Chapter 7: What She Told Derek
Gary typed back immediately.
*Don't do anything.
I'll call you in ten minutes.*
He stood up from the table and we found a quiet spot near the back of the ship, away from the breakfast crowd, where the wind was loud enough to give us some privacy.
He called Derek on speaker.
Derek picked up on the first ring.
"What is going on?
Mom sounded serious."
"Mom is on the cruise with us," Gary said.
A pause.
"She's — what?
Why?"
"She bought a ticket.
Didn't tell us until she showed up at the house with her suitcase."
"Gary." Derek's voice dropped.
"She told me she was going to visit Aunt Patricia this week."
Gary and I looked at each other.
"She lied to you too," Gary said.
"Apparently." Derek exhaled.
"Okay.
So what did she tell me this morning?
She said she found out something about your wife.
Something serious.
She wouldn't give me details, just said I needed to be prepared and that she was going to send me some information."
"Did she send it?"
"Not yet."
"Don't open it when she does," Gary said.
"Whatever she sends you, don't look at it before we talk."
"That bad?"
"It's not bad.
It's fabricated.
Or it's real things that have been taken out of context and stitched together to look like something they're not." Gary pressed his hand flat against the railing.
"She has photos.
Cropped ones.
Screenshots from public posts.
She's been building a file on my wife for years, Derek.
Years."
The silence on Derek's end was long.
"That's — " Derek stopped.
Started again.
"How long?"
"At least ten years.
Maybe longer."
"Gary." Derek's voice was careful now.
"This isn't the first time she's done something like this."
Gary went very still.
"What do you mean?"
"You remember Melissa?
The woman I dated before Sandra?"
"Vaguely."
"Mom didn't like her either.
I never knew why — Melissa was perfectly fine, we just weren't right for each other in the end.
But after we broke up, Melissa called me.
Said she'd gotten an anonymous letter.
Said the letter claimed I had been unfaithful to her, gave dates, gave details.
All of it false." Derek paused.
"I never found out who sent it.
Melissa and I were already over by then so it didn't matter.
But I always wondered."
Gary said nothing.
"I'm not saying it was Mom," Derek said.
"I'm saying I always wondered."
The ship moved under us.
The wind pulled at my hair.
I watched Gary's face go through something I didn't have a name for — not quite shock, because some part of him had probably always known something was wrong.
More like recognition.
The feeling of a shape you've been looking at for years finally resolving into what it actually was.
"Derek," Gary said.
"I need you to do something for me."
"Name it."
"When Mom gets home, don't let her tell you her version of this trip before I get a chance to talk to you.
Can you do that?"
"Already decided," Derek said.
"I'll wait for your call." A beat.
"Gary — is your wife okay?"
Gary looked at me.
"She's okay," he said.
"She handled it better than I did."
We hung up.
Gary put the phone in his pocket and leaned against the railing and looked at the horizon for a long time without speaking.
"She did it to Derek too," he said finally.
"Maybe.
Probably."
"You don't have to decide that right now."
"I know." He turned to look at me.
"I owe you more than an apology."
"You don't owe me a speech," I said.
"You stood up at breakfast.
You threw the photo off the balcony.
You called Derek."
"I should have stood up years ago."
"Yes," I said.
"But you're standing up now."
He reached over and took my hand.
We stood there while the ocean went on and on in every direction, and for the first time since Donna had knocked on our cabin door, I felt something loosen in my chest.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I almost didn't answer it.
I did.
"Is this Gary's wife?" A woman's voice.
Older.
Slightly breathless.
"Yes.
Who is this?"
"My name is Patricia.
Donna's sister." A pause.
"I think you need to know something.
May you like
She called me this morning too.
And what she told me — what she's planning to do when you get home — I couldn't stay quiet."
