Chapter 12
“I know.”
“No.”
Carol’s voice softened.
“You know the facts.”
That distinction stayed with him.
That night Adam returned to the empty house.
He walked upstairs for the first time since coming home.
Marina’s side of the closet had been cleared of everyday clothes.
Not everything.
An old winter coat remained.
Two formal dresses.
A pair of boots.
Things she did not need.
It looked less like abandonment than careful selection.
She had not stormed out.
She had taken what mattered.
In the bedroom, the bassinet was gone.
The charging cord for Marina’s phone remained plugged into the wall beside the bed.
Adam stared at it.
He remembered buying Savannah a new phone charger in Florida because she had forgotten hers.
Eleven dollars at a beach pharmacy.
He had walked three blocks to get it.
Marina had called twice while he was out.
The memory made him sit down.
He took out his phone.
Savannah’s messages had multiplied since he came home.
**Are you okay?**
**You’ve been weird since you landed.**
**I thought we agreed this trip meant something.**
Then:
**Are you staying with her?**
Adam stared at that one.
The irony nearly made him laugh.
Staying.
He had spent months telling Savannah that his marriage was complicated.
That Marina had become distant during pregnancy.
That they were more like roommates.
That he felt invisible.
He had said Marina did not appreciate him.
What he had not told Savannah was that Marina still packed his lunch when she packed hers.
That she ordered his mother’s birthday gift every year.
That she remembered his contractors’ wives’ names.
That she kept antacids in her purse because he always forgot them.
That she had spent the first trimester vomiting every morning and still asked him how his presentation went.
He had converted being loved into being overlooked because gratitude would have made the affair harder to justify.
Adam typed:
**I need space.**
Savannah replied almost immediately.
**From me or from her?**
He did not answer.
Instead, he opened his thread with Marina.
For years, their messages had been ordinary.
**Need milk?**
**Your blue shirt is at cleaners.**
**Mom coming Sunday.**
**Can you grab dog food?**
**Love you. Drive safe.**
He scrolled backward.
There it was.
February 11.
Marina:
**Can you come home early tonight? The doctor wants me resting more and I’m scared something’s wrong.**
Adam:
**Big client dinner. Bernice starts soon. You’ll be okay.**