“The first useful thing my husband told me about his affair was something I completely made up. I looked across our kitchen island at Caleb, the man I had trusted for fourteen years, and calmly said, “Laura told me about the cabin.” I had never spoken to Laura, and until that second, I had no idea whether a cabin even existed.

by

Chapter 5

THEME:
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I gripped the phone.

“What do you mean?”

“He told me he bought it for us.”

For us.

Two words.

And suddenly I understood why Caleb had panicked when I mentioned the cabin.

He hadn't simply rented somewhere to conduct an affair.

He had been building another life.

One with furniture.

A fireplace.

A lake.

And a woman who believed he was preparing to leave his wife.

I asked Laura whether she would be willing to meet.

She agreed.

We met the next day at a coffee shop twenty minutes from my house.

Laura was thirty-four.

Pretty, but not in the polished, intimidating way I had imagined.

She wore a gray sweater, no makeup, and looked like she hadn't slept.

When I sat down, she immediately said, “I'm sorry.”

I looked at her.

“Did you know he was married when this started?”

“Yes.”

My stomach tightened.

“But I believed him when he said you were separated,” she added.

“Did you ever ask me?”

“No.”

“Did you ever wonder why he still wore his wedding ring?”

Her eyes filled.

“Yes.”

That answer mattered.

Laura hadn't known everything.

But she had ignored things she didn't want to examine.

I understood that feeling better than I wanted to.

She opened her purse and took out her phone.

“I brought something.”

She showed me photographs.

Caleb smiling on a wooden porch.

Caleb holding a bottle of champagne beside a stone fireplace.

Caleb and Laura standing beside a Christmas tree.

A Christmas tree.

I remembered that Christmas.

Sophie had a fever.

Caleb told us he had to travel overnight for an emergency warehouse inspection.

I had stayed awake until two in the morning checking Sophie's temperature.

He had sent me a message at 11:43 p.m.

Wish I was home with you both.

I looked at the photograph.

The timestamp was 11:51 p.m.

Eight minutes later.

He was standing in front of a Christmas tree with Laura.

His arm around her waist.

I handed the phone back.

“Can you send me that?”

Laura nodded.

Then she said, “There's something else.”

I waited.

“He told me he was going to tell Sophie after her birthday.”

My blood went cold.

Sophie's thirteenth birthday was in six weeks.

“What exactly did he say?”

Laura swallowed.

“That once she turned thirteen, she would understand why her parents couldn't stay together.”

I stared at her.

For months, Caleb had been preparing a future where our daughter would simply be expected to accept his choices.

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Table of Contents
“The first useful thing my husband told me about his affair was something I completely made up. I looked across our kitchen island at Caleb, the man I had trusted for fourteen years, and calmly said, “Laura told me about the cabin.” I had never spoken to Laura, and until that second, I had no idea whether a cabin even existed.
TABLE OF CONTENTS 11
01 Chapter 1 02 Chapter 2 03 Chapter 3 04 Chapter 4 05 Chapter 5 06 Chapter 6 07 Chapter 7 08 Chapter 8 09 Chapter 9 10 Chapter 10 11 Chapter 11

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