TJ: The release doesn’t work like that. It’s irrevocable.
FM: We’ll see about that. [Shuffling sounds] I can’t get this thing off . . . No, don’t touch me; I’ll do it myself.
TJ: Franny, I—
FM: Forget it, okay? Just forget it. You want to bring me down. My whole life, everyone’s wanted to bring me down. But you’ll see. You’ll see. I always end up on top in the end.
39
WRAP-UP
CECILY
“I’m sorry you had to see that,” I say to Joshua. We’re standing in the production room off the boardroom, where Teo’s been conducting his interview with Franny. It’s not equipped with two-way mirrors—this isn’t a police station—but there’s a monitor, and we’ve seen the entire thing.
Joshua’s jaw is rigid. At one point, he was clenching his fists so hard I thought he might punch something. “It’s fine. Fine.”
“You didn’t believe what I was telling you, and I couldn’t think of another way to show you.”
“I get it.”
I feel terrible, but as I suspected, when I met Joshua last night for coffee, he didn’t want to hear anything negative about Franny. I didn’t even get into the details. Instead, I told him I didn’t think Franny was who she said she was, and that Teo needed them both to come in for a final interview now that they’d decided to get married.
“I’m not sure either of us wants to participate in this anymore,” Joshua had said.
“I know exactly how you feel.”
“Then why are you trying to push me to do it? Push us?”
“We made a promise, and if we back out, then Teo won’t have a film. That’s a year of his life down the drain. It might end his career.”
Joshua swirled the coffee around in his cup. “I would’ve thought you’d want his career over, given everything he’s done to you.”
“He was just doing his job. None of this is his fault.”
“Isn’t it?”
His phone was sitting on the table, and it buzzed with an incoming e-mail. He checked it, then pushed his phone aside. “I still can’t believe what I read . . . Tom and Kaitlyn. It was like it was two different people who were writing those messages.”
“I feel the same way, but maybe . . . I know this sounds crazy, naive, even, but maybe it was just words. Maybe they weren’t doing those things in real life.”
“Why would you say that?”
“The way it was written. It seemed like fantasy. Not . . . active, not describing something that had actually occurred, just something they’d thought about doing.”
A pained expression crossed his face. I felt bad for making him even think about what we’d read.
“I guess that’s possible. Still, doesn’t make it right.”
“Nothing’s right.”
“And you never had any idea? You two being so close and all?”
“Never. She was clearly very good at hiding things. As was Tom.”
He shook his head. “Not so good. I kind of knew she had a crush on him.”
“You did?”
“Sure. She had one for years.”
I stared into my own cup. “I never knew.”
“You didn’t know what Kaitlyn looked like when she was in love.”
“Oh, Joshua.”
“It’s all right. I figured it was harmless. Twenty years is a long time to be together without ever having feelings for another person. I never thought she’d act on it.”
“That’s the most surprising part.”
“You’re not surprised about Tom?”
“Of course, but not in the way you’d think. I knew Tom had an affair six months before he died. And that shocked me, but it wasn’t unfathomable. I could understand it intellectually.”
“But the Kaitlyn part? You must be surprised about that.”
“Yes, I was shocked. You saw. I still have trouble believing it, to be honest. But tell me—how did Franny find those e-mails?”
“They were on Kaitlyn’s laptop. It was still signed in to that account. She feels bad for snooping, but once she found the e-mails, she felt she had to tell me about them.”
“I wish she’d kept them to herself.”
“It wasn’t her secret to keep.”
“I guess.”
“What did you mean before when you said you didn’t think she could be trusted? Is that why?”
“Partly.”
“What else, then?”
“Well, getting engaged to you is something.”
“But I’m the one who did that.”
“Are you, Joshua?” I covered his hand with mine. His wedding ring was missing, the skin where it used to be white and puckered. “Franny had no part to play at all?”
“Of course she did. But it was a mutual thing.”
“Her mother’s husband?”
“I know it sounds wrong, but you can’t help it when feelings develop, can you? Look at you and Teo.”
“What about us?”
“Not very professional, is it, for him to be dating one of the subjects of his film.”
I withdrew my hand. How did he know about that? He must’ve recognized Teo in that photograph. “We’re not dating. And even if we were, I hardly think it’s the same. Franny’s twenty-five years younger, and you think she’s your wife’s daughter. You only just met her, and now here you are, ready to commit your life to her?”
“What do you mean, I think she’s Kaitlyn’s daughter? Isn’t she?”
I wanted to tell him then and there in the coffee shop about everything, but if I did, I knew he’d confront Franny about it, and then she’d never show up for the interview. And Franny has this way of convincing you about things, of working her way into a person. She’d done it to me, and she’d clearly done it to Joshua. I had no faith that he’d be able to resist her charms, see past her explanations. And I’d been right. Even when confronted with the truth in her interview with Teo, she’d held fast to her story and had come up with excuses. She’d almost convinced me she was innocent.
