Chapter 4 - What Brenda Heard
Brenda didn't speak immediately.
That silence terrified Virginia more than any accusation could have.
"Brenda," she warned.
Her sister leaned back.
"No. You invited me here for a reason. Now everyone should know what it was."
Justin looked from one woman to the other.
"What did she say?"
Virginia stood.
"I'm not discussing private conversations."
"You were discussing Chloe," Brenda replied. "So I'm not sure you get to call it private."
My stomach tightened.
Brenda looked at me.
"Virginia called me Tuesday night."
Virginia's lips compressed.
"She said Justin had changed since marrying you."
Justin frowned.
"Changed how?"
Brenda hesitated.
"She said Chloe had made you soft."
I almost laughed from disbelief.
Virginia snapped, "That isn't what I meant."
Brenda continued.
"She said Chloe controlled the apartment, controlled your schedule and had convinced you that husbands shouldn't expect their wives to take care of them."
Justin stared at his mother.
"You said that?"
Virginia crossed her arms.
"I was worried about you."
"I'm thirty-two."
"You're still my son."
"And Chloe is my wife."
That sentence changed the room.
Brenda wasn't finished.
"She also said she was going to use these four weeks to remind you what a properly run household looked like."
Walter's head lifted.
"You told her that?"
Virginia looked at him.
"I was frustrated."
Brenda shook her head.
"No, Ginny. You had a plan."
Virginia flinched at the childhood nickname.
"You told me you were going to make Chloe lose her temper in front of Justin."
Nobody moved.
My hand tightened around Virginia's plate.
"What?"
Brenda looked ashamed.
"She said if Chloe finally snapped, Justin might realize what kind of woman he'd married."
Justin slowly stood.
The hurt in his face was worse than anger.
"You were trying to make my wife lose control?"
Virginia's confidence finally cracked.
"I wasn't trying to—"
"You invited Brenda here to watch?"
"Justin, listen to me."
"No. Answer."
Virginia's eyes filled.
That almost worked on him.
I saw the reflex.
The instinct to comfort her.
Then he looked at me.
And something inside him seemed to settle.
"Answer me."
Virginia whispered, "I thought you deserved better."
The words hit harder than everything else.
I set the plate on the kitchen counter.
Justin went completely still.
"Better than Chloe?"
Virginia said nothing.
That was answer enough.
I expected myself to feel triumphant.
Instead, I felt exhausted.
Walter stood.
"Virginia, apologize."
She looked at him as if he'd betrayed her too.
"I was protecting my son."
"From what?" Walter asked. "A wife who opened her home to us?"
Virginia looked around the table.
Nobody defended her.
Not even Justin.
Especially not Justin.
She left the room.
A bedroom door slammed moments later.
Silence followed.
Then Brenda looked at me.
"I'm sorry."
"You didn't do it."
"I should've told you before coming."
"Why didn't you?"
She looked toward the hallway.
"Because she's my sister. And I kept hoping she'd hear herself."
Walter gave a bitter laugh.
"I've been hoping that for forty years."
Justin sat down again.
He looked devastated.
I touched his shoulder.
He looked up.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For every time I told you to let it go."
That apology mattered.
But it wasn't enough.
Because now that Virginia's plan had been exposed, we had a larger problem.
She was still staying in our home.
Her medical appointments weren't finished.
May you like
And for the first time in his life, Justin was going to have to decide what happened when keeping peace with his mother meant betraying peace with his wife.
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