Chapter 16
CHAPTER
Lucinda
The Present
I FELT TENSE FROM the argument with Rhett. I was tired of dancing around the things we really wanted to say. We liked to pretend we were completely honest with each other, but our entire marriage was based on lies and deception.
I had thought that after everything that happened with Jenn, he would remember that he wanted to be with me. He would see that I was committed to him no matter what.
Rhett had made a joke of our marriage from day one, embarrassing me with his infidelity and lies. Though maybe I was responsible for my humiliation by staying with him.
A wandering eye never stayed home and I knew, deep in my heart, that Rhett could never really be trusted.
I had been so stupidly in love with a man that only loved himself.
Yet, I continued to pray that my faith in him wasn’t misguided. And every day it became harder and harder to breathe.
I sat on a park bench, watching families spending time together in the spring sunshine.
Fathers and mothers and their broods of happy, contented children.
It’s all I had ever wanted. I had worked so hard to craft the kind of life others would be envious of.
A well-kept house, a pretty little girl in pretty little dresses, a seemingly doting husband who bent over backward to make me happy.
I had protected that image with claws and teeth.
That Rhett could so cavalierly destroy what I had worked, and paid for, with my pride, had me seeing a violent shade of red.
“Hey there, little rabbit.” I felt his warm breath on the back of my neck but made sure not to react to his proximity.
Marty sat down on the bench beside me. Luckily, the park was almost empty. It was the middle of the day, so most kids were in their classrooms and parents were at work or enjoying their few hours of freedom.
Marty stretched out his long legs, crossing them at the ankles. He pulled out a pack of Lucky Strikes and held it out for me to take one. I didn’t bother pretending I didn’t smoke with a guy like Marty Richards. He knew better.
He lit my cigarette with his Zippo and watched as I took a long drag, his eyes heating as he drank me in.
We hadn’t seen each other in fifteen years, even though we had stayed on each other’s radar the entire time.
“What are you doing here?” I demanded.
“I’ve been called to testify, remember?”
“The preliminary hearing isn’t until next week.”
“Thought I’d catch up with some old friends in the meantime,” Marty said, lighting his own cigarette.
“You called Rhett.” I should have known Marty wouldn’t be able to help himself.
His jaw tensed at the mention of my husband. “We have things to talk about. But don’t worry your silly head about it. It’s man stuff.”
I turned to look at my own dirty little secret. I flicked the lit cigarette onto the ground. “You may talk like that to every other woman you know, but you know damn well you won’t talk to me like that.”
We stared at each other for a long minute. Marty clenched his teeth and flared his nostrils. He was a man used to treating women like they were beneath him, but he never dared treat me that way. I had set a precedent early on and, surprisingly, he had listened.
Predictably, Marty settled down, keeping whatever vile comments he was thinking to himself. He sat back, staring out across the field. “Maybe Rhett shouldn’t be the only one worryin’.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Marty’s grin was full of malicious joy. “Because with my testimony everyone will know your alibi was bullshit.”
My body tensed.
Marty still wouldn’t look at me. “You and I both know Rhett wasn’t with you that night, and now the police know it too. Because I was there. I saw what he did.”
I didn’t bother to argue because he was the one person still alive that would know that.
“I thought I was doing the right thing.” That was the only excuse I could give.
I knew it looked bad that I had lied.
Because Rhett wasn’t the only one police should have been looking at. Everyone in town knew that I had been angry enough at Jenn to kill.
“Sure, sure.” Marty pulled out another cigarette and lit it.
“Is that why you want to talk to him? To discuss our bullshit alibis? Because that has nothing to do with you.”
“Among other things,” he murmured, flicking ash on the ground.
“What other things?”
This time Marty did look at me, and I couldn’t help but stare at the ugly scar that was so prominent on his face. I often wondered how he got it.
“Stay away from Rhett. It will accomplish nothing talking to him now.”
Marty frowned. “Maybe this isn’t about Rhett.”
It was a shame that such a handsome face hid such a black heart. “Who is it about, then?”
Marty met my eyes, and I felt the earth tilt underneath me. I, of course, already knew the answer.
He hesitated and took a deep breath, looking oddly vulnerable.
“It’s about Jenn.”
