Everyone in the kitchen recognized the voice instantly.
It was Vanessa.
The audio continued, unburdening its dark secrets.
“Beatrice was always such a fool, so proper, so decent, so hopelessly in love with that idiot,” Vanessa laughed.
“It truly made me laugh to see her believing Caleb was going to stay with her forever,” she continued.
“I stole the photos, I sent the messages from Katherine’s phone, and I let everyone believe she was the traitor,” she confessed.
“And you know what the best part was? Katherine stayed silent to protect her mother’s job, and it was so easy to crush them,” she said, letting out a cruel, sharp laugh.
Beatrice put a hand to her mouth to stifle a gasp, while Robert muttered a deep, frustrated curse under his breath.
Caleb closed his eyes as if each word were a physical wound being opened anew.
Vanessa’s voice continued, growing lower and even more venomous.
“Katherine carried my guilt for three years, Beatrice lost her job, and Caleb was filled with enough hatred to burn his own life down, and I just had to wait and watch,” she said.
“In the end, everyone danced exactly the way I wanted them to,” she concluded.
The audio recording finally ended, leaving behind a silence so heavy that even the birds in the garden seemed to have stopped singing.
Grace felt her legs buckle, and she sat down in the nearest armchair, desperate to cry, to scream, and to find Katherine to beg for her forgiveness for every doubt that had crossed her mind.
Caleb stood up awkwardly, his movements stiff.
“I have to see her,” he said.
Grace stood in his way, her eyes flashing.
“For what possible reason?” she asked.
“To ask for her forgiveness,” he replied.
“And do you honestly think that forgiveness is something you can just earn by crying for a while and undoing the damage you caused?” she challenged.
Caleb did not respond, his head hanging low.
“You did not just believe a lie, Caleb, you nurtured it, you planned it, and you took her hand in front of God and everyone, knowing that your heart was full of nothing but cold revenge,” she stated.
“I know that now,” he whispered.
“No, you are barely beginning to understand the magnitude of your choices,” she corrected him.
Beatrice stepped forward, her voice calm but clearly pained.
“I failed as well, because Katherine tried to reach out to me many times, and I chose to ignore her,” she admitted.
“I preferred to cling to my own pain because it was easier to hate her than to accept that I had been manipulated,” she added.
Grace looked at Beatrice, and for the first time, she did not see the ghost of her son’s past, but another victim of the same cruel scheme.
“Why did Vanessa choose to confess to you last night?” Grace asked.
Beatrice pressed her lips together tightly.
“I ran into her at a bar in the city, and she was drunk, mocking the wedding and saying that Katherine was finally going to pay for what she never actually did,” she explained.
“I recorded her because I could not live with the uncertainty for another single day,” she added.
“So you were the one who sent the audio to us?” Grace asked.
Beatrice nodded slowly.
“Yes, and I did not know if you would open the door for me, but Katherine deserves for someone to finally tell the truth on her behalf,” she said.
