28. Ivy
Ivy
That afternoon, feeling a heavy sense of melancholy and guilt, I make the stupid decision to visit Beverly and her daughter.
I don’t know what I was expecting to find. The two of them chained in a repugnant dark room, or maybe looking crazy and unhinged, but none of that is true.
Ty lets me drive the golf cart down to the guest house where I discover that the place is the size of a decent house and my mother and apparently, younger sister, are actually living well.
“What are you doing here?” Melissa snaps. “Here to gloat?”
“I can do that if you want,” I counter, to which she clamps her jaw shut and sinks into the plush sofa, eyeing Ty who doesn’t bother moving from where he stands like a permanent intimidating fixture.
“Ivy,” Beverly starts, her face taut, bare without a smidge of makeup like. In this appearance. She looks like she’s aged ten years over night, yet she still looks stunning. “I’m so happy you’re here.”
I ignore the melancholy in her voice. “You seem to be doing well.”
“Oh, stop with your high moral ground! You’re the one doing extremely well, with that huge rock on your finger!
” Melissa seethes. “Must be nice knowing you can do whatever you want with that evil monster backing you. But if you think he married you because he loves you, think again. He will destroy you!”
“Melissa!” Beverly snaps, in a rare tone of annoyance with the daughter she raised with love and care. “Apologize to your sister right this instant! You think we’d be alive right now if it wasn’t for her? Apologize!”
Melissa refuses to apologize and runs out of the room and up the stairs. A few seconds later, we hear a door slamming shut.
Beverly winces and glances at Ty before she quickly apologizes for her daughter’s rudeness.
“With everything that’s happened lately, she hasn’t been in her right mind.”
“You mean when your lies and manipulations were exposed?” I interject, deciding not to sit. “It stands to reason that she learned from the best that when things don’t go her way, she can be sinister and evil, setting other people up for rape and all.”
“What?”
“Oh, she hasn’t confided in you about her deeds. Did you check your dearest daughter’s diary, Mother?”
Beverly’s facial expression blanches, then she slowly sinks into the chair behind her.
“I-I don’t know what to say,” she mumbles. “I never thought she’d go to those lengths…”
Listening to her makes me so mad, I can’t stand it. I need to get out of here.
“I didn’t come here to reminisce about your stellar motherhood skills,” I state. “I want the truth about everything.”
Beverly’s now exhausted eyes look up at me.
“I knew this day would come.”
“Can you sound any more like a failed villain in some cheap movie?” I snap, annoyed beyond belief. “Tell me, after you did all that crap, did you think you’d be here today?”
Beverly has the sense not to look at me when she shakes her head.
“I know you won’t believe me, Ivy, but this was never my intention,” she says, clutching her chest. “I never meant to cause you this much harm, and now you’re married to that…”
“You can’t be serious,” I say, shocked. “You practically sold me to them! And now you’re stunned by the results? Are you all right in the head?”
To my shock, tears actually well up in her eyes when she looks at me.
“Ivy, it wasn’t as simple as you thought. I know you were disappointed when you came here to find all this, but I kept you back in Westbrook Blues for a reason.”
“Your daughter found me easily enough!”
“Yes, I don’t know how she did it. Obviously she had been prying into my affairs. By the time I found out, she had already lured you here.”
I was right, the entire thing was a trap.
“Do Samuel and Grammy know you’re still alive?” I ask outright.
Beverly’s facial features fall, like she’s in immense pain.
“Yes.”
“Does she know you married a vicious, cunning man that wasn’t my father at all?”
Beverly remains silent for a while. “No.”
“Why not? Don’t tell me you were ashamed? A woman of your character would never be moved by such petty things as shame.”
“God, Ivy, it’s much more than that.”
I scoff, unable to believe my ears. “You know what, whatever excuse you have for all this, keep it to yourself. I don’t want to hear it.”
I’m not putting on a facade.
I really don’t want to hear her excuses and made-up sympathy catchers curated to make me submit and accept her nonsense without question. That’s gaslighting.
Is there a reason that’s good enough to clarify this woman’s actions?
“I just didn’t want Theodore to know about my mother. I lied to him that she died along with my father that night…”
The night of the accident.
“You know how Gramps died?” I whisper, my chest aching. “Did you also know that your husband, the man that made you a trophy wife, was responsible for it?”
