Beautiful Liar

by Natasha Knight

  Those words had slammed into me hard. I’d stopped. I’d heard it, heard her, and as much as my gut reaction was that she lied, I knew on a deeper level that this time, it had been the truth.

  Nick at least had looked mildly upset by the outburst. I guess that was a level of pain he had wanted to spare me. Why, I had no idea. Maybe because he’d gotten what he wanted. He’d taken my wife, my family, my life. It belonged to him now, all of it.

  Nick and I had been friends for so long, I couldn’t remember a time without him. Raised like brothers, I had simply trusted him. Why not? What reason was there not to? But all that time, it had been something else for him. Underneath it all, he resented me. I was blind not to see his jealousy, his hatred of me. Well, he showed me, didn’t he?

  Leaving Mel had been one of the hardest things I’d ever done, but I had no claim to her. There were two reasons I didn’t go public with the knowledge that my then-wife and her lover had set me up. The scandal would hurt Mel even more than my own public shaming. And it gave me leverage. The DNA report would expose Nick and Dinah. I used that fact to my advantage, and we reached an agreement. My silence ensured I could still be a part of Mel’s life, at least in some way.

  Thunder rolled across the sky, and I looked down at the small crib I’d finished a few days ago. A crib for a miniature family, a tiny baby. I sighed. Would I ever move on from this?

  The wind picked up, and large drops of rain wet my clothes and face. I gathered my equipment and took everything into the house. I’d have a nursery ready to send to Mel in a few days’ time. Not more than five minutes after I got inside, the doorbell rang. I went to answer it and found MacKayla standing at my front door. She wore a pair of jeans and had her coat buttoned all the way up. The wind had blown some of her now damp hair out of its ponytail, and raindrops covered her face. She must have run over from her house.

  “MacKayla.” I knew she was known as Mac here, but MacKayla felt somehow familiar, and I needed familiar. Well, I don’t know that I needed it. Clung to it was probably more appropriate. “Come in.” I stood aside, wondering what I should feel, knowing only that it wasn’t what I thought it would be.

  “Thanks.” She stepped inside but stood in the doorway, so I couldn’t close the door.

  “You’re early,” I said, questioning my original plan, doubting myself, no longer sure what I was doing, what I wanted out of this because the things I felt, they made no fucking sense.

  “I can’t come tonight, Slater.”

  I opened my mouth to speak, but she held up her hand.

  “My sister surprised me at the shop. She’s here along with my niece. I don’t know how long they’ll stay, but until I can explain about you, I… Please, I’m sorry, I…”

  “She’s here? Why?”

  MacKayla hesitated, shifting her eyes for a moment before returning them to mine. “She thought I sounded strange the other night.”

  “So she’s worried about you? Because of me?” I felt like a jerk. Here I was, twice her size, and I’d come with the intention of hurting her.

  “No, nothing like that.”

  She wasn’t telling me everything, and I knew it had to do with her stepdad. We both spoke at once, but I stopped so she could go on.

  “Um…” she shrugged a shoulder. “Maybe, if you want to eat something with us?”

  “You’re inviting me to dinner?” I sounded like an idiot, but this wasn’t the kind of relationship we had. My intention had never been to have any sort of relationship with MacKayla. And certainly not one where we invited each other to dinner.

  She nodded, obviously feeling just as strange. Her front door opened, and a woman appeared with a little girl in her arms. We both turned. The little girl was upset, and her mom, who I guessed to be Janey, pointed at the sky and the rain. She caught sight of us then and, after a moment, waved before going back inside and closing the door.

  “That’s them,” MacKayla said after an awkward moment. “I’d better get back and see what she needs.”

  “What time?” I asked, not wanting to be alone.

  No, not only that. I wanted to be with her. The nights she didn’t come, I went to watch her dance. Did she know? I kept an eye on her, waiting for her to get done. When she left the building, I’d watch her get into her car before following a few minutes behind her.

  She shrugged. “Half an hour?”

  “Thanks.”

