“Miranda, the woman Adam had an affair with ten years ago,” Aimee responds.
“She’s my sister,” I say.
No one speaks for a moment as I try to ease my way into this final negotiation. I’ve been preparing for months, but it’s all coming to a head so quickly. It feels surreal. Andi is outside at Stars Harbor in the presence of other people.
“Rini, you’re making a mistake,” Andi says.
I turn away from the group, shocked and confused by my sister’s words.
“You have the wrong target,” Andi adds.
“It’s not Adam?”
Andi shakes her head.
“See,” he says, taunting me.
“It’s me?” Aimee asks.
Another no from Andi.
“It was Ted,” Andi says.
ANDI
Fate is real. That, you cannot deny. If you didn’t believe in fate, you’d never believe my story. Even if you did, it’s hard to get your head around. That’s why I never told my mom or Rini. And yet, it happened. The Universe conspired to bring it all together.
Fate is real, but it’s not always kind.
It was fate that I chose Professor Flynn’s creative writing class ten years ago. It was fate that our bodies brushed and there was electricity. I didn’t even think to ask if he was married. I was nineteen years old and out of my house for the first time. In the beginning, all I knew was he was talented and sophisticated. Over the course of the semester he confided in me, sharing so much about his life—his parents’ deaths, his MFA war stories, his meddling but lovable sister—but nothing about a wife.
It was fate that she found out. And it was fate that Ted was there the night Aimee attacked me and Adam abandoned me. It was fate that Ted assured Adam he would get me cleaned up and home safely.
Ted was primed to be my savior and he knew the role well. He comforted me, called Adam a loser and a wimp, winning me over as soon as Adam was out of earshot. He pulled clothes out of his gym bag for me to change into. They’re clean, he said.
When I came out of the bathroom feeling embarrassed, he told me I looked cute. Ted was kind and gentle where Adam was commanding and self-assured. Ted was deferential where Adam took the lead. He was everything I needed in that moment and he was everything Adam was never going to be.
I was the one who kissed him first, right there in the middle of the bar, wearing his gym clothes. And when he pulled away and led me out to the back alley by the hand, I thought he was being a gentleman. Knowing the trouble I’d just gotten myself into, I asked him point-blank if he was married, or engaged, or in a serious relationship. He told me no with zero hesitation.
Our chemistry was immediate, his mouth on mine in the alley behind the bar. When he suggested we spend the night together in a hotel, and that hotel was the Gansevoort, I was swept away by the luxury. We changed into robes and flopped on the bed. When he said we didn’t have to do anything if the moment had passed, I thought he was a saint. It was the perfect one-night-stand scenario, like a scene from my favorite teen drama.
It was fate that I got pregnant during our one night together.
I hadn’t wanted a relationship with Ted, because of the timing and because of his connection to Adam, but I never doubted my desire to keep the baby. My family had fallen apart after my parents’ divorce, and to be honest, I was desperate for someone to love. Boys had caused me more pain than I’d expected. Even when the romantic love filled me up, the relationships had left me emptier than before. I wanted this baby. I needed this baby.
I didn’t know where we would live or whether my mom would approve, so I told no one. I worked as many shifts as possible to squirrel away money and to hide my morning sickness, which happened in the bar bathroom during the afternoon and night too.
About a month after I found out I was pregnant, I had a crisis of confidence. I had decided I could do this on my own, whether my mother helped or not—but now I was asking myself if I should. My father abandoning me shaped my entire life. Would my baby feel that pain too? I didn’t know if I could subject another generation to that trauma. I decided I would share the news with Ted. I would tell him he had a choice too. He could decide to be a part of the baby’s life or he would have to promise to stay away forever.
Ted saw different choices.
ADAM
Mira looks like a mirage. She stands before us, beginning her story, and she’s as stunning as she was ten years ago. Her skin is like porcelain, milky white, as if it hasn’t seen the sun in a decade. Her dark thick hair reaches to the belly button I once kissed. She’s an optical illusion summoned by the harsh atmospheric conditions. At one point, I actually rub my eyes like a total cliché.
But as she continues to talk, my horror grows. I’m in stunned disbelief that Ted tried to steal my girl. I’d told him I wasn’t in love, and he knew I was choosing Aimee when I ran after her and left Mira—Andi—with him, but would he really stoop so low?
As if in response to my question, Ted scoffs at Andi. “Don’t believe a word out of her mouth. I’ve never seen this woman before in my life,” he says, his eyes locked on Margot.
My sister shifts nervously, and I watch her gather her resolve.
“Ten years ago Ted and I were already living together. He proposed right around the time you’re talking about. None of this would have happened,” she says.
“I’m having a hard time believing it myself,” Aimee says. “That after her relationship with Adam, and my encounter with her, Ted randomly crossed her path and did something horrible to her? What are the odds? Maybe she’s mistaken.”
Andi is now as soaked as the rest of us who have been standing out in the rain. She is shaking, but it’s not cold enough to produce that reaction. She’s that scared.
“I’m not lying,” she says, barely audible above the din of the storm. Rini is by her side, and I can’t tell if it’s rain or tears—or both—streaming down her face.
“Yes, she is. She’s hell-bent on ruining our lives,” Margot cries. “The two of them, they’re liars.”
Margot charges Andi, but I grab her arm. “Ted’s the one lying,” I say. Margot recoils from my assertion. I turn to Ted. “You know her.”
Ted looks away from me and pretends to study Andi’s face. I don’t know who he thinks he’s kidding. She looks exactly the same, immaculately preserved.
“Ted was there that night. Aimee, you saw him. We were at a high-top table when you dumped drinks on Andi at the bar,” I say.
“That’s right,” Aimee says. “I followed you to Lillian’s where you were meeting her. That’s when I saw red. Ted was there.”
