Page 128 of Single Mom's Guide to Love

She rolls her eyes at me. Cool. Hard way. Awesome. That’s more fun.

“This first part is me guessing, so please feel free to tell me what I’m wrong about.” I start laying out more of the photos. “You were auditioning for that trash reality show about Nashville housewives, but the producers said that you’d be a more attractive candidate if you were a mom as well as a wife. They were very adamant in their casting calls about having mothers on the show. So you quickly married Josh and stuffed ideas in his head about taking custody of Jayce. And everything was going to plan until I married Logan.”

I stop for a breath and stare at Vivian, who’s sitting with her arms crossed, trying to pretend I’m not spouting the gospel truth.

“After I got married, you got desperate. So you go digging. Somehow, and somewhere, there had to besomethingthat could help you. And like magic, you stumble onto the laptop I gave Josh years ago.”

Josh looks to Vivian, begging her with his eyes to say I’m wrong. I then watch his face fall as she continues to say silent.

“Nothing yet? Cool. I’ll go on.” I lay out the final photos. “From there, you hired someone to manipulate the picture ofLogan and I to make it look like I’m giving Logan a hand job in the middle of a hotel bar.”

“I don’t even know anyone who could do that,” she defends.

“Oh, Vivian, don’t you realize that I’m fairly good with computers?” Logan says. “And I’m rather rich. Put those together, and it’s very easy to find and trace bank records once you know the road to look down. And sometimes, you find things you don’t even know you’re looking for.”

For the first time since we started this conversation, Vivian looks scared.

And Josh looks pissed.

“Vivian…what did you do?”

“Josh…baby…”

“Don’t fucking baby me.”

“They’re lying to you. Don’t believe them.”

“Oh! We’re not done yet,” I say. “There’s more for Josh to not believe. Logan? Care to explain?”

“I’d love to,” he says, putting down a copy of the email he retrieved. “This is the email that was sent out with Maeve’s photos to the gossip blog. And while Vivian did an admirable job on the surface of sending it anonymously, nothing is ever truly anonymous. Because we were able to trace the email to a coffee shop down the road. And, lucky as we may be, there’s security footage of Vivian there at the exact time the email was sent.”

“That’s just a coincidence,” Vivian defends. “That doesn’t prove anything.”

“You’re right,” Logan says. “It doesn’t. But I’m also then wondering why right after the time stamp of that email went out, another anonymous email went to your custody lawyer. And then after that, an email from your personal account went to a producer atReal Lives of Nashville Wivessaying that you’re about to get custody of your stepson and asking if you should film it for them as they reconsider offering you a spot?”

Josh whips his head to Vivian as Logan hands him printouts of everything he just explained. “What the hell is he talking about?”

Oh shit…I mean, I thought all of those emails were pretty damning, but Josh’s reaction has me wondering if Vivian’s been keeping him in the dark about more than my viral topless photos.

“Josh. They’re lying.”

“We had an understanding—you weren’t going to audition for that show.”

“I didn’t think you were serious,” Vivian protests.

“What part was I not clear and serious about? I said that I wasn’t crazy about having our lives on camera. And even if I was, Maeve would never agree?—”

Josh stops mid-sentence. At that moment, it hits all of us what’s going on. It was right there all along.

Jayce is a minor. I’m his primary guardian. For him to be on that show, I would’ve had to sign off on him being on camera. Which Ineverwould’ve done.

But if Josh was primary, and Vivian could eventually convince Josh to do the show, they could bypass me without asking for permission for Jayce to be on it.

“You—God I’m an idiot.” Josh gets up from the couch and starts pacing around the room. “I thought the wedding was quick, but we had talked about it a few times, so I went with it. But the custody thing…now that I’m thinking back…that was all you, Vivian. All you.”

“Should we leave?” Logan whispers to me.

“Absolutely not,” I say. “I’m not missing a second of this.”

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