She died a wife, Returned a flame
"To make you doubt me. To destroy our family. Because that's what she can't stand, that I have a wife who loves me. A son who needs me. A life that doesn't include her."
The baby's cries reached a fever pitch. Vanessa flinched, maternal instinct warring with the shock and pain.
"She's the villain here, Vanessa," I said softly. "Not me. I'm the victim of a psychopath's revenge plot. We both are."
I watched her face as she processed this new narrative. I could see it happening, the reframing of reality, the rewriting of what she'd seen and heard.
"But she seemed so sure," Vanessa said weakly. "So angry."