Chapter 8 - Why Rachel Wanted the Marriage Dead
The police found Rachel before midnight.
She was at Maya’s mother’s house.
When detectives questioned her, she denied everything.
The transfer was “for consulting.”
The anonymous account was “fake.”
The photograph from Napa was “a coincidence.”
But Maya knew her sister’s face.
Rachel always lifted one eyebrow when she lied.
She was doing it now.
They sat across from each other in a small interview room while Evan waited outside.
“You followed my husband to Napa,” Maya said.
Rachel crossed her arms.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“By helping him cheat on me?”
“I didn’t make him cheat.”
The words cut because they were true.
Maya leaned forward.
“Why?”
Rachel looked away.
“Because you never leave anything until it destroys you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Evan was already lying. I found messages months ago.”
Maya’s anger wavered.
“You found them how?”
“Lily borrowed his tablet at Mom’s house. A message popped up.”
Maya felt sick.
Rachel continued, “I thought if I pushed him toward the edge, you would finally see him.”
“You used my husband like a trap?”
“I gave him opportunities. He made choices.”
“And Lily?”
Rachel’s face changed.
“I didn’t know Lily was sick.”
“You went to the hospital.”
“Yes.”
“You touched her backpack.”
Rachel’s eyes filled with tears.
“I was looking for the letter.”
“Why?”
“Because Lily wrote something in it about Evan’s trip.”
Maya stared.
Rachel whispered, “She overheard him before he left.”
Evan, outside the room, had been listening through the partly open door.
He stepped in.
“What did she hear?”
Rachel’s face hardened when she saw him.
“You telling Ava you wished you could disappear from your family for a week.”
Evan looked like he had been hit.
Maya stood.
“What did Lily write?”
Rachel wiped her face.
“I don’t know. I never found the letter.”
“Then who took it?”
Rachel hesitated.
Maya slammed her hand on the table.
“Who?”
Rachel whispered, “I saw someone else in the waiting room.”
“Who?”
“Evan’s mother.”
Silence.
Evan’s face emptied.
“My mother was in Boston.”
Rachel shook her head.
“No. She was at St. Matthew’s.”
Maya remembered something then.
At 4:40 a.m., while Lily’s machines screamed and doctors rushed around her bed, Maya had received a text from her mother-in-law, Diane.
Thinking of you. I’m sure Lily will be fine.
Maya had assumed Rachel told her.
Now she realized the message had arrived before Maya told anyone Lily had crashed.
May you like
And suddenly the person who knew too much was not Rachel.
It was Diane Hale.
