Page 79 of Letting Go
Ignoring my statement, she tells her husband, “Clark, for what it’s worth, I didn’t mean for you to find out like this.”
“Were you ever going to tell me the truth?” Clark’s voice is drenched with such betrayal that it’s heartbreaking.
“Honestly? Probably not, it didn’t seem necessary.” Marcie Clarie is acting as though we are discussing the weather and not her son’s paternity. “It was a brief, albeit intense affair, obviously early in our marriage.” Something briefly catches her attention out in the backyard, but she dismisses whatever it was and quickly returns her focus to her husband.
“I want to know who it was,” Clark tells his wife. “Who was it, Marcie Claire? I deserve to know.”
“Clark, you are Chase’s father. He carries your name. You are all he has ever known, and I don’t think he needs to know anything that has transpired today either.” She directs the last statement more to me than her husband.
“The time for secrets is over,” Clark tells his wife and takes another small step toward her when she looks back at me. She hasn’t noticed how Clark has been inching closer to her whenever she looks my way. I don’t know his plan, but my options are limited so I’ll do what I can to distract her and keep her focused on me.
“You must have had your reasons,” I tell her, trying to sound empathetic to her position.
She leans slightly toward me. “I absolutely did! Angela was my best friend from boarding school. We were in each other’s weddings for goodness’ sake. I never meant for it to happen, but he could be so charming when he wanted to be and was so handsome when he was younger,” she admits to me. “I never asked for any support, but I did make him aware of the … outcome. We decided to keep it between us, but he assured me I could always ask him for anything I needed for Chase.”
“Are you actually fucking kidding me right now?” Clark loses any cool he was trying to hold onto and his voice jostles Marcie Claire. “You slept with your best friend’s husband? And you cheated on me with a fucking mobster!”
Marcie Claire’s face turns to stone as she slowly turns and points the gun back to Clark.
“His alleged business affiliations had nothing to do with our affair, but it was comforting to know I had an ace in my pocket if I ever needed it.” Clark falls to the couch even closer to Marcie Claire and puts his head in his hands. While Marcie Claire looks at him, I notice movement through the sunroom’s windows. I can’t make out what’s going on, but people are moving around in the backyard. Maybe Tony the Tank somehow figured out I neededhelp. I say a prayer that whoever it is, they are somehow aware of the crazy going on in this room and can help me escape. I focus on the gun so as not to draw attention to the movement outside.
“Gio Bruno? What the hell, Marcie Claire? How many times did we vacation with them and our families? How many times have I shared a meal with the greasy weasel who slept with my wife?!” Clark’s voice escalates from sadness to anger. “How could you do this to us? How could you do this tome? I bet you two really got a kick out of pulling one over me for so many years.”
“I admit, the family trips were a convenient way for Gio to know Chase without anyone wondering why he would be interested in Chase,” she admits. “If word got out that Gio had another son, Chase might be in danger because of Gio’s … alleged connections, but he would do anything for Chase, I only ever needed to ask.”
“And did you? Did you ask him for something, Marcie Claire?” Clark’s face is cloaked with a grief-stricken expression.
“Not until last year,” Marcie Claire tells him, turning to me. “I asked him to help me correct a mistake that stood in Chase’s way of true happiness. My son deserves his happily ever after and I wanted him to have the best.”
No.
No, no, no.
The blood rushes from my head and the room starts to sway.
“Marcie Claire … no,” I softly say as it all comes together. I really am going to be sick, and if I wasn’t afraid of her shooting me, I would rush to the bathroom.
“It all happened exactly like I knew it would. Once that man was out of your life, I knew you would come back home where you belong. And once you and Chase are officially back together, I will happily welcome that little girl as though she was my own flesh and blood. I’ll be a wonderful grandmother to Ellie,” she callously says, with no inflection of guilt or regret. She still can’t get Eloise’s nameright, but what does that matter when she can order a hit on her father?
“What did you do, Marcie Claire?” Clark almost whispers.
Sighing and rolling her eyes as though our shock is an annoyance, she responds with a shrug. “I simply asked Gio to remove the roadblock of Vivian coming home and back to Chase. That’s all.”
“The roadblock being … by roadblock, you mean my husband?” I ask weakly, unable to fully comprehend what she’s saying.
“You never should have chosen that man as your husband, Vivian.” She glares at me. “I told your mama DC was too far away for you to go for college. You should’ve gone somewhere closer to Chase and then y’all never would’ve broken up.”
“Where we went to college had nothing to do with us mutually ending our relationship, Marcie Clarie. We cared for each other, but it wasn’t the kind of love we both deserve in our lives.” I try to get her to see logic, but I don’t think that’s possible right now.
“Your love would’ve evolved. You two belong together but I got sick of waiting for you to figure it out and Chloe was sniffing around Chase—I just could not have that! So, I made a phone call for one single favor. Gio was more than happy to do something for my son’s happiness.”
“At the cost of Trent’s life?” I whisper.
“He was cheating on you and was a terrible husband, dear.” My eyes widen as if that’s an excuse for a man to be killed and a little girl to lose her father.
“But you didn’t know that when you wanted him dead,” I say.
“Honey, but I did. My friend Angela and I were on our annual girls’ trip to Boston, which has some of my favorite shopping on the East Coast, and most people don’t expect that. Imagine my surprise when we were seated for our lunch, and I see your husband canoodling with some hussy in broad daylight. Vivian, honestly, they weren’t even trying to be discreet. And I know it doesn’t looklike it now, but I assure you, I did you a favor,” she says. “But once you moved home, you still didn’t follow the plan. You were gallivanting with other men, flirting with men left and right, but not giving my Chase the time of day. Honestly, Vivian, you were wasting a precious gift of the second chance I gave you.”
