Lovely Girls(41)

I later found out that while the soup simmered, Alex and Ed had finished practicing and left the tennis courts to head home. Alex had been driving and ran the red light at a four-way intersection. A pickup truck hit the passenger side of their car, killing Ed instantly. Alex escaped with a concussion and no memory of what had happened.

But I didn’t know all of that until much later, after the soup had overcooked, the vegetables turned to mush, and a police officer showed up at our front door to tell me that my husband was dead and my daughter was in the hospital.

Most of the rest of that day existed in only fragments of memories. The smell of the fast-food french fries in the police cruiser that took me to the hospital. A woman standing alone in the waiting area of the emergency room crying loudly, sobbing into her hands. Alex sitting on the edge of the hospital bed, holding her head in her hands. When she looked up and saw me, she started to sob.

I shook off the memory as I turned in to the high school parking lot. Practice was just ending, and the girls were packing up their belongings. I sat and waited, my hands still gripping the wheel, while I watched Alex walk off the courts, her shoulders straight and her chin held high. She was so beautiful, my girl. No, she didn’t have Daphne’s lacquered polish or Callie’s sophistication or Shae’s unsettling sensuality. Alex was an athlete. She was strong and fierce and ready for whatever life was going to throw at her.

Or that’s what I’d always thought.

“Hi, Mom,” Alex said as she climbed into the car. She sounded more upbeat than usual, her mood sparking with her recent success on the court. I wanted her happy, and yet I had to tell her what had happened. She needed to be prepared for whatever Genevieve was planning.

“Hi, honey,” I said.

Alex glanced at me. “What’s wrong? You sound weird.”

I exhaled. “I spoke to Daphne’s mom earlier. She said someone’s been sending Daphne anonymous texts. Mean texts. Saying awful things about her.”

“I’m shocked,” Alex said sarcastically.

My heart skittered. “What do you mean? Have you heard something about it?”

“No, but Daphne’s a terrible person. I bet there’s a lot of people who’d want to send her mean texts.”

“Alex, this is serious. Genevieve saw the principal today to make a formal complaint. They take bullying seriously these days. This could escalate quickly.”

“Okay.” Alex shrugged and turned to look out the window. “Whatever.”

I realized I’d left out the most important fact. “Honey, Genevieve thinks you’re the one who’s been sending the texts.”

“What?” Alex’s head snapped back around. “Why would she think that?”

“Daphne told her mother that you falsely accused her of breaking your phone and that you sent the texts. I guess in revenge?” I sighed. “Although I don’t really get that part. Either she broke your phone or she didn’t.”

“That’s absolute bullshit!” Alex exclaimed. “I didn’t send her texts.”

Relief flooded through me. “Good.”

“You think I would do that?”

“No, of course not. I told Genevieve that you would never do anything like that. But the problem is, how do we prove it?”

“Why do we have to prove anything?” Alex asked. “You can look at my phone if you want. I’ve never texted Daphne. I don’t even know her number. We’re not exactly friends.”

“I don’t need to look at your phone,” I said. “I believe you.”

“Good.” Alex crossed her arms and turned to stare out the window.

“The problem is, Genevieve isn’t going to let this go. I don’t know how far she’s going to push it, but at the very least, the principal will probably want to talk to you. Hear your side of whatever happened.”

Alex didn’t reply, so I tried again.

“What really happened to your phone?”

She sighed heavily. “Daphne broke it. She knocked it out of my hands and then stomped on it until it was in pieces.”

“Why would she do that?”

“I told you. She’s evil. You didn’t believe me.”

“Evil’s a strong word.”

“She, Shae, and Callie hung a Ken doll in my locker. It was supposed to be Dad. They’d made x’s over his eyes with a black Sharpie marker.”

I nearly swerved into a car parked on the side of the street. “Are you serious?”

“Yep.”

“When did this happen?”

“Last week. The same day Daphne broke my phone.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“How would that have helped? You would have talked to Daphne’s mom. But that would have just made it worse. Daphne and her friends would never have left me alone.” Alex sounded tired, resigned to a world where being bullied was inevitable. “Although I guess that’s going to happen now anyway.”

“Is this all because you took over Daphne’s spot on the tennis team lineup?” I asked.

Alex shrugged again. “It started before then, but it’s probably why Daphne’s claiming I sent her those texts. She might have sent them to herself.”

I hadn’t considered that possibility. “Do you think she’d do that?”