  She nodded and ran back to her house, the rain now pouring down. I watched her go inside before closing the door. I’d just accepted a dinner invitation from MacKayla Simone, the woman who had fucked me for money. The woman I’d come here to punish.

  Shaking my head, I went upstairs to have a shower and put on clean clothes, not even trying to make sense of this because it made no sense. Half an hour later, as I headed out the front door, I paused and turned back to the nursery set I’d made for Mel. I picked up the small baby doll and crib and shoved them into my pocket. Maybe the little girl needed something to play with.

  MacKayla answered the door on the second ring, looking a little frazzled. From inside came the sounds of a crying child and something boiling over on the stove.

  “Uh, come in.”

  She wiped her hands on a towel and glanced over her shoulder at the the kitchen. She left me standing there and ran back to the kitchen. I heard her mutter a curse while turning knobs on the stove. I closed the door and surveyed the room while taking off my jacket.

  “You must be Slater,” Janey said. She sat on the floor beside the little girl. Tears streaked the child’s face, and her chest heaved from crying, but she seemed to be placated for the moment by the cartoon on TV.

  “Hi, yes. Janey?”

  She stood as I approached and took my hand to shake it, smiling broadly up at me. “It’s nice to finally meet you,” she said. Another surprise today.

  “Nice to meet you.” I felt like a buffoon standing there.

  “This is Sadie,” she said, filling the awkward silence. “Say hi, Sadie.”

  The girl grunted, her tear-stained eyes glued to the TV.

  “Our suitcase hasn’t made it yet,” Janey said. “No toys.”

  “Oh.” I glanced at MacKayla, who dumped a steaming pot of something down the drain. The smell from the kitchen told me she’d burned whatever it was she’d been trying to make. “Maybe this will help,” I said, taking the toys out of my jacket pocket and holding them out for Janey to see.

  “Wow. Where’d you get these?”

  I shrugged as she picked up the tiny crib and studied the detailed work. “I made them. I was going to send them to my little girl—” I paused. She wasn’t my little girl. I needed to get that straight in my head. “But when I saw you in the doorway earlier…”

  “You made them?”

  She looked up at me, her pale blue eyes soft, kind. She and Mac shared the same chin, a little stubborn, but that’s where the physical similarities ended.

  I nodded, a little embarrassed now when I noticed that MacKayla’s attention had been drawn to us. Janey put the crib back into my hand and stepped aside, gesturing for me to give them to Sadie, who had just begun to cry again when a commercial disturbed her cartoon.

  Lowering myself to one knee so as not to scare the little one, I held them out to her. “Hey, Sadie, I’m Slater,” I said, feeling more than a little strange with the two women watching me. “Looks to me like you could use some toys to play with during the commercial breaks.”

  Janey chuckled behind me as Sadie eyed the toys, cautiously curious at first. She glanced up at me, and I saw the remarkable similarity in her eyes to MacKayla’s.

  “Baby,” she said, pointing to the little doll in the crib. “Shh. Baby sleeping.”

  “Why don’t you take care of the baby?” I asked in a whisper, smiling at her, my heart twisting a little as I thought of my own little girl at this age. It seemed an eternity ago.

  “Sadie’s baby,” she said, taking the toys out of my hand and setting the
m on the floor in front of her.

  “Wow,” MacKayla said from behind me.

  I rose to my feet, and Janey took my place beside her little girl.

  “Say thank you to Slater,” she instructed.

  “Thank you, Sater.”

  I smiled at how she said my name. “You’re welcome.”

  “You made those?” MacKayla asked.

  I shrugged and turned my attention to MacKayla. “What’s going on in the kitchen?”

  “Burned the spaghetti sauce. I didn’t realize it would warm up so fast.”

  I headed to the kitchen and inspected the black-bottomed pot, noticing the now-empty jar of store-bought sauce.

  “I guess we can order pizza,” she said.

  I checked the state of the pasta, almost ready. “You have basil here.” A pot of it stood in the windowsill. I opened the fridge. “Pine nuts, Parmesan cheese.” I closed it. “Do you have garlic?” She had decent olive oil on the counter.

