Chapter 5 - The Lie Underneath the Lie
Something in me had gone very cold and very clear.
"Walter. Did we actually meet by accident on that beach?"
His face answered before his mouth could.
I stood up.
"You knew who I was. Before that first morning."
"Yes."
That single word hit harder than everything else he had said.
"I knew your name," he said. "And I knew you were coming here."
"How?"
He looked sick. "Susan met your Claire in an online gardening group. Claire posted an old family photo once, and Susan recognized David from pictures I'd shown her. Later Claire mentioned her mother was taking a month alone on the Oregon coast. Susan told me."
"And you booked a rental here."
"Yes."
"Two buildings from mine."
"Yes."
"Because of something my dead husband said to you in a diner."
Walter shut his eyes. "At first."
"At first?"
"I told myself I'd introduce myself, tell you about David, pass along what he said, and then leave you alone."
"But you didn't leave me alone."
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because after five minutes on that beach, I wanted you to know me before you knew why I'd come." His voice cracked. "And then after five days, I was terrified the truth would wreck whatever was starting. And every day I waited made it worse."
"My feelings this month were real," I said. "Mine. Yours came with information mine didn't have."
"I know."
"You let me make choices in the dark, Walter. You stood there and watched me do it."
"What I did to you wasn't fair. Whatever David meant, he didn't give me permission to steer your choices."
"You said David made you do this." My voice was climbing now. "On the phone. Those were your exact words. 'What David made me do.'"
Walter flinched like I'd struck him.
"He didn't. Not literally. That's just — that's how I'd been telling the story to myself."
"Then tell me the true version."
He put both hands flat on the table, like he needed it to hold him up. "David gave me my daughter back. When he told me not to let you disappear, I turned it into a debt I owed him. Then Susan told me about your trip, and I decided that was my chance to pay it off."
"So David didn't send you."
"No."
"You sent yourself. And then you hid behind a dead man to feel okay about it."
Walter's jaw went tight. His eyes were wet.
"Yes," he said. "That's exactly what I did."
For a while, neither of us spoke.
"At first it was about my guilt," he finally said. "Later it was about you. Which is precisely when I should have told you everything." He looked up. "If you need to leave, Margaret, I won't try to stop you."
May you like
So I walked out of the room.
But I didn't get on my flight the next morning.
