Chapter 5 - Lydia’s First Lie Was Not About the Pregnancy
Police interviewed Lydia at the estate.
She declined detailed statement after counsel arrived.
But before attorney got there, witnesses heard her repeat:
“Anna slipped.”
That was a problem.
Poolside security cameras covered terrace.
Not every angle.
Enough.
One camera showed Lydia’s back.
My face.
Her arms extending.
My body moving backward with force.
Another showed side angle.
Two hands on shoulders.
No accidental collision.
Twenty-seven witnesses.
Not all saw push.
Eleven gave direct statements.
Frank.
Ethan.
Two executives.
A server.
Three relatives.
Others.
Lydia was charged initially with misdemeanor assault? Given intentional shove of pregnant woman into pool causing injury/cramping could be aggravated? South Carolina law perhaps assault and battery degrees based on injury and circumstance. We can keep general: arrested for assault and battery after investigators review. No exact statute.
She posted bond.
No contact order.
The pool incident was clear.
The financial case was not.
That took months.
But her first provable lie after shove made investigators ask about older lies.
So did Ethan.
Two days after hospital, he came to my room alone.
No flowers.
Good.
He sat.
“I need to tell you something.”
“What?”
“Mom told me your fertility treatments were being reimbursed through company executive health.”
“They weren’t.”
“I know now.”
“How much did she say?”
“Six hundred thousand over ten years.”
I stared.
“Where did she get that?”
“I don’t know.”
“My treatments cost less than two hundred thousand total.”
“I know.”
“Ethan.”
He looked sick.
“She showed me a spreadsheet.”
“What spreadsheet?”
“Executive wellness costs under your cost center.”
I understood.
Those costs included:
Executive physicals.
Travel health insurance.
Leadership counseling.
Security.
Occupational testing.
Several people.
Not fertility treatment.
“She told you all of it was mine?”
“Yes.”
“And you believed her.”
“Yes.”
“Did you ask finance?”
“No.”
“Ask me?”
“No.”
“Why?”
He swallowed.
“Because by then every time we talked about money, you became defensive.”
I laughed once.
“Of course.”
“I know how that sounds.”
“No. You know how she made it sound.”
He looked at me.
“I should have checked.”
“Yes.”
“Anna…”
“No absolution.”
“I’m not asking.”
Good.
Then:
“She also told me you said I was the reason treatments failed.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“After our last clinic visit.”
“I never said that.”
“She said you told her Dr. Patel thought my sperm quality…”
“Dr. Patel told us both the primary diagnosis was unexplained infertility with age-related factors later.”
“I know.”
“Why would I tell your mother something different?”
He looked away.
Because he had never asked.
Lydia’s real talent was not lying wildly.
It was telling each person a sentence close enough to existing insecurity that checking felt more painful than believing.
She told me Ethan had said:
“I wish I had married someone who could give me children.”
I never confronted him because I was humiliated.
Now I asked.
“Did you say that?”
His head snapped up.
“No.”
“To Lydia?”
“No.”
“Ever?”
“No.”
I stared.
“Then she lied to me too.”
We sat in silence.
The divorce had not been caused entirely by Lydia.
Our failures belonged to us.
But she had been placing fingers on cracks.
May you like
Pressing.
For years.
