At a family function at my parents' house I broke an antique from my grandma. Everyone is talking and wondering who did it and I've already denied doing it. How do I tell them I was lying?
My initial instinct was to keep up the charade and let it be a mystery forever. But since you want to know how to address your lie, I guess I should help with that. (Honesty is the best policy and blah, blah, blah.)
I think this depends on how you want to spread the news. Do you tell one person and let the confession work its way through the family? Are you planning a big group sit-down and reveal? I don’t know your family dynamic, however, if you’re comfortable lying to them for any length of time, chances are you don’t feel too terribly bad about deception.
Who is the most affected by it? If the item meant something to your mom and you’re not comfortable telling her, then tell your dad or someone who doesn’t have, as they say, a dog in that fight. Let her hear it second-hand because you confided in someone else and have the message relayed that you don’t want to talk about it beyond that conversation. It can be a “you know and I know and there’s no need to talk about it again” kind of thing. When you finally cross paths, you make eye contact and you know she’s heard and your mind is clear because you set the record straight, albeit through a third party.
If, however, you’re feeling the need to apologize and make things right, that changes things entirely. Again, how close are you if you’ve been lying for this long – even if only for a day or two? Your apology then becomes twofold: for it happening and then for lying about it happening. Plus, if it was an accident then it was an accident and your reason for lying was the embarrassment about what happened, not anything personal against the family. You were ashamed that it happened and that’s it.
If you’re going the apology route, you could also see if you can find the item – whatever it is – and replace it. I get that it’s a family heirloom so it wouldn’t be THE very one that Grandma had, but at least the idea of the item still being around is there.