need to be said.
It was over.
It was done."
Ryan was quiet.
"Mavis found out," I said.
"I don't know how.
But that's what she has."
He looked at me for a long moment.
"That's it?"
"That's it."
He let out a slow breath.
Not relief exactly — something more like the release of a tension he'd been holding without realizing it.
"Lauren.
You borrowed money from someone when you were struggling and paid it back.
That's not a secret.
That's just something that happened."
"I should have told you."
"Yes.
You should have." He said it plainly, without anger.
"But that's between us.
That's not ammunition." He looked toward the driveway.
"She drove to your parents' house to call you unsuitable.
She destroyed our invitations and called it a mishap.
And now she's calling your mother to threaten you with a loan you already repaid." He shook his head once.
"She's not protecting me.
She's trying to control this wedding and she's running out of ways to do it."
The back door opened.
Mavis stepped inside.
She had composed herself — chin up, bag over her arm, the particular expression she wore when she believed she held the better hand.
"I think it's time the three of us had an honest conversation," she said.
Ryan looked at her.
"I agree."
She settled into the chair at the head of the table.
The chair I usually sat in.
She did it without thinking, or perhaps without caring.
"Lauren has not been fully honest with you," she began.
"I've been trying to protect you, Ryan, because that's what mothers do—"
"She already told me," Ryan said.
Mavis paused.
"I'm sorry?"
"The loan.
Daniel.
All of it.
She told me just now, before you came in." He pulled out the chair beside me and sat down.
"So whatever you were planning to say, you're about three minutes too late."
Mavis's composure held, but something behind her eyes shifted.
"That's not all," she said.
"Then say what you have to say."
She folded her hands on the table.
"Daniel didn't just lend her money, Ryan.
They were in contact for months afterward.
Long after she claims the loan was repaid." She looked at me.
"I have the messages."
The room went completely still.
May you like
I felt Ryan's eyes move to me.
And the worst part — the part that made Mavis's smile return — was that I couldn't immediately tell him she was lying.