“I only found out later,” she cries now, tears running unchecked down her cheeks. “My God, Ivy, I never thought he’d do such a thing!”
“No? But you were perfectly all right with him selling me. You even participated.”
“Because that was the only way to protect you and my mother!”
“What?”
Beverly rocks herself in the chair, back and forth as if completely losing it now.
“When Melissa found you, she told her father and then Teddy found out about my mother and that I lied.”
I scoff, piecing the rotten parts together. “So he threatened to kill your mother if you didn’t have me do what he wanted? It doesn’t take much to convince you, does it?”
It’s then that she looks up at me, anguish so brazen in her eyes, I almost take a step back.
“You have no idea the things that man was capable of!”
Was? So she’s aware that her husband is nonexistent among the living.
“I had no choice but to make some of the decisions I made. It’s the only way I knew how to preserve your lives.”
“Lying that your daughter and I were twins, that was also a life-preserving measure? Be so for real, lady.”
“Oh God, this isn’t how I wanted to tell you,” she mutters, as if talking to herself. “I was going to explain before you got caught in the crossfire, but things moved at a pace I hadn’t predicted.”
“Evidently.”
She sighs heavily before she starts her story. “Melissa is three years younger than you,” she whispers so low, I almost miss it, but the guilt in her tone is loud enough.
I feel this absurd need to burst out laughing but, in the end, I can’t summon the energy.
I can only stare at her like she just grew horns on her head.
“And how did you get away with that?” I ask in a monotone voice.
“When you have a husband that is more married to his ambition than to you, trust me, it’s easy to get away with things that anyone with a brain would notice.”
“Am I supposed to give you a standing ovation for that?” I say scornfully.
“No, not at all… it’s just, I never thought I’d have to explain this one day.”
“You thought you’d never have to explain your lies, treachery, and deviousness? Do you really think you’re invincible, passing me off as your daughter’s twin?”
Is this woman insane?
“Ivy, I know nothing I say now can atone for my sins, but I had no choice!” She steps closer to me, but I take a step back. “When Teddy found out about you, I had to quickly make something up to explain to him and his family.”
“Because I’m a product of an affair.”
Her shocked eyes snap up to meet mine in a rush, confirming my suspicions.
“Obviously I was a mistake you never factored in. You would’ve done both of us and the world a favor had you gotten rid of me!”
I’m stunned by these words myself but as soon as I say them, I feel the weight of them echo in me.
This is my truth.
This is how I’ve been feeling inside.
“You were not a mistake, Ivy.” Beverly rushes to me but I step back, leaving the distance of the whole room between us. “You were born out of love.”
“Love? Sure,” I scoff, my heart aching like no man’s business.
“I was in love once,” she starts, her voice raspy.
“Jared was a great man. We went to high school together. He was on the football team with a clear track to a Division One after being scouted by several schools. His future was set, and I was a nerdy kid, ready and excited to follow in my father’s footsteps of becoming a doctor. ”
I heard about that last part.
Beverly Irving was a smart child. She did so well in school that she never got B’s like me.
She was on her way to med school, which had made Gramps and Grammy so proud, but then, she suddenly dropped out.
“Without meaning to, or maybe we were just young and so in love that we…” She trails off again, her voice catching. It takes a full minute before she speaks again. “I found out I was pregnant with your brother the day we graduated high school.”
Thinking of Samuel and how he’s never been as idiotic as me to throw away his life and look for this woman, I can’t help but feel so unworthy of hearing this now.
“I tried keeping it a secret as much as possible, so after graduation, Jared and I quickly found jobs. I made an excuse to your grandparents that I was going away to volunteer at an at-risk youth campsite all summer, but I just wanted to leave town.”
“Grammy and Gramps never found out?”
“You were raised by them,” she smiles sadly. “I’m pretty sure you know how lightning sharp they are and their ability to piece things together.”
I almost smile, knowing firsthand how true that is.
“A month after I gave birth to your brother, they showed up suddenly at my door. By then, we were living off-campus from Jared’s school where he was juggling both football and work, trying to raise our son while I was breastfeeding a newborn, taking evening community classes to supplement my GPA for my college classes. It was hell.”
“You were on dual enrollment? With a baby?” I ask, feeling majorly impressed, but I don’t want to show it.
“It was an extraordinary situation and there was no way I was going to let my parents down.”
“All that just to still break their hearts in the end. Amazing!” I say sardonically.