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Chad held the phone out to her. “Kelly wants to talk to you. She’s on a burner phone, too, so take as long as you need.”
He shut the door with a quiet snick and Jennie grasped the phone like a lifeline. She couldn’t believe how much she missed her friends, her life. The need to talk to her girlfriends, just to have them listen to her and tell her things would be all right was overwhelming.
“Kelly? Oh, my God, I can’t believe it’s you. I miss you guys so much. Tell me about Maddy. How is she? Is she growing? How big is she?”
Kelly laughed and filled Jennie in on life in Connecticut and gave her updates on Maddy, who she said was “growing more beautiful by the day.”
Before Jennie knew it, she was spilling out the truth. She told Kelly what happened with Chad in Florida, about the baby, everything. All of the mixed-up feelings that filled her head and her heart every day.
She needed to have her best friend know the truth, know everything that was going on, even if they couldn’t talk every day like they used to. She felt like she wasn’t herself any longer and she knew Kelly would understand that.
But, Kelly was unusually quiet after Jennie stopped talking, and an uneasy feeling settled over her.
“Kelly? Are you still there?” Kelly should be reassuring her that everything would be okay, shouldn’t she?
“Oh God, Jennie.”
Jennie could hear in her friend’s voice that she was crying and she didn’t understand why.
“Jennie, I have to tell you something. I’m so, so sorry. We didn’t mean for any of this to happen,” Kelly said, her voice thick with tears.
Dread crept over her and Jennie wanted to hang up. She didn’t want Kelly to keep going. Didn’t want to know what Kelly meant by that. Because whatever Kelly was about to tell her couldn’t be good.
And Jenny could tell it would change things forever. Change things in ways that couldn’t be undone.
“What are you talking about?” Jennie asked, not at all sure she wanted to hear the answer, but not able to hang up without knowing.
“When Jack sent you to the resort, he sent you and Chad together as honeymooners on purpose. He and Andrew thought it would nudge you and Chad to see if there was something real between you or not. I... Oh, God, Jennie. I’m so sorry. I knew and I let them do it.”
Jennie felt cold. She didn’t even know what to say.How could Kelly do this? How could this happen?
“Jennie, please, say something. Just talk to me.”
Jennie’s voice sounded foreign to her when she answered. “What do you want me to say, Kelly? I trusted you. I thought you were my friend and I trusted you with the truth about Kyle.”
Suddenly Jennie was screaming and she didn’t care. She didn’t stop when Chad came in the room or when she heard Kelly sobbing on the other end of the phone. Something inside of her just broke and there wasn’t any stopping the anger and rage that came out.
“How could you do this to me? You knew how I felt about Kyle! You knew I didn’t want this! Why would you think it was okay to play with my life this way? I’m pregnant now, Kelly. My, God! What have you done?” Jennie threw the phone at the wall, where it broke, falling to the floor and cutting the call off.
The room was quiet for a minute as understanding dawned on Jennie. She looked up, horrified. Chad must have known. When she met his gaze, it was clear. The guilt was etched on his face.
“Oh, God. You didn’t. Please, please tell me you didn’t know about this,” she said, closing her eyes and shaking her head against the truth.
“I didn’t know, Jennie. I suspected but I didn’t know for sure.” He was quiet and calm. Just like he always was. Steadfast in the face of anything, it seemed.Anything.Just as calm as he always was.
But this was her life. Something in Jennie snapped.
“When, Chad? When did you suspect?” She spat out. She wanted to grab him and shake him.
He didn’t answer for a few beats.
“In Jack’s office. When he told us he was sending us,” he said, just as quiet as ever.
“How could you know and not tell me? Why didn’t you stop them? What’s wrong with you?” Jennie was screaming again and on some level, she knew she should try to get herself under control but she couldn’t. It was as if her whole fucked-up, crazy life was coming to a head.
Before the Florida assignment she had finally felt the first glimmer of happiness since Kyle’s death—and now it was all lost. All at the hands of the people she’d thought were her friends. She’d been set up. She felt tears fall as her lip trembled and she bit down hard to stop it. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“I won’t regret the baby, Jennie. I’m sorry for everything else that’s happening, but I won’t regret our baby.” Chad’s voice was calm and he turned to walk away. Any control Jennie had left slipped away at his cool, collected response. So measured. So in control.
