Page 52 of Little Gray Dress

“Puh-lease. You can’t prove I did any of that. You’re just bad luck… always have been.”

Amelia’s glare towards Greta makes even me shiver in fear. “Maybe we contact the spray tan employee and ask her? Surely that would prove your innocence, right, Greta?”

We all watch Greta open her mouth to speak, then suddenly decide against it.

Liam steps up beside me. “Greta, I do find it unusual that everything Emi just mentioned are the very same things you asked me about just before we walked down the aisle. Why did you care, if you had nothing to do with it?”

“Did you do these things?” Amelia asks her.

Greta quickly shakes her head in denial, but the glistening of sweat on her forehead isn’t the physical reaction of someone who is innocent. I know that from watching too many who-done-it TV shows.

“Fine, OK? I may have had something to do with them, but you totally deserve it. Look what you do to Jack when he’s around you. He hasn’t been the same since you got here. He’s miserable.”

We all look to Jack, who right this second looks less like someone miserable and more like a deer caught in the headlights. But I have seen the misery across his face. I might think it was me causing his misery if his entire attitude hadn’t changed today. In the last twelve hours, though, I haven’t seen him completely miserable at all. Up until right this moment I’ve seen traces of the Jack I once loved.

“How could you do this?” I ask her, my mind trying to understand how a person could be so evil. “I’ve never done anything to you.”

Amelia takes the center of the group. “Greta, there is something I’ve wondered about quite often these last few months.” Her arms are crossed in front of her and her pacing between us is more than nerve-wracking. “There was a story a friend of mine brought to my attention at your and Jack’s engagement party. And I’d like to get a straight answer from you on this.”

“Mom, don’t get involved.”

“This involves you too, Jack. I would think it would be of importance to you.”

Jack’s eyes widen.

“Elsie Graham, the mother of a girl called Madison Graham, told me a story I couldn’t quite believe at the time,” Amelia continues. Greta sucks in her breath and suddenly looks completely terrified, unsure where to run. “You are friends with Madison Graham, am I right?”

“Not really.” Greta shakes her head continuously.

Amelia frowns at Greta. “Maybe you’re not close any longer, but you were close a couple of years ago, correct?”

Greta is still shaking her head. “I wouldn’t say close, I knew of her.”

“You knew ‘of her’ enough to send her in Jack’s direction when he was looking for a new assistant?” This time, Greta doesn’t answer and just shrugs her shoulders.

“Wait a minute…” Jack interrupts. “Madison Graham, my former assistant? That Madison?”

“Yes.” Amelia nods her head and glances back at me. “This would be the same Madison.” Amelia sighs heavily and walks over to speak to Greta face to face. “I’m going to give you one chance to tell the truth. If you don’t, I will make sure you never fit in my crowd again.”

“You can’t do that,” Greta says, with a haughty look on her face. “I was already in that crowd without you.”

“Go on then, let’s hear the truth – or I’ll tell the story Elsie filled me in on.”

Everyone’s head turns to Greta, who immediately looks to the ground before grabbing Jack’s hand in hers.

“It’s nothing, really. I just… uh… That first time I met you, at the Christmas party, remember?”

Jack nods his head before subtly side-eyeing me. The misery Greta mentioned earlier is now unmistakably present. It’s her. She’s been causing it. He doesn’t want to be with her.

“I… uh… I couldn’t quit thinking about you, and you wouldn’t answer my calls, so I… I heard that you needed an assistant and my fr— a girl I knew from college was looking for a job. I thought she’d be a great fit so I sent her your way.” She shrugs her shoulders as if that’s the end of the story, but Amelia clears her throat and Greta sighs again. “I asked her to bring me up to you and get your reaction, but it didn’t faze you because of her.” Greta glares at me.

“Yes,” Jack says with a nod. Again our eyes meet momentarily.

“Go on.” Amelia says.

“So, I came up with a plan.” Greta is speaking in almost a whisper at this point.

“What plan?” I ask her.

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