Chapter 14 - HIS LAST CHANCE TO TELL THE TRUTH
At 11:47 the next morning, Michael called.
I answered because I knew what noon meant.
“You put my mother against me.”
“No.”
“My sister won't speak to me.”
“That isn't my decision.”
“Derek says he's done covering for me.”
I looked through the window of Dana's apartment at the traffic moving along Banksville Road.
“Also not my decision.”
His breathing changed.
“You've always done this.”
“Done what?”
“Acted calm while making everyone else look crazy.”
I almost argued.
Then I understood there was nothing left to win inside that conversation.
“Michael, your mother asked you to correct the family chat.”
“I'm not humiliating myself for you.”
“You humiliated me to protect yourself.”
“I was trying to protect our marriage.”
“No. You were trying to protect your access to my house.”
He didn't deny it.
Instead he said, “If I post anything, it makes me look like I staged the whole thing.”
“You did.”
“I didn't tell Mom to assault you.”
“You told her I'd agreed.”
“I thought you'd get over it.”
“You told Susan to keep filming if I reacted.”
Silence.
Then his voice softened.
The old Michael voice.
The one he'd used when asking me to marry him.
“Rebecca, please. I screwed up. I know that. Just don't destroy my family over this.”
There it was again.
His family.
His reputation.
His debt.
His fear.
Never what waking up under freezing water had done to me.
Never what it meant to discover your husband had spent months manufacturing a version of you behind your back.
Never why I had slept with Dana's bedroom door locked for the first three nights even though I knew Michael wasn't there.
“What do you want from me?” I asked.
“Withdraw everything. Help me pay Derek. Tell Mom we're handling it privately.”
“And the video?”
“I'll delete it.”
“What about the people who already saw the edited version?”
Another silence.
I looked at the clock.
11:58.
“Michael, you have two minutes to tell them yourself.”
“Or what?”
“Or I stop helping you hide from consequences.”
“No decent wife does this.”
I looked at my wedding ring sitting beside Dana's coffee maker.
“No decent husband spends his first morning married trying to create evidence against his wife.”
The clock changed.
12:00.
May you like
Michael said my name.
I ended the call.
