Chapter 2 - THE HOUSE HE THOUGHT WAS HIS
The twenty-fourth notification arrived as I pulled into my driveway.
Don't do anything stupid. I'm coming home.
I stared at the message.
The wording was familiar.
Kyle had always framed my independence as recklessness.
When I wanted to take a promotion, he called it unnecessary stress.
When I suggested separate savings accounts, he called it distrust.
When I asked why Sophia had accompanied him to a conference in Denver, he said I was making his professional life difficult.
And now, after feeding another woman our anniversary cake, he was warning me not to do anything stupid.
I walked inside.
Our townhouse smelled faintly of lemon polish and the rosemary plant I kept near the kitchen window.
The hallway photographs showed five years of a marriage that had looked happy from the outside.
I stopped beside our wedding portrait.
Kyle's arm was around my waist.
I remembered what he had whispered before the photographer took the picture.
You and me against the world.
I had believed him.
I turned the photograph facedown.
Then I went upstairs and opened the hall closet.
Kyle's luggage sat on the top shelf.
I pulled down his black carry-on and placed it beside the bedroom door.
I wasn't going to throw his belongings onto the lawn.
I wasn't going to destroy his suits.
I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of calling me hysterical.
Instead, I opened my laptop.
First, I changed the password on my personal email account.
Then I checked our joint checking account.
The balance made me frown.
We normally kept around eighteen thousand dollars there for household expenses.
Tonight, there were only six thousand four hundred.
I scrolled through the transactions.
A transfer for $8,000.
Another for $2,750.
Both sent to an account ending in 9016.
I didn't recognize it.
My stomach tightened.
The transfers had occurred over the previous six weeks.
I opened our shared credit card statement.
There were charges from a luxury hotel in Denver.
A jewelry boutique.
A restaurant in Milwaukee.
And a Chicago apartment management company.
The dates corresponded with nights Kyle had claimed to be traveling for work.
I sat back.
For months, I had wondered whether my husband was cheating.
Now I was wondering whether he had been financing his affair with money I deposited to keep our household running.
My phone rang.
Clara.
I answered.
“Are you home?”
“Yes.”
“Is Kyle there?”
“Not yet.”
She exhaled.
“Good.”
I heard traffic behind her.
“Clara?”
“I'm outside your house.”
I looked toward the window.
Her headlights illuminated the driveway.
I opened the front door.
Clara hurried inside, carrying my coat.
I hadn't even realized I'd left it at the restaurant.
She hugged me.
I held on longer than I intended.
“I'm sorry,” she whispered.
“For what?”
“For not saying something sooner.”
I pulled back.
“What do you mean?”
Her eyes filled.
“I saw them together last month.”
The room went quiet.
“Where?”
“At the Langham. I was meeting a client for lunch.”
I stared.
“Were they working?”
Clara shook her head.
“He kissed her.”
My chest tightened.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I should have. I kept thinking there might be an explanation, and then I couldn't figure out how to say it without hurting you.”
I looked away.
Clara touched my hand.
“I was wrong.”
For a moment, I wanted to be angry.
But Clara wasn't the one who had promised to love me.
“Thank you for telling me now.”
She nodded.
Then her phone buzzed.
She looked at the screen.
Her expression changed.
“Eleanor.”
“What?”
“You need to see this.”
It was a photograph from the anniversary dinner.
Kyle had his arm around Sophia.
Someone had posted it in the marketing team's group chat.
Beneath it was a caption.
The real power couple behind North Harbor's biggest win.
I stared at the screen.
The photograph had been taken before the cake arrived.
Before I walked out.
May you like
Before anyone could pretend it had all been a misunderstanding.
And beneath the photograph, Kyle had reacted with a heart.