“I misspoke. And please don’t speak to Franny about this, okay? I’m trying to look out for you and the girls.”
“Is that why you want us to do that interview so much? Because it’s the best thing for me and the girls?”
“Yes, actually.”
“Come on.”
“You’ll have to trust me, Joshua. Please. Come and do your interview tomorrow. Bring Franny. I promise you it’ll be a good thing in the end.”
He’d agreed to come and had texted me this morning that Franny had agreed as well. We’d spent the last two hours watching Teo on the monitor as he got Franny to commit to one version of her story and then slowly picked it apart. Joshua had been angry, wanting to stop the proceedings, but I held him back. As her story started to unravel, he sat there, his shoulders falling, a look of shock that was becoming too familiar to me on his face.
“Are you going to be okay?” I say to Joshua now. “Do you want me to take you home?”
“I can manage it on my own, thanks.”
“What are you going to do?”
“About what?”
“About Franny.”
“That’s between her and me.”
“You’re not . . . You can’t continue to be with her after this?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“But she’s not well. She’s . . . She lied to you from the beginning, Joshua. She lied and manipulated and cheated and . . .”
“Maybe she did. Maybe she didn’t.”
“How can you say that? You saw what I saw.”
Joshua looks wild-eyed, undone. I’ve never seen him like this. “What did I see? A clever man trying to make a sensational end to his film, that’s what. Taking advantage of a vulnerable girl who’s had enough terrible things happen.” He stands, swaying slightly, then steadies himself against the wall. “Franny will be able to explain all of this; we need to give her a chance.”
�
��I—”
“I gave you a chance. I came down here and subjected Franny to this. Now I want to take her home and discuss this with her privately.”
He pushes past me and out into the hall. He walks into the room next door, where Franny’s crying and struggling to get into her coat. Joshua takes her into his arms.
“It’s going to be okay, darling.”
“Joshua, Joshua, I didn’t . . .”
“Hush now, it’s okay. Don’t say anything more. We’ll discuss all this at home.”
Teo meets my eyes. He shakes his head. I shake mine back at him.
“Needless to say,” Joshua says to Teo, “I won’t be sitting for an interview.”
“I understand.”
“And we’ll be speaking to our lawyer to see what recourses we have.”
“That’s your right, of course.”
“You’ve done a terrible thing here.”
“I don’t see it that way.”
“Of course you don’t.”
“Just leave it, Teo,” I say. “He’s not going to listen to you.”
Franny looks up at me from where she’s been hiding her face in Joshua’s shoulder. “I thought you were my friend.”
“Friends don’t lie about who they are.”
“You’re such a hypocrite. You’ve been lying this whole time, too. I saw. I saw in Kaitlyn’s e-mails.”
Joshua pats her on the shoulder. “Let’s leave that now, Franny, all right? Let’s go home.”
“Yes, sorry. Of course I want to go home with you.”
“Good.”
He takes her by the hand and leads her out of the room. When we’re alone, I say to Teo, “Can you believe that?”
“I’m not that surprised, honestly. Franny’s very good at what she does. She has an explanation for everything.”
“She can’t explain away DNA.”
“Sure she can. She’ll just say the lab screwed up the results, that they mixed up the samples. It happens all the time.”
“Does it?”
“Not often, no,” he says. “But all she needs is a wedge of doubt to work with.”
“So this was all wasted effort.”
“I don’t think so. Joshua knows the truth now. What he chooses to do with that information is another thing.”
“I feel like shit.”
“Why? You were only trying to help him.”
“Is that what I was doing?”
He stands in front of me and takes me by the elbows. “You’re much too hard on yourself.”
“Isn’t that always the way with heroes? Never content with the people they’ve saved, always concentrating on the ones they lost?”
His shoulders rise up and down. “Life’s complicated. There are no easy, binary inputs. You can’t expect a particular result where people are concerned.”
“It would be so much easier if you could.”
“Ain’t that the truth.”
“So what now?”
His hands move up my arms. “I finish the film. And then, hopefully, you’ll go out with me again.”
“Still on that, are we?”
“Is that okay?”
“Yes,” I say. “But there’s something I have to do first.”
“What’s that?”
“Confess.”
• • •
I stop my car in Sara’s driveway with a heavy heart. Today hasn’t gone according to plan, and I feel that I’ve let Kaitlyn down somehow. Not that I owed her anything, but I don’t like failure. No one does, but these issues with Franny felt like something manageable, something salvageable from this horrendous year. I could check off this box and then move on with my life.
I climb the back stairs and knock on the door. Kaitlyn opens it. She’s wearing her coat. Her backpack’s on the floor, the room clean of her meager possessions.
“Were you even going to wait for me to come back?”
“Of course. But there’s a bus leaving in a few hours. I want to catch it.”
“Where to this time?”
“Better if you don’t know, probably.”
“Probably.”
Kaitlyn scrapes her hair back and fastens it with a hair tie. She pulls her hat over it. She could be anyone now, any woman in her midforties. It’s not just her looks, it’s the way she carries herself. She truly has become someone I don’t know.
