Chapter 12
Sadness.
Because once, those words would have been enough to keep me trying.
Now they sounded incomplete.
“You stopped behaving like you cared.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Claire, I know I messed up.”
I waited.
“Say something.”
“What do you want me to say?”
“Anything.”
There was panic under his frustration now.
He needed me to participate in the old dance.
Accuse him.
Cry.
Demand a choice.
Give him something to push against.
I shook my head.
“I spent almost a year talking, Daniel.”
“So now you’re punishing me with silence?”
“No.”
“Then what is this?”
I looked toward the kitchen window.
Inside, Emma was rinsing her mug.
“This is me being finished with the argument.”
He stared at me.
That Sunday, Daniel finally admitted the affair had been going on for seven months.
I did not ask how many times.
I did not ask where.
I did not ask whether he loved Rachel.
The only question I asked was practical.
“Are you willing to move into the guest room while we figure out what happens next?”
Daniel looked stunned.
“You want me out of our bedroom?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know.”
His voice broke slightly.
“Claire, you haven’t even heard everything.”
I stood.
“I’ve heard enough.”
For the first time in our marriage, Daniel had the full truth he claimed I had always wanted.
And I discovered I no longer needed it.
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Chapter 4: When he started asking the questions
For years, I had been the one asking whether Daniel was coming home.
After the affair came into the open, the questions reversed.
“What are you doing after work?”
“Are you going somewhere?”
“Will you be home for dinner?”
“Who was that texting you?”
“Why are you smiling at your phone?”
At first, I found the change almost funny.
Not because I was hiding anything.
I wasn’t.
I had simply started having a life Daniel did not automatically know every detail about.
On Tuesdays, I took a beginner pottery class with my sister Megan.
On Thursdays, I sometimes met Emma near campus for dinner.
On Saturday mornings, I went to the Worthington farmers’ market.