Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Caleb meets Sable at a crowded restaurant on Thursday afternoon.
Ivy sits at the next table. Everyone knows she is there. Caleb places his phone between himself and Sable and announces that he is recording.
I listen that evening from my bed.
Sable's voice has not changed since the few times I’ve met her. Low, smooth, faintly amused by everyone around her.
"Your wife sent her sister to babysit you?"
"Dahlia did not send anyone. I asked Ivy to witness this."
"Because you don't trust yourself with me?"
"Because I don't trust you to tell the truth afterward."
"You used to trust me."
"That was before you let Jeremy use my fiancée's name to trick me into touching you."
"I didn't make you touch me."
"You climbed onto my lap while I was blindfolded."
"You kissed me."
"Because I thought you were Dahlia."
Sable laughs softly. "Not the whole time."
Even prepared for it, I feel the words in my stomach.
Caleb does not argue.
"No," he says. "Not the whole time."
"You proposed to me once. Did you tell her that?"
"She knows."
"Did you tell her you kept the ring for two years?"
Silence.
I stop the recording.
I call Caleb.
He answers immediately. "Dahlia."
"You kept Sable's ring?"
“Yeah, it didn’t mean anything. Especially after I met you. And it wasn’t two years.”
"Why does she know?"
"Jeremy told her. I sold it after our third date."
"Why?"
"Because I knew I wanted a future with you, and keeping it felt like leaving a door open."
"You never told me."
"I didn't think an old ring mattered."
"Everything you decide does not matter becomes something I discover from somebody else."
"You're right."
The absence of a defense disarms me.
"I am listening to the rest," I say.
"Okay."
"Do not call me."
"I won't."
I restart the recording.
Sable admits Jeremy contacted her six weeks before the wedding. He told her Caleb was miserable and too afraid to cancel. He offered her money to perform but promised the real reward would be proving Caleb still loved her.
"How much?" Caleb asks.
"Five thousand."
"You took five thousand dollars to impersonate my fiancée?"
"I took five thousand to dance. The rest was between us."
"There is no us,” he says.
"There was for four years."
"And then you ended it."
"You were going to forgive me eventually."
"I did forgive you. That is why I could move on."
Sable goes quiet.
"Did Jeremy tell you I wanted you there?" Caleb asks.
"He said you talked about me whenever you drank."
"He lied."
"You said my name once."
"When?"
"After the blindfold came off."
"Because I was looking at you."
"You sounded like you missed me."
"I sounded horrified."
The exchange is almost absurd, except a woman built a fantasy from the shape of my husband's mouth around her name, and he gave her those seconds to support it.
"And you believed him?" Caleb asks.
"I believed you settled for second best after I left."
"You were wrong."
"Were you thinking about Dahlia during the kiss?”
“Only when I thought it was her. Otherwise, absolutely not..”
I close my eyes.
Caleb continues before Sable can enjoy it.
"That is why I will regret them for the rest of my life. I was thinking about my ego. About being wanted by the woman who rejected me. I let that matter way more than the woman waiting for me at home, and for that I will always be sorry.”
"You make it sound tragic."
"It was pathetic."
"You still felt something."
"Shame."
"Afterward."
"Yes. Afterward. I cannot change the order."
Sable's amusement disappears.
Caleb tells her never to contact either of us again. Sable accuses him of performing remorse for Ivy. Caleb says he would repeat every word in an empty room.
Then Sable asks the question I am afraid to hear answered.
"If Dahlia divorces you, will you come back to me?"
"No."
"You didn't even think about it."
"I have done enough thinking too late."
The recording ends with Caleb leaving money for the untouched drinks and asking Ivy whether Dahlia is eating.
Ivy returns to the apartment thirty minutes after I finish listening. She places her purse on the table and studies me.
"Well?"
"He kept Sable's ring."
"Before he really knew you."
"You knew about it?”
"He told me after you called him."
"Everybody always knows five minutes before I do."
"That is not fair."
"Neither is any of this."
Ivy sits opposite me. "Do you want to know what happened after the recording?"
"There is more?"
"Sable followed him outside. She told him the kiss could be the beginning of something if he stopped humiliating himself for you."
My fingernails dig into my palms. "What did he say?"
"Nothing. He got in his car and left."
"Why isn't that on the recording?"
"Because the meeting was over. I saw it from the window."
"Did he look at her?"
"Yes, Dahlia. Human eyes do that."
"Did he look tempted?"
Ivy's expression softens. "He looked tired."
"That isn't an answer."
"It is the only honest one. I cannot measure his temptation by the angle of his eyebrows. At some point, you will have to decide whether his actions are enough."
"He asked whether I was eating."
"You are not."
"That is not the point."
"It is a point. I brought soup."
She goes to the kitchen. I follow and finally tell her the thought I have been too ashamed to speak.
"I wanted him to lie in the recording."
"About what?"
"Thinking about me. I wanted him to say I was in his mind every second, even if it was impossible."
Ivy sets down the container. "Maybe the truth is better."
"It hurts more."
"Better often does."
I sit alone in my old bedroom with my ring box in my lap.
The truth does not absolve him. It confirms the betrayal with painful precision.
It also confirms that when Sable offered him another chance, he did not need three seconds to choose.