“How did it go?” Kaitlyn asks. “What did Joshua say?”
“We laid it all out, and Franny tried to explain everything away.”
“Of course she did. But she can’t.”
“I’m not sure it was that simple for Joshua.”
“What do you mean?”
“He didn’t know what to think. He wanted to talk it out with Franny.”
“He what?”
“They left together.”
“He took her back to my house? To be with my kids?”
“For now. I’m sure that when this all sinks in . . .”
Kaitlyn wrapped her arms around herself. “No, you don’t know her. You don’t know her like I do.”
“What are you talking about . . . ? Wait, what? You know Franny? You’ve met her?”
“We used to . . . correspond.”
“When?”
“Years ago. She contacted me when I was pregnant with Emily. She thought I was her mother. She seemed so lost. So I wrote her back. I tried to help her. And for a while, I thought I was. But then she changed, things changed, and . . .”
“And what, Kaitlyn? Jesus Christ. Why didn’t you tell me this in the beginning?”
“Because I’m not proud of what I did, and you already thought badly enough of me.”
“What did you do?”
“I disappeared. She was getting aggressive about us meeting, wanting me to take a DNA test, all kinds of crazy things. So I cut her off. I changed my e-mail address and didn’t tell her. I think I’m the reason she ended up in that mental institution. I think she tried to kill herself after I rejected her.”
“But if she was convinced you were her mother, and you’re not, then you were probably right to do that.”
“I wanted to help her. But I had my own issues to deal with and the baby, and she was a lot of work. Very needy. I could’ve tried to get her help. I shouldn’t have disappeared on her. But that’s my MO, isn’t it? The disappearing mother. Franny was just the test run.”
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I don’t think you can blame yourself for this one.”
“I’m the reason Franny’s here, doing this. If I’d handled it better, she wouldn’t have moved in on my family to exact some kind of revenge.”
“You can’t know that.”
“She couldn’t have done it if I hadn’t run away.”
“That’s true. But she’s ill. You’re not responsible for that.”
Kaitlyn closes her eyes, going to her own private space. I watch her. She opens her eyes again. She seems more focused.
“I can’t believe Joshua. What’s wrong with him?”
“He’s hurt and confused.”
“My fault again.”
“Yes.”
She smiles wryly. “I should get going.”
“Okay.”
“Thanks for helping me.”
“I was trying to help Joshua and the girls.”
“Fair enough. But thank you just the same.” She walks past me to the door. “I’m truly sorry. I hope you know that.”
“Will you keep in touch?”
“You want that?”
“I want to know that you’re alive. That you’re okay.”
“I’ll try.”
“The girls will be all right.”
“I’m going to make sure of that.”
Kaitlyn opens the door and walks out of the apartment. I follow her.
“Wait, what do you mean? What are you going to do?”
“What I should’ve done in the first place.”
She hurries down the stairs. I almost c
all her name, but then I stop myself; there are people on the street, people who might recognize her. And what can I do anyway? I can’t control Kaitlyn any more than I could control Joshua. I’ve done enough.
For once in my life, I’ve done too much.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Subject: Cecily Grayson (CG). Conducted by: Teo Jackson (TJ).
TJ: Are you ready?
CG: Ready to spill my big secret?
TJ: I’m here to listen to whatever you want to tell me.
CG: I don’t mean to be dramatic. Probably in the grand scheme of things, my secret’s not that big, but it could have important consequences for me.
TJ: I understand.
CG: You asked me the other day about the fact that I’d visited a divorce attorney. I told you Tom and I were having trouble in our marriage and that I’d gone to see a divorce attorney to explore my options. That’s not the whole truth. The truth is, that was only at first. I’d found out some things about my husband, some things that made it hard for me to trust him again. He left for a while. That’s when I went to see the divorce attorney.
TJ: But you didn’t file for divorce?
CG: Not then. I let him move back home. But something was broken between us. He tried hard, he wanted things to work, but I didn’t feel safe with him anymore. I didn’t feel like I should.
TJ: I’m sorry to hear that.
CG: It’s all right. Anyway, I told him I wanted a divorce. He fought me on it. He wanted to try to work things out, to stay together for the kids, to give it longer than I wanted to. But I couldn’t see my feelings changing. I wasn’t getting over it. I was just getting more and more angry each day. I was so consumed by it, it felt like a sickness. A cancer. It was killing me.
TJ: What did you do?
CG: He agreed to move forward with the divorce. There was a law firm in his building that did their corporate work that also had a divorce attorney on staff. We negotiated how it would work, and they got everything ready for us to sign so we could file. We worked everything out, but we hadn’t told the kids. Tom asked for that. That we not tell them until we were ready to file. I think he was hoping I’d change my mind.
TJ: Then what happened?
CG: October tenth. I was going to his office because we were going to sign the documents, and that would’ve been it once the judge signed off.
The Good Liar Page 27
