Chapter 1
THE THURSDAY HE WAS NEVER AT THE OFFICE
PART 1: THE CALL AT 5:21
At 5:21 on a Thursday afternoon, my husband’s boss called our house and accidentally destroyed my marriage.
I didn’t know that was what was happening when I answered.
I was standing in the kitchen with one hand pressed against the refrigerator door, trying to decide whether the salmon I had bought for dinner needed another ten minutes before I started cooking it. My phone was on the counter beside a half-empty glass of water.
Lucas had texted me less than an hour earlier.
Going to be stuck at the office late. Don’t wait for dinner.
I had been annoyed when I read it.
Not angry. Not suspicious.
Just disappointed in the ordinary way a wife gets disappointed when a Thursday dinner turns into another evening alone.
Then the phone rang.
I almost ignored it because I didn’t recognize the number.
“Hello?”
There was a short pause.
“Hi. Is this Lucas’s wife?”
“Yes.”
“This is Daniel Warren. Lucas’s boss.”
I straightened immediately.
Daniel had never called our house before.
I had met him twice at company events, enough to recognize the careful, professional voice.
“Oh. Hi.”
“I’m sorry to bother you at home.” He sounded uncomfortable. “I was trying to reach Lucas on his cell. He’s not answering.”
I looked at Lucas’s message on the counter.
“He’s probably busy.”
Another pause.
The kind of pause that becomes important only after you understand what came next.
Daniel cleared his throat.
“I just wanted to check that he was feeling better.”
For a second I thought I had misheard him.
“Feeling better?”
“Yes.”
I remember touching the edge of the kitchen counter with my fingertips.
“He said he wasn’t feeling well?”
Daniel became quieter.
“He called in this morning.”
The kitchen seemed to lose its sound.
Even the refrigerator stopped humming, or maybe I simply stopped hearing it.
“What do you mean?”
“He took the day off.”
I stared at Lucas’s message.
Going to be stuck at the office late.
“What time?”
“I’m sorry?”
“What time did he call?”
“A little after seven, I think. He said he needed a personal day.”
My mouth went dry.
“That can’t be right.”
Daniel didn’t answer.
I could hear him breathing softly at the other end.
I tried again.
“Lucas was at work today.”
The silence was worse this time.
Finally Daniel said, very carefully, “No. He wasn’t.”