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Waverley knew what Tracie was doing. Trying to make her feel like a fool, just like she always had.
“Why? Why have you always hated me so much? You’ve gone out of your way to embarrass me and undermine me since we first met.” It was almost like, by asking the question out loud, the veil that had been shielding Waverley from the truth was finally pulled away. “It’s because you like Spencer. You’ve always liked him.”
“Spencer deserved a strong woman who could push him to be the great man he was destined to be. You were always so weak, so pliant, so timid. Always trying to please everyone. You could never please someone like him.”
There was no mistaking the gleam in her eye or her meaning. “Were y-you sleeping with my husband? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Oh, please. Spencer and I were sleeping with each other before you two were even dating.”
“Does Ronnie know about you two?”
She scoffed. “Please. Ronnie knows nothing.”
“So you and Spencer had been sleeping with each other both before and during our marriage.”
“And since, if you must know. He will always come back to me. And to his son.”
Now it really felt like the world had been ripped out from her and she’d stepped into some alternate universe where life was scripted like a soap opera.
Who just admitted to being your husband’s mistress and bearing his child like that?
Son. The word was worse than a punch to the gut. A punch was a blow and then it was done, while this was like a pain clawing deep into her belly and not letting up.
For years she’d wanted a child, and Spencer had always put it off, claiming he wasn’t ready. What he meant was he wasn’t ready to be a parent with her.
“If what you’re saying is true, then Spencer’s cheating with that girl last year was as much a betrayal to me as you.”
There was a flare of anger and jealousy that flashed in Tracie’s eyes. “I can hardly blame him for that transgression. A man like him has needs. You obviously weren’t enough to meet those. You’ll never be enough.”
They were the words that had always lingered in the back of Waverley’s mind, and to hear them said out loud made them only more painful. But she wasn’t going to let this woman think she’d gotten the better of her. There were still too many questions to be answered.
She studied Tracie, recalled the woman’s continued defense of a man who’d cheated on them both. “You loved him. You actually are still in love with him after he chose to marry me all those years ago.”
Tracie’s hands clenched into fists, and she looked for a moment like she was going to throw a punch at Waverley, and she had the good sense to take a step back. “He only married you to get access to the Abbott fortune. That’s all. You were a means to an end. He was always going to come back to me.”
Waverley didn’t have any response to that. Maybe he would have. She’d thought that she hadn’t really known Spencer last year when everything came to the surface, his affair, his embezzling, his running from arrest…but it was deeper than that. He’s been deceiving her since the start. The very start.
And she hadn’t seen it.
She wanted to sit alone in a dark room with her thoughts and tears of sadness and rage, but she couldn’t right now. She had to hold it together. She couldn’t let this woman have the satisfaction of seeing her tears.
“How do you know that I’m not going to march up there and tell Ronnie about all this? That you and Spencer were seeing each other behind his back? That Taggart isn’t his?”
“Because I know you and I know that you would never do anything that would harm a child. You’d know that, if Ronnie discovered the truth, he’d no longer look at Taggart the same way and the boy would be left without a father’s love.”
Waverley couldn’t deny it. She wouldn’t want to see that little boy punished for what his parents had done. She knew what it was like to live without the approval and love of a father, and she wouldn’t bring that same pain on anyone.
“So what’s the plan? Are you going to pick up and sail away with Spencer? Give up your life? Bring Taggart and the girls or leave some or all of your kids behind?”
“Don’t be silly. Spencer’s going to keep a low profile for a little while and eventually will make contact with me again when it’s safe.”
“So you don’t know where he is or where he’s heading?” Waverley asked skeptically.
“Of course not. Spencer would never want to put me in that position. But I can wait. I’ve waited for ten years. I can wait a little longer.”
Waverley studied the woman to see if she was lying but could only see the desperation to believe that she and Spencer would someday have a storybook ending. Even though Waverley knew differently.
Spencer would never care more for anyone than himself. Not for Tracie, his mistress for all these years. And sadly, not even his son. Taggart. She had no doubt he had a paternal pride when he saw the boy, but he’d never risk his freedom for anything more.