  “There.” She pointed to a small basket by the sink.

  “I’ll make pesto. How about a blender?”

  “You can make that?”

  “It’s not rocket science.” She made a face. “But I guess if you can manage to burn a jar of spaghetti sauce…”

  “In my defense, I was distracted.”

  I smiled and broke off a clove of garlic. “Where’s your blender?”

  MacKayla reached into a cupboard, and I began to take leaves off the basil plant and reduced the heat on the pasta. Finding a cutting board, I crushed the garlic and tossed all of the ingredients into the blender.

  “Pasta’s probably ready. Maybe you can drain it while I finish up the pesto.”

  She watched me make the pesto over my shoulder. “Looks good. I wouldn’t have guessed you to know your way around a kitchen.”

  “Amazing how people will surprise you when you take the time to get to know them.” What the hell did I mean by that?

  She smiled a guilty smile and nodded. An awkward moment hung between us before she moved to drain the pasta and found four dishes.

  “I’ll cut up Sadie’s pasta,” Janey said, joining us in the kitchen while Sadie played quietly with the nursery set.

  Janey was an interesting girl. I had the feeling she saw and understood everything.

  I loaded pasta onto the dishes while MacKayla emptied a bag of salad into a bowl, and we carried everything into the dining room. Janey brought Sadie over, although she’d only come if her ‘baby’ was allowed to as well. She sat on Janey’s lap, since MacKayla didn’t have a high chair, and Janey fed her—or tried to. But Sadie insisted on feeding herself.

  Another uncomfortable silence descended while MacKayla focused on her plate and Janey on Sadie.

  “How long are you in town?” I asked Janey.

  “Not sure. MacKayla sounded like she needed some company, and it was high time I saw my sister, so I’m here as long as she needs me.”

  MacKayla smiled at her and cast a nervous glance my way. I wondered how much she’d told her sister about me. About us.

  “How about you, Slater? I heard you just moved here? I’m guessing you came for Mac.”

  MacKayla choked on a mouthful of pasta.

  “I did, actually. You know of our history?” I asked, winding pesto-covered pasta around my fork.

  She nodded as if we were talking about the weather. Okay. I could do that.

  “So how long are you planning on staying?” she asked.

  MacKayla waited for an answer, her expression anxious. I looked back at Janey. “No definite plans,” I replied.

  “Have you found what you were looking for?” she continued.

  “Interesting question.” I shifted my gaze to MacKayla, who now studied her plate. “I guess I’d have to know what I was looking for to answer that.”

  Janey nodded in understanding and, with her attention back on Sadie, said, “I think you know. It’s just a matter of how deep you’re willing to dig to uncover it.”

  I was stunned. And mute. Happily, Sadie chose that moment to pick up two handfuls of pasta and squeeze, saving me from a discussion that could only go where I was not ready for it to go.

  “Oh no!” Janey jumped.

  I wiped my mouth to hide my laughter. She was cute. A freaking mess with food, but cute. By the time she was through, bright green pesto covered her face, hands—hell, most of her and some of Janey.

  “I guess dinner’s over for us.”

  “You hardly ate,” MacKayla said, standing.

  Janey put her hand up. “It’s fine, I’ll eat after I put her to bed. She’s overtired from the trip and barely had a nap this afternoon. You two enjoy the rest of the meal. Thank you, Slater. It was delicious. And it was nice to meet you in person.”

  “You’re welcome, and you too. Good night, Sadie.”

  Sadie buried her pesto-caked mouth in Janey’s neck.

  “Ugh. Bath time for both of us, huh, Sadie?”

  Sadie smiled a huge smile and grabbed both of Janey’s cheeks. “Yaaaaay!”

  The doorbell rang just then, and both sisters stiffened, eyes wide, and locked on each other. Sadie began to kick her legs and slap her dirty hands on Janey’s cheeks.

  The doorbell rang again.

  “You want me to get that?” I asked.

  MacKayla cleared her throat and wiped her mouth. “It’s okay. I’ll get it.”

