Chapter 2: What Was Inside the Folder
I walked out of that hotel room shaking.
Malcolm had said Mark's name like it meant nothing.
Like my husband was just a transaction.
I called Mark on the drive home.
He picked up on the first ring.
"Where are you?" he asked.
"I need you to tell me the truth," I said.
"All of it."
Silence.
Then: "Come home.
We'll talk."
But when I got home, Rachel was already there.
She was sitting at the kitchen table with a folder in front of her.
Mark was standing by the window with his back to me.
"You went to see Malcolm," Rachel said.
It wasn't a question.
"How do you know that name?"
She didn't answer.
I looked at Mark.
"How does she know that name?"
He turned slowly.
His face was pale.
"Because I told her," he said.
"Rachel has known about Malcolm for two years."
The room went completely still.
I looked at my sister.
The woman who had stood beside me at my wedding.
Who had held Emma the day she was born.
"Two years," I said.
Rachel opened the folder and slid it across the table toward me.
May you like
"Before you say anything," she said quietly, "you need to see what's in here."
My hands were trembling as I reached for it.
