Chapter One – I Want Us
My dress. My gorgeous, stunning dress. Struggling to catch my breath, I closed my eyes. Maybe if I closed them tight, I’d open them and find this hadn’t happened. That my dress was still how it should have been. Clean and pristine.
“What happened?” I murmured. Dumb question. It was obvious what had happened. Jen’s kid had used my dress as a canvas and now… it was ruined.
“It was an accident,” Jen said, her voice still quivering. “I’m so sorry, Leah. Harley got upstairs and-”
“Just stop!” Deanna snapped, spinning around to face Jen. “This was no accident. You are a poisonous bitch who has just been waiting for a chance to ruin Leah and Radleigh’s wedding!”
“Please,” I said quietly, still trying to process. “Can one of you take the kids out into the garden? They don’t need to hear this.”
Mitch took control, and still holding Jessica, he took Jayden by the hand, and Jayden pulled Harley behind him as they walked through to the kitchen, headed for the back door.
Once they were out of earshot, I glanced up at my dress again and tears stung my eyes. It had been so perfect. The dress. Thousands of dollars spent on something that would have to be binned. Unless I wanted to walk down the aisle looking like some weird piece of art representing a rebellion against tradition, but that wasn’t really my style.
“Leah,” Deanna said gently, coming to my side and helping me to my feet. “I feel terrible about this. I didn’t know Jen was going to be here, and Mitch and I had only been home a few minutes before all this happened.”
“How did it happen?” I asked, holding onto her for support because my legs were still shaking.
The fact that Radleigh hadn’t spoken didn’t go unnoticed by me, even in my shocked state. Why wasn’t he standing up for me? Why wasn’t he saying anything? His head hung down; even he couldn’t bring himself to look at the mess Harley had made.
“We were painting,” Jen said, and I glanced over at her, wanting to smack her puffy, tear-stained face. Fake tears for a situation she’d caused. “In the kitchen. I guess… I guess I wasn’t paying enough attention, and Radleigh and I were helping Jayden mix some colours. Harley left the kitchen with the pot of blue paint but we didn’t realise he’d taken it. This is a big house, and when I found him, he was in Mitch and Deanna’s room, and…” she stopped, not really needing to continue.
I narrowed my eyes. “How long were you not paying attention?” I asked. And what were you really doing that you lost track of him for long enough that he got into Deanna’s closet? The thought made me feel sick so I halted it before it got the better of me.
“It really wasn’t that long, but-”
“Please,” Deanna interrupted. “You must think we’re all kinds of stupid to fall for this.” She turned to Radleigh. “And you. What the hell is wrong with you? You can’t really believe this was an accident? How does a three-year-old get into a closet, and just happen to stumble across a wedding dress that was put away in a protective cover at the very back? Nobody has touched it since Leah brought it over. How would he have got the cover off on his own and pulled the dress out? If you were thinking with your goddamn brain for once, you’d see that she did this!”
“But… Jen said she was down here with Radleigh when Harley was upstairs,” I said. I wasn’t trying to defend her, but even Jen couldn’t be in two places at once. She was a bitch, not a magician.
“She was.” Radleigh refused to meet my eye as he spoke.
“But she had been upstairs,” Deanna said. “Right? To use the bathroom or something?”
He nodded.
“So, for whatever reason, she thought it was okay to walk into my bedroom and look for that dress. Because there is no way in hell that little boy did this on his own without help or encouragement.”
“No!” Jen said. “I swear, I-”
“Shut up!” I snapped. “Dee is right. Even if he’d wandered off for half an hour, there’s no way he would have done all that without help. He wouldn’t have reached to take it from the hanger on his own. And even if he did, why would he have just gone for the dress? If he wanted to paint some clothes, why not all of Deanna’s clothes? Why just my wedding dress?”
“I don’t know!” She turned to Radleigh. “Please, Radleigh. I didn’t-”