The Past
July 4th Weekend—
Fifteen Years Ago
The field was packed with practically everyone I had graduated with. That was why I didn’t want to go to Jeremy Major’s field party. I loved my small town, but that didn’t mean I wanted to socialize with them all the time.
I told Rhett I didn’t plan to come, which he accepted a little too easily. Normally, he’d at least try to talk me into it.
But not this time.
I knew something was off, but it was further proven as soon as I arrived at the party.
I kept my eyes peeled for Rhett, who should have been there by now.
“Lucy, I didn’t know you were coming!” Bethany Strummond, a girl I played field hockey with in high school, gave me a too-wide smile.
She turned to MaryBeth Rutz, who I had known since preschool. “What a surprise, right, MaryBeth?”
MaryBeth smirked, drinking from her can of Smirnoff Ice. “Such a surprise.” There was something in her tone I didn’t like. I also didn’t like the way they seemed to be laughing at a joke I didn’t understand.
“I’m looking for Rhett. Have you seen him?
” I asked, losing patience. MaryBeth had never liked me.
I had won every pageant and every school contest, including Homecoming Queen, and she was always the runner-up.
She had even tried to start a fight with me after our first Young Miss Fern River Fair pageant.
She ended up with a black eye for her efforts, while I went home with the crown.
MaryBeth and Bethany were openly laughing now. “Oh, he’s here somewhere,” Bethany said. She looked around and then pointed to the bonfire. “Wait a minute. There he is.”
I followed the direction of her finger and finally saw my fiancé. “Thanks—” I started to say but then realized why they were so amused.
Rhett wasn’t alone.
A pretty redhead stood beside him, her hand on his arm, his on the small of her back. Rhett was talking to Jeremy, Caleb, and Alison, but I noticed how close he was standing to the girl. They looked like a couple.
I felt the world stop spinning. Because I recognized her. It was the girl from that day at the ice cream stand. My gut had told me then that I needed to take note of her. That there was something in the way Rhett looked at her.
I had known for months something was going on with him. He had become harder to get a hold of. He was always busy or blew me off entirely. And he was constantly looking at his phone. He never had much interest in wedding planning, but lately, he didn’t bother to help at all.
And he had become angry and cruel at times.
He had called me a bitch and never apologized for it.
He made a habit of hurting my feelings with his callous disregard, and I didn’t know if I should forgive him or hold him accountable.
At some point I lost my ability to navigate our relationship.
It felt like I was walking on eggshells, not knowing what he was thinking or what he planned to do.
He was always up at Jagged Point, and I convinced myself he simply needed the space and time to think. I knew he was under a lot of pressure. He even brought up changing majors, claiming the law wasn’t for him.
And I supported him. I went to my dad and told him that Rhett didn’t want to be a lawyer, but a damn math teacher.
Dad was understandably angry given the financial outlay he had already invested in Rhett pursuing the law and going into practice with him.
But in the end, Dad respected that I wanted my husband-to-be to be happy, so he backed off.
I bent over backward to accommodate his wishes for the wedding as well. I tried so hard to be a kind and considerate partner, the opposite of how my mother was, and this was what I got?
I could hear Bethany and MaryBeth snickering behind me as I watched Rhett lean toward the girl and whisper something in her ear. She looked up at him, her face flushed, and I could tell, even from that distance, that she loved him. It was written all over her stupid, pretty face.
I wanted to run both of them over with my car.
“How nice of Rhett to show our new friend around. He said he’d be bringing her tonight,” I said hoarsely, the lies slicing my tongue.
“Your new friend?” MaryBeth asked skeptically.
“Of course. You know Rhett, he’s such a sweetheart. Didn’t want the new girl in town to be all on her own. The three of us hang out all the time.” I breezily waved my hand, never taking my eyes off the two people lost in each other.
“Well, you better go let them know you’re here, then,” Bethany remarked sweetly. Too sweetly.
“I think you’re right. Bye, ladies.” I wiggled my fingers at them and sashayed over to the bonfire, with barely suppressed rage in every step.
Rhett noticed me first. He glanced up and blinked. Then blinked again as if his eyes were playing tricks on him. His hand was still on the girl’s back. She was still plastered to his side like a barnacle.
“Hi, Rhett.”