Chapter 4
“There was a paternity test.”
I gripped the edge of the trunk.
“Noah is Daniel’s.”
“Yes.”
Daniel Reed.
Kayla’s ex-husband.
A man I had never met.
I had seen his name once on a Christmas card at Jason’s office.
“So Kayla is lying to my husband.”
“Yes.”
“And my husband is leaving me because he believes her child might be his.”
“I don’t know if that’s the only reason.”
It wasn’t.
I knew that even then.
A man does not pack two suitcases because of one story.
But suddenly the affair became something stranger.
Older.
More calculated.
“What do you want from me?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
Andrea took a long time to answer.
“Because Noah is six.”
I didn’t understand.
“So?”
“My sister is making him part of a lie.”
That answer sounded real.
“And because my mother knows.”
“What does your mother know?”
“Everything.”
I closed my eyes.
Families always know more than wives think they do.
At least someone’s family does.
Andrea gave me Daniel’s phone number.
I did not call immediately.
I went home.
Put away the groceries.
Made dinner.
Jason arrived at 8:20.
Late meeting.
Of course.
He kissed my cheek.
“You okay?”
I looked at him.
For the first time in fifteen years, I wondered whether I knew the man standing in front of me.
“Fine.”
He opened the refrigerator.
“What did you make?”
“Chicken.”
“Perfect.”
We ate together.
He talked about an account renewal.
Mentioned Kayla once.
I almost dropped my fork.
Not because her name surprised me.
Because he said it casually.
“She finally got the Henderson file cleaned up.”
Finally.
As if he had not potentially fathered her child.
As if he had not been sleeping under my roof while privately imagining another family.
I watched him chew.
I wondered what version of his life he believed was real.
After dinner, he showered.
His phone stayed on the kitchen counter.
I did not touch it.
I wanted to.
For fifteen years, I had known his passcode.
I could have learned everything in ten minutes.
But if I had opened that phone, Jason would later make the story about privacy.
I knew him.
He would say I had violated something.
So instead I went upstairs and watched him sleep.
That may have been worse.
At 7:30 the next morning, after Jason left for work, I called Daniel Reed.
He answered cautiously.