Chapter 21 Kept in the Dark
My heart skips a beat at his tone.
"She recorded me," I finally manage to say. I look down at my trembling hands, unable to meet his gaze. "The entire conversation. Everything I said about the custody case, about our arrangement, about the contract. She has it all on her phone."
The color drains from Caius's face. It's as if the very life force has been sucked out of him. His skin has gone pale, almost gray, like all the blood has suddenly rushed away from his head. His hands, which had been clenched at his sides, slowly open and close, as if he's trying to physically grasp what I've just told him.
"You told her." He says. "You sat in my home, across from a woman you'd never met, and you told her everything."
"I didn't know she was recording—" I start to explain, but he cuts me off with a sharp gesture.
"Do you have any idea what you've done?" He explodes and I actually flinch. "Do you have the slightest inkling of what this means? Not just for me, but for Leo."
My chest tightens. I can feel tears burning behind my eyes, but I force them back. I can't break down right now. I need to explain. I need to make him understand.
"She manipulated me," I say defensively. "She came in here with photos and claims about being pregnant with your baby. She sat there looking perfect and confident and like she belonged here more than I ever could. She made me feel small and stupid and out of my depth. She set me up. She came here with a plan."
"And you walked right into it," he says coldly. "You let her manipulate you. You let her get under your skin. You let your insecurities and emotions cloud your judgment, and now we're all going to pay for it."
He's right. I did let her manipulate me. I did let my emotions take over. I did fail to see what she was doing until it was too late. Every single thing he's saying is true, and that makes it hurt even more.
But that doesn't mean I'm going to stand here and take all the blame for this. I'm not the only one who made mistakes here.
"You're right," I press my lips together. "I made a mistake. A huge, catastrophic mistake. But let's not pretend you're blameless in all of this."
His eyes narrow. "Excuse me?"
"You met with her a month ago," I continue, despite my voice trembling. "You told her you missed her. You tried to reconcile with her. You married me without ever mentioning that your ex-girlfriend might still be in the picture. You never warned me about her. Never told me she might show up. Never gave me any information that might have helped me handle the situation better."
"I didn't think she would show up," Caius says through gritted teeth. "We ended things. We agreed to move on with our lives. I had no reason to believe she would come back, especially not like this."
"She did come back," I say. "And I was completely unprepared because you kept me in the dark about your entire history with her. I didn't know how long you'd been together. Didn't know how serious it was. Didn't know you'd tried to get back together with her just weeks before you proposed this arrangement to me."
There's silence for a while before I continue.
"If I'd known about Vanessa, if I'd known you'd just tried to reconcile with her, I would have been more careful. I would have seen her coming and known what she was capable of. But I didn't know... Because you didn't tell me."
He opens his mouth to respond, then closes it again.
For a moment, we just stare at each other.
Then Caius turns away from me.
"I need you to understand what you've cost me," he says. "What you've cost Leo. If she gives that evidence to the court, if that recording is played in front of a judge, this whole thing is done. The fraud will be exposed. The court will see that our marriage is nothing but a contractual arrangement designed to meet their custody requirements. They'll see that we lied to Catherine. That we lied to the social worker. That we manipulated the entire system. And Leo will be taken away immediately."
He pauses.
"And do you know what happens next?" Caius asks. "He'll be placed in the foster system while they search for a more 'appropriate' home. He'll be handed over to strangers who don't know him. Who don't know that he just started speaking again after seven months of selective mutism. Who don't know about his nightmares or his triggers or how to help him when he's scared."
The tears I've been holding back start to spill over now.
Because I can see it. I can picture sweet, broken Leo being taken away by social workers while he cries and reaches for us. Being placed with people who mean well but don't understand him. Being moved from home to home, getting more and more damaged with each transition.
All because I couldn't keep my mouth shut for five minutes.
"He'll think we abandoned him," I whisper. "Just like his parents did."
"Yes," Caius says bluntly. "He will. And that trauma will scar him for the rest of his life."
I press my hands to my face, trying to hold myself together.
"But it gets worse," Caius continues relentlessly. "Because it won't just be Leo who suffers. Catherine has been looking for any excuse to declare me unfit. Any evidence that I'm unstable or untrustworthy or not suitable to raise a child. And what do you think she'll do with a recording that proves I committed fraud?"
I lower my hands slowly, dreading where this is going.
"She'll use it as ammunition in every legal battle from here until forever," Caius says. "She'll make sure I never get custody of Leo, not now and not in the future. She'll paint me as a liar and a manipulator. She'll destroy my reputation. And she'll make absolutely certain that Leo stays as far away from me as possible."
He runs a hand through his hair, making it stick up at odd angles.
"So yes, Lia," he says. "You made a mistake. A mistake that could cost that little boy everything. His home, his family, his sense of safety and security. All because you couldn't keep your mouth shut."
The guilt eats at me immediately.
He's right. He's absolutely right about all of it.
I destroyed everything. I put Leo's entire future at risk. I gave Catherine exactly what she needed to win.
And there's nothing I can do to take it back.