Epilogue #2
He was disbarred six months ago, his once sterling reputation tarnished forever. He and my mother were actually talking about selling their house and moving out of state.
It seemed everyone was looking for a fresh start, even if it wasn’t the one any of us had planned for.
Perhaps I should feel sorry for my father. He had lost his career. His reputation. His connections. But it was just as well, given what he had done. A person can only circumvent the law so much before karma came to bite you in the ass.
Once I found out Bailey was the one that had killed Jenn, and why, I had been given a choice on how to proceed. But I knew that at the end of the day, my dad, for all his failings, was right. You protected your family at all costs.
That didn’t change the fact that at a young age, she had committed a heinous crime. An innocent woman had lost her life.
Because of Rhett.
Looking back, I realized how he had manipulated and emotionally groomed my sister for years.
He saw in her the same fragile vulnerability that he found so appealing in Jenn.
He made Bailey feel special. He used her need for attention and validation against her to stroke his own ego.
And Bailey, feeling that slip away from her once Jenn came into the picture, acted out in the worst way possible.
What Bailey had done was an awful act born from misguided affection and family loyalty.
She had been twisted, not only by Rhett’s insidiousness, but by my father’s mantra of “family first.” She was young and impressionable with no outlet for an anger that was too often glossed over.
Thankfully now, with years of therapy behind her, she was a healthier person.
But she still held onto her childhood infatuation toward my husband.
I hated that for her. I hoped it would fade eventually.
Loving a man like my husband confined her to a different kind of prison.
Sometimes I wondered if I had made the right decision in letting Rhett take the fall. Maybe Bailey should face the consequences for Jenn’s murder even if she never intended to commit it.
But then I remembered why all this had happened.
Why I had set this thing into motion.
I knew it was the only kind of justice for a man who would never learn his lesson otherwise.
Two Years Ago
The day he came home talking about the new geography teacher at the high school, I knew it was happening again.
“She’s incredibly smart for being so young. You know, she only graduated last year and she’s already enrolled in a master’s program. She wants to be a principal eventually,” Rhett had gushed about Gail Travers.
Then came the extra hours spent at the school supposedly co-chairing the debate club with Gail. Then chaperoning the overnight field trip to Washington, DC. With Gail.
The messages coming through late at night.
I had seen the signs before, so I recognized them.
He invited her to our home for cookouts, let her push our daughter on the swings. He insisted she come along on family outings to the park because she was “new in town and didn’t know anyone.”
God, where had I heard that one before?
Rhett was forever chasing the high only a brand-new love affair could provide. He was a junkie needing his fix, and an adulterous secret kept from his wife was the best drug there was.
And Gail—pretty, naive, butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-her-mouth Gail—thought my ridiculous husband was the most amazing guy ever.
After all, he had taken this poor, lonely girl under his wing and made sure she felt accepted and welcome in Fern River.
He made her feel special and important and she ate it up, not realizing she wasn’t the first he made feel that way.
My husband was a sucker for a pretty face with a sad backstory. Gail was simply a new and slightly curvier version of Jennifer Moore. How long would the honeymoon phase last? Would she eventually show some backbone, and would she pay the price for it?
It was only a matter of time until the bloom fell off the rose, and then Gail would see the monster she had given herself to. Then it would be too late. The trap was set. She would be locked in. Just like I had been. Like Jenn too.
Of course, Rhett could sense my unease. He could see the questioning looks, and he batted off my questions like a tennis pro. A kiss on the forehead to hush his silly wife. A bunch of flowers after a weekend away. A bottle of wine after working late at school. He thought he was so clever.
But it was a text exchange late one night that confirmed my suspicions.
I had been checking his phone for months, but he was either deleting his messages before I saw them, or I was being paranoid.
I should have known better than to doubt my intuition.
Rhett: God, I miss you.
Gail: I miss you too. When can you get away again?
Rhett: I’m rock hard thinking about last weekend. Lucinda is taking McKenzie to her parents’ tomorrow night. I’ll come over then.
Gail: I can’t wait! I bought something special to wear for you.
Rhett: I hope it wasn’t expensive because I’ll be ripping it off with my teeth.
Gail: I bought two.
Decades ago, I would have gone nuclear. I would have blamed Gail for Rhett’s infidelity. But I had learned she wasn’t the problem. The other women were never the problem—Rhett was. After all, he was the one that was married.
Jenn had understood this as well. We had come to a mutual understanding that our issue wasn’t with each other, but with the man in the middle.
Now was the time for careful calculation.
So, I had called the other man that had hurt Jenn. Because he was the only one that could help me now. It was time to use the key to my cell.
I slipped out onto the patio. Rhett was giving McKenzie a bath and then would be reading her a story. It was their daily routine—when he wasn’t fucking Gail, that is.
I found the contact “Rabbit” in my phone and called it.
He answered on the first ring.
“It’s been awhile, Lucy.”
“Marty, do you still have the T-shirt?” I asked.
