Chapter 6: The Call I Almost Didn't Answer
I moved to the kitchen and kept my voice low.
"Yes.
Who is this?"
A short pause.
"My name is Melissa."
The floor felt very solid under my feet.
I focused on that.
"Why are you calling me?"
"Because Travis told me this morning that you found out.
And because there are things he isn't going to tell you that you deserve to know."
I sat down at the kitchen table.
Noah was still asleep against me.
I kept one hand on his back.
"Go ahead," I said.
"It wasn't two months ago that he ended it," Melissa said.
"He's saying that because it sounds better.
It ended four days ago.
When I ended it.
Not him."
I said nothing.
"He told me you were basically separated.
That you'd grown apart after the baby.
That you were more like roommates than a married couple.
He said you'd probably split up within the year anyway."
Each sentence landed flat and clean, like stones dropped into still water.
"He said that."
"Yes.
I'm not telling you this to hurt you more.
I'm telling you because I was lied to as well.
I thought I was in a different situation than I was.
When I found out he'd been saying similar things to at least one other woman—"
"I'm sorry." I stopped her.
"At least one other?"
Melissa was quiet for a moment.
"There was someone before me.
I don't know her name.
I found out three weeks ago when I went through his email.
He'd used the same lines.
Almost word for word."
I looked at the window above the sink.
The glass was slightly smudged.
I'd been meaning to clean it for weeks.
"How long before you?" I asked.
"Based on the dates in the emails — she overlapped with the beginning of your pregnancy."
Noah made a small sound in his sleep.
I rubbed his back in slow circles.
"Melissa," I said carefully.
"Do you still have those emails?"
Another pause.
Longer this time.
"Yes," she said.
"I kept them.
I didn't know why at the time.
I think I knew I might need them eventually."
"Would you be willing to forward them to me?"
"That's why I called."
I gave her my email address.
I heard her typing.
"They're sent," she said.
"Thank you."
"I'm sorry," Melissa said.
"I genuinely didn't know the full picture.
That doesn't excuse it, but I want you to know."
"I believe you," I said.
And I did, which was a strange thing to discover about myself in that moment — that I had no anger left for Melissa.
Every bit of it had a specific address.
We hung up.
I opened my email.
There were eleven forwarded messages.
I read the first three standing at the kitchen counter with my sleeping son against my chest.
By the third one, I knew two things with complete certainty.
The first: Travis had been doing this for a long time.
Long enough to have a pattern.
Long enough to have a script.
The second: I was not going to handle this quietly.
I put Noah down in his crib, came back to the kitchen, and called my sister.
She answered on the second ring.
"Claire," I said.
"I need you to come over.
And I need you to bring your husband, because I'm going to need someone who knows family law."
A beat of silence.
"I'll be there in forty minutes," Claire said.
"Don't say anything else to Travis tonight."
"I won't."
I hung up and stood in the quiet kitchen.
Down the hall, I could hear Travis moving around in the guest room.
A drawer opening.
The creak of the bed frame.
I opened my laptop and started a new folder.
May you like
I named it *Documents.*
Then I started saving emails.
