Chapter 6 - Serena's Version
I met Serena that afternoon in a café twenty miles from my house.
Nora came with me.
Serena arrived wearing jeans, a gray sweater, and no makeup.
She did not look like the glamorous villain my imagination had tried to create from Gabriel’s photographs.
She looked exhausted.
David had already asked her to leave their house.
There was a pale mark where her wedding ring had been.
“I am not asking you to forgive me.”
She said it before sitting down.
“Good.”
She swallowed.
“I deserve that.”
I placed my phone on the table and began recording after she agreed.
“When did it begin?”
“December.”
“How?”
“Andrew’s company supplied materials for one of the commercial properties I finance.”
“Did you know he was married?”
“Yes.”
The directness hurt more than an excuse would have.
“He told me you were separated emotionally.”
“That is meaningless.”
“I understand that now.”
“You understood what marriage meant then.”
Serena lowered her eyes.
“Yes.”
For several minutes, she described the affair.
Hotel lunches became dinners.
Dinners became weekends.
Andrew told her I refused to divorce because I wanted his money.
The irony almost made Nora choke.
Andrew told Serena the lake cottage belonged to him.
He told her the Rochester house had been purchased with money from his father.
He told her Lorraine lived with us because I had mistreated her.
He had built an entire marriage in which I played the villain.
Then Serena showed me the message that mattered most.
Three weeks earlier, Andrew had written.
Mom says Claire is almost at breaking point.
Serena replied.
What are you doing to her?
Andrew answered.
Nothing.
Mom is just making home less comfortable.
Serena had sent a laughing emoji.
She cried when she showed it to me.
“I thought he meant nagging.”
I looked at her.
“That does not make it better.”
“I know.”
Another message followed.
If she walks out first, I have leverage.
Nora immediately photographed the screen.
“Do you still have the original messages?”
“All of them.”
“Do not delete anything.”
Serena nodded.
I continued scrolling.
Then I found the day before my birthday.
Andrew had written.
Tomorrow might finally do it.
Serena replied.
On her birthday?
Andrew answered.
Mom picked the timing.
My heart began pounding.
I pictured Lorraine carrying the iron pot upstairs.
Not grabbing it in anger.
Carrying it.
She had brought the object into my bedroom.
She had arrived already armed with something heavy enough to fracture bone.
I looked at Serena.
“Did he tell you what his mother planned?”
“No.”
“Did you ask?”
“I told him it was cruel.”
“What did he say?”
Serena opened another message.
You don’t know Claire.
She needs a hard push or she never moves.
The café became silent around me.
At least, it felt silent.
Nora placed a hand over the phone.
“We are done for today.”
“No.”
I looked at Serena.
“I want everything.”
Serena hesitated.
“There are voice messages too.”
“Send them.”
“One mentions the house.”
My chest tightened.
She played it.
Andrew’s voice came through the speaker.
“Once Claire is out for a few weeks, I can make the separation feel permanent.”
Then he laughed.
“And if Mom does this right, Claire will be the one begging to leave me.”
The recording ended.
I thought that was the worst thing I would hear.
Serena stared at the table.
“There is another one.”
I looked at her.
May you like
Her eyes filled with fear.
“This one came after Lorraine threw the pot.”
