Page 8 of A Family Affair: The Cabin
Love. What a sad joke.
She’d had so many plans, each one grander and more intricate than the last, all built around hopes and dreams. Elissa had spent the last several hours with timelines and spreadsheets, dropping in dates and events. The date she met Zachary in the coffee shop, the first dinner…the first time they made love. How had any of this been possible?How had she not known another woman was carrying his child?When he’d said he had a meeting in Seattle, was he visiting Julia? Maybe they’d had a quiet dinner and spent the night together. Anything was possible. Who knew? Who really knew?
Nobody.
Julia said she had a fiancé. That was another level of incredible. There’d been no reason for her to lie…and there’d been every reason for Zachary to do so. Had he proposed to Julia when he found out she was pregnant? Or had that come later, maybe after the birth? Maybe he’d gotten a two-for-one deal on engagement rings and proposed back to back? Why not?Sure, why not?There were so many possibilities and Elissa had suffered through most of them. All she wanted now was to disappear so she’d never have to speak to or about Zachary Wintstone again.
But the Cerdis were made of stronger stuff. Had Great-Grandma Antoinette Cerdi not immigrated with three small children only to lose her husband to pneumonia the next winter? And had that same woman not kept her family fed by gardening, baking bread, and making her own pasta? She’d mended their clothing, accepted hand-me-downs from the neighbors, and never uttered a word of despair. If Great-Grandma Cerdi could stand strong amidst such heartache and grief, then Elissa could do the same…eventually…after she buried her dreams of happily-ever-after and acknowledged that she’d chosen a liar to share her lifeandher heart.
Of course, Zachary wouldn’t see it that way. He’d have a tale, just like all the ones he’d been telling her the past year, and if she let herself, she might believe him. Oh, she wanted to turn back the hours to a time when shedidbelieve him, when she didn’t know what she knew in her heart. But then what? Let the lies ruin her? The second the beautiful Julia entered Zachary’s apartment, Elissa sensed the truth; Julia was Zachary’s fiancée, too, and Christopher was his baby.
As she lay curled in bed that night, a cold pack pressed to her forehead, her body damp, her stomach raw from emptying it, she knew what Mrs. Blacksworth must have felt like when she learned of her husband’s secret life.I’m so sorry, Mrs. Blacksworth. So sorry you had to go through that.For twenty-four hours, she ignored Zachary’s phone calls and text messages. As the messages grew more frequent, the tone bordered on panic.
Elissa, call me. Where are you? I’m worried about you.
Hey. It’s me. I had to go out of town, but I’ll be back in the morning. Call me.Pause. I miss you.Longer pause. We’ve got to talk about the engagement party. Just call me.
There were five more messages, each more urgent than the last.
I called your parents’ house and left a message, but I haven’t heard from them. I know how your mom hates missing a phone call, so now I’m really getting worried. Where are you?
And then,Your sister sent me a text and called me a bastard, said she hoped I burned in hell. What’s she talking about? Why would she say that? Elissa?
Oh, there’d been a lot of panic in that last message. Almost as if he knew she’d figured out his deep, dark secret, but Zachary wasn’t one to divulge more than he had to until it was necessary. That’s how he’d been able to wheel and deal in the corporate world and hold out for the best offer. He’d once told her he could poker-face it and threaten to walk away, actually walk away, and they’d always call him back and agree to his terms. Always. The way he’d said this made her think he liked toying with people’s emotions to see how far he could get andhow muchhe could get. Is that what he’d done with Elissa and Julia? Pushed them both to see how far he could get? Well, he’d ended up with two fiancées and a baby.
How could she have been such a fool? Two months ago, when her mother asked why Elissa still hadn’t met his parents, she’d found ten reasons, all of them believable, especially to her. But the real reason was probably the most unbelievable and yet most obvious. Zachary alreadyhada fiancée and it wasn’t Elissa. She’d been so head-over-heels for him that she hadn’t questioned or complained about his demand for space, attributing his need for time alone to do his work and the brilliance of that mind she loved so much.
Except the mind she’d loved with such fierceness hadn’t been inventing or contemplating anything in the computer world. No, that mind had been inventing more lies and contemplating ways to cheat on two women. How had he done it so well and for so long?
Why did he have to pull her in and make her believe he cared? Her parents wanted her to call Father Patrick for guidance. Her little sister wanted to find someone to “beat the crap out of him.” Elissa wasn’t going to let someone else confront the man who’d ruined her life and her belief in happily-ever-after, because one day soon she would handle him herself.
That day came two hours after Zachary’s last message, the one that said he’d just landed at the airport and was on his way to her apartment. She showered, tossed on jeans and a T-shirt, and pulled her hair in a ponytail.
She’d always looked forward to spending time with her fiancé, anticipated his arrival with such eagerness that in retrospect, it was sickening. How easy it must have been to play with her emotions, as though she didn’t matter, as though he could do anything and she’d believe him. Which she did…all the way up to the second where she’d watched Julia and her baby enter his apartment.
Now, everything had changed. Elissa’s heart no longer beat for the man who’d promised her love and happiness until they drew their last breath. That heart was bruised, tattered, cold. Empty.
When the doorbell rang, she made her way to the front door, opened it. Zachary Wintstone faced her, his lean runner’s body dressed in slacks and a sweater, mouth firm, brown eyes serious. He looked exactly as he had the last time she saw him. Elissa narrowed her gaze, tried to detect a crack in the facade that might let her see his other life—his other family. Same dark curls that reminded her of Julia’s baby, same serious expression, same stance.Same everything.
If she hadn’t decided to surprise him with a visit the other day, how long would it have been before she found out about Julia and Christopher? After the wedding? After their first child? Or would life have continued for years, as it had with Mrs. Blacksworth, until one day the truth leaked out and her world landed on top of her?
“Elissa. Do you know how worried I’ve been?” Zachary stepped inside, reached for her, but she stepped back.
“Don’t.”
“What’s wrong?” His voice spilled concern. “You look sick. Why didn’t you answer my calls? Talk to me. You know you can always talk to me.”
A few days ago, she’d believed he was her everything, believed they would grow old together. “I will always wonder if the lies started before or after you met me.”
“What are you talking about?” Confusion and what looked like fear clouded his dark eyes.
She clasped her hands together, planted her feet in a stance that said she could land a solid punch to his jaw if provoked. “If everything about us was built around a lie; can you at least give me a few minutes of truth? I know about Julia.” She paused, gauged his reaction: a mix of shock and disbelief. “And Christopher.” A decent guy would own up to the subterfuge, apologize, and call it quits. But then, a decent guy wouldn’t play house with one woman and have a baby with another. She spotted the exact second his expression changed and the next words out of his mouth weren’t warm and fuzzy or apologetic. They were harsh and accusing despite the softness in his tone.
“Were you spying on me?”
“Spying? Of course not. I wanted to surprise you. I thought I’d stop over so we could talk about the party.”The engagement party for the wedding that was supposed to mark the beginning of the rest of our lives.
“You shouldn’t have done that.” His voice was so quiet, so unaffected. “We had an understanding.”
