Chapter 3: What the Second Message Said
I read Simone's message standing at my kitchen counter with my coat still on.
*Before I forget — I need to tell you something else.
I didn't want to say it on the phone.
About three weeks ago, I saw Jessamine having lunch with Daniel.
Not at a restaurant near their neighborhood.
Across town.
They were in a corner booth and she had her hand over his on the table.
I thought I was misreading it.
I almost didn't say anything.
But after tonight — I think you need to know.*
I read it twice.
Then I put my phone face-down on the counter and stood very still.
Daniel.
Verity's Daniel.
The man my daughter had waited three years for.
The man who had just placed a ring on her finger.
I picked the phone back up and called Simone.
She answered on the first ring.
"How sure are you?" I said.
"Sure enough that I didn't go over to say hello." Her voice was careful.
"Auntie, I'm not saying I know what it was.
But her hand was on his.
And when I walked past the window, she saw me.
She pulled her hand back immediately."
"Did she say anything to you afterward?
At the party?"
"She smiled at me when she arrived.
Like nothing." A pause.
"Like she always does."
I sat down slowly at the kitchen table.
The coat was still on.
I hadn't noticed.
"Simone.
Does Verity know?"
"No.
God, no.
I didn't know what to do with it.
I kept telling myself it was nothing.
But after what I recorded tonight —" She stopped.
"I don't think it's nothing."
Neither did I.
I spent the next hour sitting at that table trying to think clearly.
The video proved Jessamine had deliberately destroyed Verity's party.
Simone's message raised something far worse — that the destruction might not have been random jealousy.
That it might have been personal in a way that had nothing to do with engagement parties or chocolate fountains.
My phone lit up.
Emory.
I let it ring.
He called again.
I watched the screen until it went dark.
Then Verity called.
I answered that one.
"Mum." Her voice was small and exhausted.
"Emory rang me.
He said Jessamine is talking about pressing charges.
For what you did at the party."
My jaw tightened.
"She destroyed your engagement party."
"I know.
But she's saying it was an accident and you attacked her." A long pause.
"Mum, she said if you don't formally apologize by tomorrow, she's going to the police."
I looked at the dark window above the kitchen sink.
"Verity.
I need to ask you something, and I need you to be honest with me."
"Okay."
"How well do you know Daniel?
I mean really know him."
Silence.
A different kind of silence from all the other silences that night.
"What do you mean?"
"Has he ever — has there been anything that felt off?
Any time he couldn't explain where he'd been?
Any friend whose name didn't quite fit?"
The pause before her answer was three seconds too long.
"Mum, why are you asking me that?"
"Just answer me."
Another pause.
Then, very quietly: "There was one night.
About six weeks ago.
He said he was working late but his colleague rang the house looking for him at nine o'clock.
He had an explanation.
I believed it."
I closed my eyes.
"Did the explanation feel right to you?"
"At the time." Her voice had changed.
"Mum.
What do you know?"
I looked at Simone's message still open on my screen.
The corner booth.
The hand over his.
Jessamine pulling back the moment she was seen.
"I'm not sure yet," I said.
"Don't do anything tonight.
Don't call Daniel.
Don't call Emory.
Just stay where you are."
"You're frightening me."
"I know.
I'm sorry." I pressed my hand flat against the table.
"I love you.
That's why I'm being careful."
After I hung up, I sat for a long time without moving.
Then I picked up the phone and found Daniel's number in my contacts.
I had never once had reason to use it.
It sat there with his name above it and nothing else, and I stared at it until my eyes ached.
I didn't call him.
Instead I opened Simone's message one more time and typed back: *Do you still remember the name of the restaurant?*
Her answer came in less than a minute.
*Yes.
And Auntie — I took a photo through the window.
I don't know why.
I just did.
I can send it.*
My heart knocked hard once against my ribs.
*Send it,* I wrote back.
The photo arrived.
There was Jessamine.
There was Daniel.
Corner booth, exactly as Simone had described.
Her hand over his on the table, both of them leaning slightly forward.
Neither of them looking at their food.
And in the background, barely visible but unmistakably there — a gift bag with white tissue paper sitting on the seat beside Jessamine.
The same gold-and-white pattern as Verity's engagement decorations.
Jessamine had been with Daniel three weeks before the party.
Before Verity's ring.
Before the invitations.
Before the fountain.
This wasn't jealousy.
This was something else entirely — and whatever it was, Jessamine had been carrying it into that conservatory from the moment she walked through the door.
I set my phone down and looked at the ceiling.
May you like
Somewhere across the city, my daughter was sitting alone not knowing any of this.
And somewhere closer, my son was being told what to say next.
