“I thought you’d ask questions. Maybe you’d delay the wedding. Maybe you’d get your own solicitor. I didn’t expect you to rescue me.”
She looked at me.
“I just wanted you to protect yourself.”
I felt tears rise.
“I’m sorry I didn’t.”
“I know.”
She took my hand briefly.
Then she added, “You can’t go back and be the person who listened. You can only decide what kind of person you are now.”
I have thought about those words ever since.
***
People who hear my story tend to focus on the same details.
The wedding dress.
The cigarette smoke.
The recording.
The apartment.
They want to know how I could lie beside Grayson after discovering the truth. They want to know why I didn’t expose him immediately. They want to know whether I ever suspected his mother.
The answer to the last question is yes.
I suspected she disliked me.
