I had suspected another woman.
I had not known her name.
Mark looked at Daniel as though he had been stunned.
“You promised me that was private.”
“You called me from the airport,” Daniel replied. “You said you deserved to feel single for a while. Then you asked me not to tell Claire.”
I sat down slowly.
“Emma who?”
Mark said nothing.
Daniel looked at me.
“Emma Caldwell. She works with Mark.”
I recognized the name.
Mark had mentioned her dozens of times over the last year.
Emma was funny.
Emma knew a great restaurant.
Emma had helped save a client presentation.
Whenever I asked whether I should be concerned, Mark laughed.
My stomach tightened, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing me fall apart.
“Were you sleeping with her?”
Mark rubbed his forehead.
“Claire, it wasn’t like that.”
That response was enough.
Lily began fussing against my shoulder. I kissed the top of her head.
Mark moved toward me.
“Listen. I came back, okay? I chose my family.”
“No. You came back because your vacation ended.”
“That’s not fair.”
I nearly laughed.
He lowered his voice, changing tactics.
“We’re exhausted. We’ve got two little kids. People make mistakes when they’re overwhelmed. We can fix this.”
Three weeks earlier, those words would have filled me with relief.
Now I remembered Noah curled against me in the emergency room, asking for Daddy between coughing fits.
I remembered calling Mark nine times.
I remembered the message that arrived six hours later.
Can’t talk. Please handle it.
“I did fix something,” I said. “I stopped waiting for you.”
Mark’s face reddened.
“So what, Daniel moves in?”
Daniel stood.
“Careful.”
“No one is moving in,” I said. “And Daniel is leaving because this conversation is between you and me.”
Daniel looked at me, making sure I meant it.
I nodded.
At the door, he stopped beside Mark.
“Rachel’s office will contact your attorney. Don’t move any more money.”
When the door closed, Mark and I stood alone in the kitchen.
He looked toward the stairs.
“Can I see the kids?”
That question hurt more than anything else.
“They’re sleeping.”
“I’m their dad, Claire.”
“And you disappeared.”
He lowered himself into a chair.
For the first time since coming home, he looked less like a man defending his freedom and more like a man realizing freedom had a cost attached.
Then his phone lit up on the table.
A message preview appeared before he could reach it.
Emma: Made it home. Already miss waking up next to you.
I read it.
Mark noticed my face.
And whatever explanation he had planned next disappeared before he could say it.
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