Page 51 of Tomorrow Belongs to Us
I feel for this woman, for what she must be going through. Thankfully the girl is too young to be suspicious. But the wife can clearly see me for who I am.
“Are you Daddy’s friend?” The little girls asks me, then, without waiting for an answer, “What's your name?”
I feel compelled to reply because this child has done nothing. His wife has done nothing to me. I'm the one who has done wrong. Lance even tried to stop me. He did, but I didn’t listen. I forced myself on him.
It’s my fault.
“I'm ... I'm Megan ...” My voice wavers.
The slut.
“Another one of your students?” The woman turns to Lance smiling. But it’s a smile filled with a threat. The question is loaded with something dark and dangerous and in the deepest recesses of my mind I smell danger.
“I was just leaving.” I rush towards the door, then realize I am shoeless. I look around the room.
“What were you doing here in the first place?” His wife’s words are like grenades and I feel like any moment now she’s going to take out the pin and cause an explosion.
“Enough!” Lance bellows, confusing me even more. He is angry when he has no right to be. His wife is calm when she has every right to be furious. This doesn't make sense.
I notice my stilettoes just then. They’re strewn on the floor; one is around the side of the couch and the other one somehow ended up under it. They are a sign of our guilt and were it not for them I could have salvaged this. I could have said I was a door to door saleswoman. I might even have convinced her.
She knows. She knows just like any wife would know. Just like my mother knew.
I have become the other woman.
“Was it extra tuition?” his wife sneers. I will have it out with Lance another time because I need to leave. “Was it?” she asks when I don’t answer. Her eyes assess me. “You’re too smartly dressed to be a student.”
I try honesty. “I'm sorry. I didn’t know ...” Surely, I can't do any more damage than I've already done.
“He didn't tell you that he had a wife?”
I glance at Lance but his face is impassive. I wait for him to deny it and to say that this has been a big joke. I wait for him to saysomething.
He fails me, again.
I move towards the door, my heart in pieces. It wouldn't hurt so much, but I was starting to believe the bullshit lies he just told me about how he wants to buy me dinner and see me again, and get to know me.
The consummate liar.
I glare at him. He opens his mouth as if he's about to say something, then his eyes go to his daughter.
I storm out.
Chapter 20
LANCE
“Who's that, Daddy?”
“Just a ... friend ...”
“A friend?” hisses Vivian.
I can’t begin to imagine what thoughts are going through Megan's mind. She must hate me, and she has every right to, but I couldn't say anything. I couldn't defend myself. I couldn't tell her the truth because Cassie doesn't know the truth. And I can't have it out with Vivian with my daughter being here.
I crouch down to Cassie’s level again, aware of Vivian's dagger eyes on my back. “So, you wanted to surprise me, did you Sweetpea?”
“It was Mommy's idea.”