Marty was silent for a moment. “Of course. And the video. You’ve been paying me handsomely all these years to make sure that I do. Getting that cash is the only reason I didn’t take them to the police myself. Because who can give up such an easy payday?” He laughed, but I didn’t join him.
My insides quivered at what I was about to do.
“It’s time,” was all I said.
“You’re finally ready to put that dog down?” Marty chuckled in disbelief. “I thought this day would never come.”
“I’m tired of him making me look like an idiot.
There’s only so much a woman can take, Marty.
He needs to face the consequences of his actions.
Besides, it’s not like he’s innocent. I’d be doing the world a favor getting a monster like him off the streets.
” I needed to remember this wasn’t about revenge. Well not entirely.
After Jenn’s murder, I thought my problems were over. Jenn’s death had devastated me in many ways. Particularly since I believed my husband was responsible for the crime. My guilt at letting him get away with it had kept me awake at night.
But I had kept my mouth shut in the name of the promises and vows I had stupidly taken.
I was terrified that by admitting what Rhett had done, I would be implicated as well.
I had lied for him. I had crafted an alibi and fed it to the police.
I had perjured myself to keep him free. But the threat of getting in trouble wasn’t enough to stop me.
Because I had been a coward. Even worse, I was an accomplice.
Yet, in the back of my mind, I was able to justify my silence because the evidence was still out there.
Evidence I paid Marty handsomely to hold onto for me.
I didn’t plan to keep it hidden forever.
I told myself, one day, I’d do right by Jenn and hand it over to the police.
She would get her justice. But the more years that went by, the more stuck I became in a marriage I had fought so hard for.
The truth got lost in the need to create the life I wanted.
I knew it was selfish. And morally reprehensible.
But anyone could make questionable choices when they were holding their entire world together with lies and misguided hope.
I shouldn’t have waited until he humiliated me once more to take action. I should have pulled the figurative trigger years ago.
But, better late than never.
So, with Marty’s help, I made sure I always had an insurance plan. He held the keys to my gilded cage.
“He should’ve faced the consequences when he murdered my sister,” Marty barked.
“Marty, we both know why Jenn left home and who she was running from.” I could hear Marty’s heavy breathing in my ear.
I had pissed him off by calling him out.
But I also knew he’d never dare contradict me.
For a man who talked a lot about controlling women, he quickly handed over the reins when nudged.
“That’s not the point,” Marty said. “Rhett is the reason she’s gone. He hurt her. I saw him! He threw her on the ground. He fucking backhanded her like the bastard he is.”
I had always wondered what happened between Jenn and Rhett that night. I remembered her injuries and her admission that Rhett was responsible.
I wasn’t surprised he had hurt her. He wasn’t a stranger to lifting his hand against a woman.
“I’ve trusted you all these years because you said you had a plan for him,” Marty continued, “so I bit my tongue and did as you asked and kept the evidence—and my silence, all the while you played happy family with that asshole. The money helped my patience, of course.”
“He would have gotten off back then, and you know it. I wasn’t ready to admit how horrible he was.
I was blinded by love and covered for him.
Then my father moved heaven and earth to give me what I wanted.
He used his influence to make sure no one ever looked at my husband because I asked him to.
Because I loved him. And stupidly, I thought that keeping him free would allow me to have some semblance of control in my own life.
It’s a shitty excuse, but it’s the only one I have. ”
I could hear my husband laughing through the open window as he spoke to our daughter.
God, I wanted the man to burn.
“Years have shown me what a fool I was to think he was worth any of it.” I paused as I thought about how this would work.
“There’s a judge who hates my father and by extension everyone tied to him.
If he thinks Rhett used his connection to my dad to get away with murder, he’ll throw the book at him. ”
“And how will you make sure Rhett is charged, let alone this judge will be the one handling his case? And how do you make sure a jury will convict him? That’s a lot of unknowns, Lucy.” Marty sounded skeptical.
“My father isn’t the only one with connections, Marty. It would do you well to remember that.”
I pulled out of the prison parking lot, glancing at the imposing building in my rearview mirror, and gave my reflection a small, satisfied smile.
People had always underestimated me.
But in the end, neither Rhett, nor Marty, not even my father, had seen me coming.
None of them had known what I was capable of.
Me or my sister.
I smiled again, thinking of Rhett and Marty rotting in their prison cells. Alone. I was a shadow of the woman I once was. Years of Rhett’s subtle emotional treachery had taken its toll. I had lost myself along the way, but I was determined to find her again.
My smile only faltered when I thought of Jenn. The guilt and sadness at her death would never leave me. Rhett may not have killed her, but his actions had set off a chain of events that had claimed her life. He had hurt her and would have continued to hurt her.
Because men like that didn’t know how to do anything else.
So I did this for her as much as myself.
Rhett doesn’t deserve your loyalty.
Jenn had been right.
I slipped my sunglasses on and wound down the window as I drove back home and to the future I had planned for myself.
THE END