Eliza Starts a Rumor(65)
“You are not owed a second chance. That is the same sense of entitlement that led you to believe that you could treat women as you did, treat people as you did, treat your wife, who loved you and gave you two beautiful children, as you did. You will never change until you understand what your words and your actions do to people.”
There was something so strange about having the upper hand, having the truth and the public on her side. She opened the door again and said, “You are a disgrace. Please leave my house, and don’t come back unless you are invited—by me.”
He left. Amanda wanted to think with his tail between his legs, but the truth was, he hardly even heard her. She ran across the street to tell Eliza, just as Luke was getting home from his office. They entered the kitchen at the same time, both equally agitated. Amanda took the back seat to Luke; she had never seen him worked up before.
“Eliza, is there something you want to tell me?”
She shot Amanda a look of panic before turning back to her husband and shaking her head no.
“A new patient named Shari Livingston came in today. She said she got my name from the bulletin board.”
That’s nice, Eliza and Amanda both thought, wondering what the problem was.
“Have you heard of her?”
“No, but our membership has nearly doubled this year, I can’t know everyone,” she said proudly.
“What about her husband, Hank Livingston?”
“No. What’s going on, Luke?”
“When I looked in this poor woman’s mouth and commented how perfect her teeth were, she burst into tears. She said she had just moved from the city, just had her teeth cleaned, but she was worried that her husband was cheating on her and heard that my wife might know if it were true. Do you know if Shari Livingston’s husband is cheating on her, and if he is—how the hell do you know that?”
“Oh boy,” Eliza said and sat down at the kitchen table. How many suspicious wives was she torturing right now? She felt like an even bigger snake than she had before.
“Maybe I should go?” Amanda piped in, feeling that painful awkwardness of witnessing another couple come to blows.
Luke’s tone was unusually indignant. “Maybe you should sit down, too. I have a feeling you know all about this.”
They both flashed back to being sat down together in the same kitchen by Eliza’s mom—she may have even used those same words. Eliza recalled a chocolate stain on the couch; Amanda, a couple of cigarettes missing from Birdie’s pack of Virginia Slims. Suddenly, as it had been then, it was hard not to laugh.
Eliza straightened herself out and owned up to some of it. “Our neighbor, Ashley Smith, is having an affair with our new friend Olivia’s husband, and it all came to light on the bulletin board. That’s what she must be referring to.”
She opened up her phone and pulled up the last post. “Here—read this.”
He did. “Wow, does Mr. Smith know?”
“We don’t think so.”
“Well, that’s unfortunate. He seems like such a nice guy.”
“You want to tell him?” Amanda asked, thinking it could help Olivia.
“Very funny,” he said, turning to his wife. “I’m just glad it has nothing to do with you.” The recent distance between them was causing him to question things he never would have before.
More deceit, she thought, suddenly feeling ill. Luke noticed the subtle change in her and apologized.
“I’m sorry, baby.” He stood to give her a hug. She acquiesced, happy to have avoided further confrontation. She felt an unexpected wave of comfort come over her—it was quickly washed away by guilt.
CHAPTER 36
Olivia
Aside from avoiding Spencer by feigning “the worst period in the history of periods,” Olivia spent the next few days trying her best to unravel all of the lies that had come before. To try and put a timeline together of just when the affair had started.
Olivia had conferred with Andie Rand again. Even though this affair was now a sure thing, physical evidence was needed if she wanted to overturn their prenup. The best form of proof would be a picture of the two of them together. It would be a tough thing to get because a photo of them running together would be just that, a photo of them running together. If she really wanted proof, the photo needed to be intimate.
A plan to catch him in the act had been hatched over margaritas at Eliza’s and was to be executed over Thanksgiving weekend. Olivia told Spencer that she had to go to Miami with her parents to visit her grandmother, with the excuse that her grandmother wasn’t doing well and she wanted her to spend time with Lily. She knew it would go uncontested, as there was no missing a York Thanksgiving for Spencer. She also knew that Spencer would jump at the chance to copulate with his mistress in every room in their house. It was exactly what he had told Olivia when they first looked through the blueprints: “Six thousand square feet of places to fuck!” he had proclaimed. He rarely spoke that way around her, since he knew she hated it. She hated the word “fuck,” vastly preferred “making love” or even the British slang “shagging.” She wasn’t a prude, but she just wasn’t turned on by vulgarity. She wondered if Ashley was, if she yelled out dirty words when they were having sex. Did Ashley Smith fill a need of Spencer’s that she didn’t? When she shared those self-deprecating thoughts with her new crew, their responses blew her away.