Page 152 of Tear Me Apart

She was trying to take care of him. Of them.

“It was only in the end that she agreed to take the antidepressants. I told her she had to. She didn’t want to hurt Mindy, even before she was born, but being off the meds dragged her into the abyss.

“You do see now, don’t you, Zack? All I’ve ever wanted to do is help you. First Vivian, then Mindy. Now you. I’m giving you the last piece of the puzzle because I am going to die in here. Either they’ll kill me, or I’ll grow old and gray, or someone will knife me in the shower, but however you cut it, I am a dead woman. And now it’s your turn to take care of our girl.”

Zack sets the phone down on the counter. He sits back in the chair and crosses his arms. Processes. Watches Lauren get antsy. There’s something more happening, but he doesn’t know what it is.

Finally, he picks up the phone again.

“I don’t believe for a moment my wife asked you to keep my daughter from me.”

“Well, she did. She wanted Mindy to have a happy life, a carefree life, and she knew you’d be all thumbs at fatherhood.”

The words strike deep in his soul. Vivian said that to him once, when they were arguing, but it was in exasperation, not anger.“You’re going to be all thumbs at this, so why even bother to learn how to change a diaper? You’ll get shipped off somewhere and I’ll end up doing it all anyway.”

“What do you want, Lauren? I listened to your story. What’s your quid pro quo?”

“She left you a letter. It’s in a safety deposit box. The key is in my closet, taped to the top of the door frame. Everything is ready for you. Her letter, and the letters we shared between us. I want Mindy to know that I only did this for her. That I would never have killed my best friend unless she begged me to do it, and even then, I had many reservations. But I wanted Mindy to be safe. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. Yes, maybe I shouldn’t have taken her, should have known Vivian wasn’t entirely in her right mind. But I fell in love with that child, Zack. Surely you understand that. And I’ve given her a good life. A happy life. A solid family. Encouraged all her talents. Sacrificed everything for her. She adores Jasper, and he adores her. Please don’t take that away from them.”

“She could have had that with me,” he snaps, standing. “Does Jasper know?”

“No. I’ve never told him. And that’s your part of the bargain. You need to get him to go with you to open the safety deposit box. You have to tell him about Vivian, you have to explain for me. He won’t come see me.”

She is pouting. She is actually pouting.

“Tell him yourself.”

He ignores the cries he hears through the phone, the fact that Lauren has gone white, that she’s banging on the glass. He ignores it all, slams down the receiver, and signals for the guard waiting outside to let him out of this hellhole.

93

THE WRIGHTS’ HOUSE

Zack rings the Wrights’ bell. After a few moments’ wait, Jasper opens the door, lets Kat out, and shoves it closed behind him with a bang.

Zack knocks. “Jasper, let me in. I saw Lauren. I need to talk to you.”

Crickets.

It takes ten minutes of alternately banging and shouting, but Jasper finally reopens the door.

“What do you want? Haven’t you ruined enough?”

“I need to tell you something.”

Jasper listens, incredulous at the story Zack is telling him, and finally lets Zack into the house.

It is clear Jasper is still furious, and for good reason. In his mind, Lauren wouldn’t be in jail if Zack hadn’t pressed them so hard. But he’s taken care of Kat since Zack took off down the mountain to see Lauren, and Zack knows he’s going to cool off eventually.

Honestly, Zack doesn’t care if Jasper likes him. All he’s worried about is Mindy’s safety and security. He has already filed for full custody. His lawyer thinks he might get it, considering. He hasn’t gone so far as to ban Jasper from seeing her, if only because he knows she won’t want that, but it’s been tempting. He and Jasper are never going to see eye-to-eye on the situation.

But now that Zack knows why Lauren killed Vivian, he is more relaxed. Still livid, still torn to shreds at her stupidity and callousness, but something is settled in his mind. He knows what happened to his wife now, and the idea that she was so sick, and tried to save them financially, that she was trying to be noble and make her suicide as painless as possible, well, it doesn’t make him feel better, but it gives him some closure.

The key is where Lauren promised it would be.

“What the hell?” Jasper says, seeing it.

“Believe me now?”