  I followed her to the door, her anxiety marked on her face. A third ring came before she peeked out the window beside the door and exhaled a sigh of relief before pulling the door open.

  “Hello,” the man said, checking his clipboard. “Janey Simone?”

  “Yes,” Janey called out, coming to the door.

  The man paused at the sight of her with pesto smeared across her face.

  “Airline located your suitcase, ma’am. I’ll go grab it if you can sign here.” He held out the clipboard, which MacKayla took since Janey still held Sadie. The girls looked at each other and giggled as if they’d expected Satan himself behind the door. And I had a feeling I knew who personified Satan for them.

  Sadie pointed, saying something when she saw the suitcase.

  “They found our stuff, Sadie!”

  “Yay!” Sadie cheered.

  The man brought the suitcase up the porch stairs and set it inside the house, then left.

  “Where do you want it?” I asked, picking it up.

  “Oh.” Janey glanced at MacKayla before replying. “Follow me.”

  I did, curious about the house. I hadn’t been upstairs yet. I wanted to be. We passed the master bedroom, which faced mine. I peeked inside to see the blinds on her windows were closed. I’d ask her to leave them open from now on.

  “Right here, if you don’t mind,” Janey said, pointing to a spot in the second bedroom, which contained only a double bed and a nightstand with a lamp on it. “I don’t want to set Sadie down with her dirty hands. She’ll make a mess of everything.”

  “Here, I’ll hold her if you want to grab a few things.”

  “Oh, no. She’ll get pesto all over you.”

  I didn’t care. Right at that moment, I wanted to hold this little girl more than anything else. “I think she smeared most of it off on you.”

  “Well, that’s true,” Janey said, handing the little girl to me.

  “Baby,” Sadie said, holding up the small toy I’d given her, now covered in pesto.

  “Sadie’s baby,” I said with a smile. I didn’t remember how it had felt to hold Mel at this age. Funny, things you never thought you’d forget, you forgot.

  “You have a little girl, don’t you?” Janey asked as she unpacked a few things. She glanced over and saw my face. “Shit, sorry. I didn’t mean—”

  “It’s fine. She’s not mine, actually.” I don’t know who I surprised more by saying that out loud, but when Sadie squealed upon sighting her favorite toy, Janey took her back. I headed downstairs, more confused than ever.

  MacKayla sat at the table,
which she’d cleared off. I joined her.

  “Your pesto was good,” she said when I sat down.

  “Thank you.”

  “It was sweet of you to bring those things for Sadie.”

  I nodded. “She’s a cute kid. MacKayla, who did you expect at the door? You and Janey both looked—”

  “Scared?” she filled in, her lips forming a trembling smile that quickly faded.

  “Terrified, actually. Tell me. Let me help you.” She ran her hand through her hair, then got up and moved over to the couch. I followed her.

  “You’re a really good guy, Slater. You didn’t deserve what happened to you.”

  “Actually, it was good that it did. It opened my eyes to a lot of things, the most important being that I learned the truth about Mel.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She’s not my biological daughter. She’s Nick’s. Dinah and Nick had been having an affair for a very long time.”

  “Oh my God, Slater.” She covered her mouth with her hand. “God. How long have you known?”

  “Three years. I hired my own investigators, and when I learned it was Dinah and Nick who had set me up, I confronted them. When I threatened to take Mel away, she told me. I didn’t want to believe her. I knew she’d do anything to hurt me. But modern science is an incredible thing. DNA proved what she said was true. Not a single doubt.”

  “That’s why you left.”

  I nodded. “I would never have walked away from my little girl. Just turned out she wasn’t mine.”

  “Why didn’t you go public with this? With all of it?”

  “Because in the end, it would hurt Mel. And, with me knowing, I could still have some sort of relationship with her, even if she isn’t mine. To me, well, I love her. That shitty piece of paper can’t change that. You don’t just stop loving someone, you know?”

  “I do know,” she said, her expression thoughtful. She touched my hand, then scooted closer. “We thought it was Bill, that’s why we were both pretty jumpy.”

  “What does he want with you?”

  She hung her head for a moment, perhaps considering.