The Truth About Ever After (24 page)

“Kiki,
I’m so sorry,” he said the moment the front door shut.

“I
don’t want to talk about this here.” I walked quickly to my car, hoping he
would get the hint and not follow me, but of course he did.

“Please,
I know you’re upset. I don’t want you driving when you’re upset.”

I
spun around, my control suddenly gone. “Oh, really? That’s funny. I was pretty
damn upset this afternoon when I had to leave the shower I spent weeks planning
for half an hour to go do the thing you had promised me you would do.” He
winced. “And I was pretty upset when I didn’t hear from you all day and had to
drive over to your brother’s by myself.”

“Kiki,
I am so sorry. I was stuck in conference calls all morning. It was so crazy
there it just slipped my mind.”

I
stared at him. “Great excuse. I’m so glad I gave you the chance to explain.”

“What
else can I say? I’m so sorry. It will never happen again.”

I
turned to my car, the will to fight gone. “Can I please just go home? I’m so
tired.”

“I’m
driving you,” he said firmly. “We can come back for my car tomorrow.”

“No,
thanks. I’d rather have some time to myself.”

“Kiki—”

Before
he could say anything else I was climbing into my car, slamming the door and
leaving him standing alone in the street.

Chapter Twenty-four

“Mrs.
Thompson?” Barbara’s voice called over the intercom. My stomach dropped.
Please not Sarah, not again
. I’d already
talked to her a dozen times that day and I didn’t think I had the patience for
another conversation about her views on the ineptitude of everyone in the
service industry. “I have Mrs.
Gillingham
on the
phone,” Barbara continued. I felt a wave of relief. Kara.
 

“Put
her through, please. Thanks.”

“
Kiks
?” Kara said, then immediately burst into tears.

“Kara,
what’s wrong?”

“Trevor
is cheating on me.”

My
body went cold. “Oh, my God,” I whispered. “Are you sure? What the hell happened?”

Kara
was crying so hard I couldn’t even understand her. “
Kar
,
you need to calm down,” I said firmly. “Take deep breaths.”

“She’s
twenty-two,” she sobbed. “Twenty-two, Kiki!”

“Who
is she?” I asked, my shock slowing turning to rage. I would
kill
him. “What the hell happened?”

“He’s
been working late every night,” Kara said. “And sometimes he won’t come home at
all. He says he sleeps in the office. I’ve been feeling suspicious for weeks,
but I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. But we… we… we haven’t made love
in two months.” Her voice broke and I closed my eyes.
God,
poor Kara.

“He
didn’t come home last night so I kept calling the office, over and over again,
and there was no answer. He wasn’t there.” She was sobbing again and I waited,
letting her get it out. Eventually she went on. “Something just snapped in me
and I decided to go over there this morning to confront him.” In spite of my
horror, I felt impressed. Good for her. “And he wasn’t there, of course. He
strolled in about twenty minutes later with some intern, both looking so smug I
just wanted to kill him.”

“What
did he say?”

“He
denied it at first. Said it’d been a late night so they’d gone out for
breakfast.”

“Well,
maybe they did.”

“
Kiks
, his secretary had already told me he hadn’t been
there since last night.”

“Jesus.”

“So
he finally admitted it. He was crying and begging me to forgive him but… God,
what the hell am I
gonna
do?”

“Come
home,” I said immediately. “Get on the next plane and get your ass back here.
Let him see what he’s missing while you spend time with your family.”

On
the other end of the phone Kara laughed bitterly. “I thought that too, but I’m
too scared. What if I leave and he realizes he doesn’t care? What if he spends
the whole time screwing her in my house?”

Dear
God. “Then you would know for sure he was no good and you would leave his ass
for good.”

“I
can’t do that, Kiki. What would I do for money?”

I
couldn’t believe what she was saying. I literally held the phone out in front
of my face to stare at it. “
Kar
, who cares about
money?” I asked, flabbergasted. “You can’t stay with someone who would treat
you like that.”

“My
parents wouldn’t help me,” she said, her voice flat. “My mom already told me
she wouldn’t support my scandal. That’s what she called it—a scandal. She
said it was better to work things out than cause a scene.”

 
“She said that to you?”

“Kiki,
you know it’s how they all think. Half the women at the club have husbands with
mistresses.
God, probably way more than half.
The men
make the money and the women pay them back by letting them get away with anything.”
She was crying again. “I have nothing of my own, Kiki. I went straight from my
parents’ to my husband’s house. I’ve never earned a living. I’ve never lived
alone. I’m twenty-eight years old, and I can’t even take care of myself.”

“I
could help you,” I whispered, sickened by her situation. How hopelessly
impotent she must feel.

Kara
sighed. “What’s the point? This is my life,
Kiks
.
It’s what I signed up for.”

I
hung up fifteen minutes later feeling shaken to my core. I couldn’t believe
that Kara was going through this.
And so far away from home.
I felt a fresh swelling of rage at Trevor. He had taken her all the way to New
York, away from her home and her friends. She had given up her whole life, been
supportive, had followed him for his career, and this was how he repaid her. I
couldn’t believe it. And she was seriously going to stay with him!

I
had always known I was different from Kara. She had been born into major
wealth, had never known anything except private schools and the most
prestigious country club in the state. She would probably never have been
friends
with me and my new money if it wasn’t for the fact
that her father’s business had gone through a serious scandal right before I
transferred to her school. Bankruptcy and possible jail time were looming, and
the other girls, led by Sarah, were making her life miserable.

A
natural alliance was formed between the two of us; I was an outsider and she
was dangerously on the edge of becoming one herself. By the time we got to high
school, the business issues had resolved themselves, and some of the other kids
had finally started to accept me—or, at least, were impressed enough by
my dad’s growing fortune to pretend. Though Kara and I were both more accepted
by the popular kids, we stuck by each other.

