The Match (Wilde, #2)(45)
Her voice was soft. “Yes.”
“For real? Not just, like, a TV marriage?”
“Yes. Legally and in every way.”
“Okay, and then, of course, we all know what happened on that Reality Ralph podcast. Was that what ended it with you guys?”
“This is all…” Jenn’s eyes stayed on the blond hardwood floor. “I feel a little blindsided here.”
“Why? You said you don’t know where Peter is—”
“I don’t.”
“—but I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors about his fate, right?”
Jenn said nothing. Hester pushed through it.
“I’m talking about the ones where Peter was so distraught from the onslaught of hate that he killed himself.”
Jenn’s eyes closed.
“You’ve heard those rumors?”
Her voice grew even softer. “Of course.”
“Do you think they’re true?”
“That Peter killed himself?”
“Yes.”
She swallowed hard. “I don’t know.”
“You were married. You knew him well.”
“No, Ms. Crimstein, I thought I knew him well.” There was steel in Jenn’s voice now. She raised her gaze. “It made me realize something.”
“What’s that?”
“Maybe I never knew Peter,” Jenn said. “Maybe we never know anyone.”
Hester decided not to react to this dramatic albeit understandable declaration. “So I listened to the podcast, the one where your sister outed your husband.”
“Ms. Crimstein?”
“Hester.”
“Hester, I think I’ve said enough.”
“But you haven’t said anything yet. Were you angry with her?”
“Her?”
“With your sister. Were you angry with her?”
“What? No, why would I be angry with her? She was a victim too.”
“How’s that?”
“Peter may have roofied her.”
“May have? Yeah, but even before that, your sister—what’s her name again? I keep forgetting.”
“Marnie.”
“Thank you. Marnie. So here is what I find odd, Jenn, and maybe, as two legal minds, we can help each other out. Marnie said that your husband sent her nude pics before this may-have-been-roofied incident. Why didn’t she say something to you right away?”
“It’s not that simple.”
“It is to me,” Hester said. “Enlighten me.”
“Marnie was a victim. You’re victim shaming.”
“No, sweetie, you’ll know when I’m victim shaming. There will be no couching of language here. Here’s what I don’t get, so maybe you can explain: Let’s say your name is Marnie Cassidy. You love your older, super-successful sister Jenn. She has this super-great new husband, Peter. One day, husband Peter sends you—may I be crude?—a dick pic. Do you, Marnie, say nothing to your beloved sister Jenn? Do you not warn her that she’s married to a destructive, cheating pervert?” Hester shook her head. “Do you see my issue? Turn it around. Suppose Marnie had fallen in love and married some guy she met on a TV program. That guy sends you Schlong Selfies. Would you not tell Marnie?”
“I would tell,” Jenn said slowly. “But again it’s not that simple.”
“Okay, make it complicated for me. Tell me what I’m missing.”
“Marnie is not strong. She can be easily manipulated.”
“Right, but how could she be manipulated into not telling her own loving sister?”
Jenn started to wring her hands. “I’ve wondered that myself.”
“And?”
“I don’t really want to talk about this.”
“Tough. Tell me anyway.”
“I think Marnie felt—or maybe Peter convinced her—that if she told me about the pics, I would blame her.”
“Blame your sister?”
“Yes.”
“Instead of your husband?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, that’s interesting,” Hester said. “Like, for some reason, you’d think maybe Marnie had made the first move.”
“Or, I don’t know, encouraged it or asked for it or whatever.”
“Between us girls, do you think that’s what happened?”
“What?”
“Do you think Marnie made the first move?”
“What? No. That’s not what I’m saying—”
“Sounds like it to me. And maybe not intentionally. Maybe your sister just flirted with Peter, and he took it the wrong way.”
“That’s an awful thing to say.”
“Well, it was your theory, not mine. Either way, Marnie never told you about the dick pics. She never told you she’d had any illicit contact with your husband, isn’t that correct?”
Jenn said nothing.
“In fact,” Hester continued, “the first time you heard these terrible truths about your husband was when your sister Marnie made it public on that podcast. She didn’t tell you first. She told the whole world. Didn’t you find that odd?”