Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Icall Caleb from the car.
"Did you ask Sable to meet you?"
He hears the answer I want and gives me the truth instead.
"Yes."
"You said she was never supposed to contact you again."
"The meeting happened before that. Ivy was there. You heard the recording."
"She says you contacted her again."
"I didn't."
"She sent a screenshot."
"Send it to me."
"Why? So you can tell me which part is edited?"
"So I can see what she is using."
I forward the image. A message from Caleb reads: We need to finish what happened between us. Come to the house at seven.
His name and photograph appear at the top.
"That isn't mine," he says.
"It looks like yours."
"I am at the house. Come here. Bring Ivy."
"Why are you there?"
"Because Sable is outside. She has been ringing the bell for twenty minutes."
My hands tighten around the steering wheel.
"Do not let her in."
"I won't."
"Do not speak to her alone."
"I haven't opened the door."
"I'm coming."
Ivy meets me there. Sable's car is parked at the curb, but Sable is on the porch, pounding on the front door.
"Caleb, I know you're inside."
I start recording before we get out.
Sable turns as we approach. She is wearing a cream coat and red heels, dressed for a seduction nobody invited.
"Of course," she says. "He called his witnesses."
"You sent me a fake message," I say.
"Ask him to show you his phone."
The door opens.
Caleb stands inside but does not step onto the porch. He holds his unlocked phone out to me.
I search his messages. Sable's number is blocked. There is no thread, deleted folder, or recent call.
"She made it up," I say.
Sable looks at Caleb. "Tell her why you really wanted that restaurant meeting."
"To get your admission recorded."
"You wanted to see whether you still felt something."
"No."
"You did when I kissed you."
"Long enough to wreck my marriage. Not long enough to make you part of my future."
Sable steps closer. "Dahlia will never trust you again. Every time your phone rings, she will wonder. Every time you go out with friends, she will see me on your lap. I already know the worst thing about you, and I still want you."
Caleb does not look at me.
"You don't know the worst thing about me," he says. "You know the weakest thing I did. Dahlia knows everything else."
"She left you."
"She had every right."
"And if she divorces you?"
"I will be divorced."
"You could have me."
"I don't want you."
Sable's face hardens. "You wanted me that night."
"You aren't the woman I almost chose. You are the mistake I made while I was already committed to the woman I chose."
The words land across all four of us.
Sable turns on me. "He will resent this. He will grovel until you take him back, and then every rule you make will choke him. Men like Caleb do not stay on their knees."
"You seem very interested in where my husband puts his knees," I say.
Her eyes narrow. "At least I know what he is like when you aren't watching."
"No. You know what he was like during the weakest moment you could manufacture. That is the closest you have been to him in six years, and you keep replaying it because it is all you have."
"It was enough to make you leave."
"I left because he lied. You are not powerful enough to end my marriage by yourself."
Caleb says my name from the doorway.
I do not look at him.
Sable smiles. "Then take him back. Prove me wrong."
"I do not make decisions for your entertainment."
"You made sure everyone saw your heartbreak."
"Jeremy did that. You helped."
"He told me Caleb wanted one last night with the woman he never got over."
"And you believed a man who had to blindfold Caleb and lie about who you were?"
The blow lands. Sable's face tightens.
"If Caleb wanted you," I continue, "Jeremy could have sent him your address. Instead, he needed darkness, alcohol, and my name. Think about what that says."
For the first time, Sable looks ashamed.
It lasts less than a second. Then she turns that shame into anger and points toward Caleb.
"He still kissed me."
"Yes," I say. "And he may lose me for it. But you do not get to confuse the damage you caused with being desired."
Ivy steps between us. "You should leave before I help you down the stairs."
"This has nothing to do with you."
"You involved me when you put my sister's name in your mouth."
Sable looks toward Caleb one final time.
He closes the door.
Through the window, I watch her reach the sidewalk. She stops beside her car and looks back at the house.
For years, that house represented the life Caleb built after her. She must have imagined herself inside it when Jeremy called. Perhaps she believed one kiss would reverse time.
I understand the temptation more than I want to. I have spent every day since Maui wanting to reverse time too.
The difference is that I am not willing to steal another woman's place to do it.
"Do you feel sorry for her?" Caleb asks behind me.
"A little."
"I don't."
"You might someday."
"Maybe. It still doesn't mean she gets back inside this house."
Outside, Ivy waits until Sable gets into her car and drives away before coming back up the steps.
I turn to Caleb.
"You didn't hesitate today."
He looks at the closed door. "Do you want me to pretend that deserves praise?"
"No."
"Good, because it doesn't. I should have done it then. I liked that she wanted me, Dahlia. I liked it for a few disgusting seconds, and then I lied to you so I wouldn't have to pay for them. There isn't a better explanation hiding underneath that one."
"I wasn't going to thank you."
"I know."
"And rejecting her now doesn't make us even."
"Nothing makes us even."
The answer is ugly, inadequate, and finally not designed to save him.