It
was the basis of our relationship, those years of sticking together in the face
of Sarah’s cruelty disguised as friendship. In all honesty, we didn’t have a
whole lot in common. Sure, we both loved shopping and fashion and having a good
time, but it was hard to get Kara interested in more than that. She wasn’t
shallow, not exactly; she just didn’t worry too much about things outside her
direct sphere of reference.

Though
I sometimes lamented the fact that we didn’t have quite the relationship Jen
had with the girls, Kara
was
my
oldest and closest friend, and I doubted that could ever change. But the
unavoidable truth was that we were different. And her acceptance of Trevor’s
affair only put that into harsh perspective.

I
was suddenly struck with the urge to talk to Eric. Things had been so strained
for us in the weeks since the shower—long before that, really. But I
loved him as much as I ever had, and it terrified me to think of losing him the
way Kara was losing her husband. I would never let that happen.

No
sooner had I reached for my cell phone than it started to ring. I looked down
at the screen and saw Jen’s name. She’d been out of the office all day, first
at a doctor’s appointment and then lunch with Matt. I wondered if she was actually
going to partake in the very un-Jen-like act of playing hooky for the rest of
the day.

“Hi,
Jen.”

“Kiki?”

Something
about the tone of her voice made me sit up straight, all worries about Kara and
Eric wiped from my mind. “What’s the matter?”

Jen
sighed. “I have a problem.”

“Where
are you?” I demanded, standing up and grabbing my purse.

“I’m
at home,” she said. “But you don’t have to—”

“I’m
on my way.”

Twenty
minutes later I was barging through the front door of Jen and Matt’s house.
“Jen?” I called out. “You here?”

“In
the bedroom,” a man’s voice called from upstairs. Matt.

I
took the stairs two at a time, arriving in their bedroom out of
breath
. “What’s the matter?” I panted.

Jen
was lying in bed, propped up on a pile of pillows, Matt hovering at her side.
She gave me a sheepish smile. “My appointment didn’t go so well today.”

“The
baby?” I whispered, my stomach dropping. In that moment every bitter, jealous,
self-centered thought I’d had about Jen’s pregnancy melted away. This baby was
my family—it had to be okay, it just had to.

“The
baby’s okay,” Jen said quickly, holding up her hands. “But my blood pressure is
high—like, really high. The doctor said I have pre-
eclampsia
.”
My mind flashed back to chapter three of the baby book: Complications.
Premature birth.

“He
said it hasn’t reached the danger stage yet,” Jen said. “He’s not concerned
about having to deliver early or anything. But it does mean I’m stuck right
here for the foreseeable future.” She waved her hands at the bed. “He put me on
bed rest.”

I
collapsed on the side of the bed, putting a shaking hand to my chest. “Oh,
thank God,” I whispered.

“
Kiks
, are you okay?” The concern was clear in Jen’s voice,
and I wondered briefly what my face looked like.

“I
thought you lost the baby,” I said, struggling to control the shaking of my
voice. Suddenly, I knew I was going to cry. Jen must have sensed I was on the
verge of losing it because I saw her look up at Matt and gesture to the door.

“I’ll
leave you guys alone,” he said quietly. As he passed me, he ran a hand gently
across my shoulder. The kindness of that gesture pushed me over the edge. I
couldn’t hold back the tears any longer.

“Kiki,
what is it?” Jen cried, reaching for my arm. I just shook my head, the sobs
coming even harder. “I’m okay,
Kiks
,” she said, her
voice softer. “And the baby is
gonna
be okay, too.
She’s getting bigger and stronger every day. We just need to keep her safe and
warm inside for a few more months.”

It
took a moment for her words to register. “She?” I whispered, raising my face to
stare at Jen. “It’s a she?”

Jen
nodded, smiling happily. “We found out today. We weren’t going to, you know,
but after all the scariness today we decided we just wanted to know, so we
would have something to be excited about. I’m having a girl.”

“Oh,
Jen.”

She
patted the bed next to her and I scooted up, stretching out next to her and
laying my head on the pillow at her side. Jen brushed some hair off my face
before handing me a tissue from the night table beside her. I wiped my eyes and
nose and she smiled. “Better?”

I
nodded, starting to feel embarrassed. “Sorry, Jen.”

“Kiki,
what’s the matter?” she asked, her voice soft. “You haven’t really been
yourself lately. Not since I told you about the baby. I actually was starting
to think you were mad at me, or maybe… I don’t know. Jealous, I guess.”

“Oh,
Jen,” I said. “Of course I’m not mad at you!
Or jealous.
I am so, so excited about this baby.” I rested my hand on her belly, feeling a
rush of relief that she was okay. The whole way over from the office I had been
so scared.

“Then
what is it?” she asked. “And please don’t tell me ‘nothing.’ You’re my sister.
I can tell when something is not okay with you.”

For
the first time since finding out about her pregnancy, I was suddenly struck
with the urge to tell Jen. I had been keeping it in for so long, wanting to
protect her and keep her from feeling bad, but all that had gotten me was her
thinking I was mad at her.
A lot of good that did.
Jen
was right. She was my sister. And I needed her.

“Jen,
I had a miscarriage,” I whispered, closing my eyes. Even after all these
months, the words still hurt to say out loud.

Jen
gasped, and I couldn’t bear to open my eyes to look at her. I immediately
regretted telling her, wondered if it was even safe for me to do so, what with
the high blood pressure. Could I be making things worse? “I’m so sorry to tell
you right now, after the day you had,” I continued. “Please, don’t get upset,
okay?”