Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later by Francine Pascal

Valley
     
    Jessica got her mother’s call the same day her sister did. And when she told Todd, the first question he asked was, “Is Elizabeth coming?”
    “Are you kidding? Like, there’s no way. Not with us there.”
    “Did you ask?”
    “She’d have said something if Elizabeth were coming. But, you know, I almost wish she would, I mean be there, even though it totally scares me.”
    “It’s been eight months, maybe it’s time.”
    “What do you think about our wedding; you think she’ll come?”
    “No, I really don’t think she will. It’s one thing to come to a family celebration, like your grandmother’s birthday, but coming to our wedding? I think that would be too hard.”
    Jessica shook her head; she knew Todd was right, but still she felt unhappy and disappointed.
    “What’s going to happen with us?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe one day she’ll forgive us. That would be like Elizabeth.”
    “You still care for her, don’t you?”
    It was a question Jessica had asked many times in these last months, but not in this context. It took awhile, but she’d come to understand that that other part of Todd’s love for Elizabeth was over.
    Todd didn’t have to think long. “Elizabeth is someone you can’t stop loving.” It was good for him to be able to say it. It was an indication of how far his relationship with Jessica had come.
    “I know. I can’t, either.”
    No matter how many times Jessica tried to rationalize, to give some small iota of integrity to what she had done, she never succeeded. But she kept trying. She accepted that nothing would ever excuse the betrayal, but if only she could find some way that Elizabeth could understand the love—not approve, maybe not forgive—but understand. She would settle for that.
    If only she could have some part of her sister back. She had never faced anything of this magnitude without Elizabeth’s comfort and good counsel.
    Eight months ago in France, when she desperately wanted to leave Regan, the only one she called was Elizabeth. That call made leaving her husband viable. Talking to her wise sister cut right through the misery of indecision, and with Elizabeth’s permission, her life could start over again. She remembered the strength that conversation gave her.

     
    “Okay, that’s decided, but don’t do anything until I get there,” Elizabeth says. “I can be in Nice by tomorrow morning.”
    “No,” I tell her. “I can handle this, really, as long as I know you’re going to be there for me when I get back to Sweet Valley.”
    “I’m waiting for you. And if you’re not back in two days, I’m coming to get you.”
    “I’ll be there. I promise. I so love you, Lizzie.”
    “I love you, too, Jess.”
    I click off my cell phone, or as the French insist, le portable, and feel a hundred percent better. Talking to Elizabeth can do that for me. She makes me feel safe and loved, just what I so need.
    Though why anyone whose magnificent blue-and-white 149-foot yacht is sitting glistening in the dazzling sunshine of the Côte d’Azur, stocked with an ever-obliging crew of ten and a doting husband, wouldn’t feel safe and loved already was a question peculiar to me. But that’s the way it is.
    When I don’t want something, I don’t want it right this minute. Like this whole marriage. And I don’t want to have to sit through endless boring discussions about how we could make it work and all that. It’s over, and I’m ready to move on. Even six months has been too long.
    Okay, there were fun parts. Like that he is fabulously handsome—dark hair, charcoal eyes, a great body—and very young-looking for forty-two. And with his wealth and brains he’s extremely powerful, which is very sexy. And I love the parties and the private planes and yachts and all that stuff. Like, who wouldn’t? But his friends are all too boring, and I know they don’t like me. The age difference matters more than I thought it would.
    We don’t want to do the