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Richard comes up behind her, takes one look at me, and balls his hands into fists. I almost wish he’d take a swing at me. God knows I deserve it. Before he has the chance to, the door opens again.
Rachel steps back and motions for us all to enter. “I don’t want to cause a scene.”
“Oh, baby girl,” Helen begins and reaches for Rachel, but her daughter steps away from her. Rachel stares at the woman as if she were some alien reptile.
“You wrote that awful letter to Rhence and signed my name to it, didn’t you?”
“No, baby. I took the letter you wrote and hid it, that’s all I did.”
“What letter?” Richard asks, looking from his wife to his daughter.
“So, Dad doesn’t know what you’ve done?” Rachel holds her hand out to me, palm up. “Rhence, give me your phone.”
I tap my code in and hand it to her. Richard zips to Rachel’s side and reads the poison letter for the first time. “What the…?” He turns a hard eye on his wife. “You wrote this?”
“No!” she exclaimed, looking horrified. “All I did was take Rachel’s original letter and hide it. I don’t know where that garbage came from.”
I glare at her. “Who else hated me enough to do it?”
“I don’t know…” she turns to look at Richard. All of our eyes turned to Richard.
He snorts his derision. “I’d knock your head off to keep you from ruining my daughter’s life, not write some juvenile letter.” He folds his arms across his chest. “Maybe the author of the letter didn’t hate Rhence…maybe they hated Rachel.”
Helen gasps, “Your mother wrote it,” Helen exclaims pointing at me. “It sounds exactly like something she’d do.”
It feels as if a hot knife has been plunged into my gut. I know my mom wasn’t the biggest fan of Rachel’s, but somehow, I can’t see her having the wherewithal to concoct such a plan. And all those months she watched me self-destruct, I can’t believe she’d sit there in silence when she could’ve eased my pain. My mom’s a lot of things, but she’s not a monster.
They’re all staring at me expectantly.
“Do you think she could’ve done it?” Parker asks.
“I…I don’t know, I’ll go talk to her,” I look at Rachel. “The important thing is, I know you didn’t write it.”
“Too late, Rhence, you should’ve figured that out ten years ago.”
Now Richard’s in my face. “You didn’t have the good sense to actually speak to Rachel about it instead of concocting this asinine, sadistic plan?” He takes a step closer, backing me up even though I’m half a head taller than him. “You came into my house, sat at my table when all along you were planning this?”
I struggle to maintain his gaze. “I…I’ve been a complete idiot, Mr. Bradly,” I fumble for words and turn to Rachel. “Rache, you know I didn’t mean a single word of my letter. Deep inside, you must know that. This was all a horrible, horrible mistake.”
Dr. Bradly inserts herself, planting her hands on her hips. “You’re the mistake, Rhence. Haven’t you caused my daughter enough pain? You need to hop back in your car and never see her again.”
“Mom, none of this would have happened if you hadn’t stolen my letter,” Rachel states evenly. “At least he would have received both letters and hopefully would’ve had enough brains to figure out which one came from me.” Rachel shakes her head. “I want you all to leave. Now.”
Dr. Bradly winces. “You don’t mean that, sweetheart. You need someone to talk to. Let’s send the men home. You and I we’ll stay here and work through this.”
“Mom, you heard me right the first time. Leave.”
She squares up before Rachel, clearly mustering all of her dignity as her mother and as a renowned psychiatrist. “Young lady, I am still your mother. You will not speak to---”
“GET THE FUCK OUT!!” Rachel explodes with such vitriol, we all scramble for the door. “All of you go. Get out!”
Richard is the last one to leave, and I hear some words muttered between him and Rachel before he joins us. Of all of us, he was the only innocent bystander, and I imagine Rachel acknowledged this to him. Helen is openly crying and Richard isn’t doing a single thing to console her. I’d applaud the way Rachel finally stood up to her controlling mother, but I’m in the exact same boat as Dr. Bradly, if not worse.
I collapse into the passenger seat of the Mercedes. “I’m dead to her,” I say as Parker pulls us out of the driveway.
“For now, sure, but give her time. She may come around.”
“I’ve never seen her like that,” I say quietly. “I’d preferred it if she yelled and screamed at me. At least that’d mean she still felt something. There was nothing in her eyes, not even a glimmer of hope for us.” I shudder inside. “Face it, I single-handedly destroyed the best thing in my life.”
