Chapter 3: What She Planned Instead
I set the tablet down on the table very carefully, the way you set something down when your hands are shaking and you don't trust yourself.
"What does that mean?" I said.
"I was never supposed to come home today."
Vanessa crossed her arms.
"I meant you usually work late on Thursdays."
"That's not what you meant."
She looked away from me, toward the window.
Mason was still standing beside his chair.
Lily had her arms around my neck and hadn't loosened them.
I could feel her heartbeat against my collarbone, fast and small.
"Vanessa." I kept my voice level.
"Look at me."
She turned back slowly.
"Were you expecting someone else to be here tonight?"
The pause was a fraction too long.
"No," she said.
"Of course not."
I pulled out my phone with my free hand and opened the call log.
I'd noticed it two weeks ago and told myself it meant nothing.
A number I didn't recognize, called three times in one week, always between noon and two in the afternoon.
Always when I was at the office.
I held the screen toward her.
Her jaw tightened.
"Who is he?" I said.
"That's my sister's new number.
She changed providers."
"Your sister lives in Portland.
Area code is different."
"She moved."
"When?"
Another pause.
"Recently."
I put Lily down gently and crouched in front of her.
She looked at me with eyes that were still wet, her lower lip pressed tight the way she did when she was trying very hard not to cry again.
"Sweetheart," I said.
"Can you go to your room for a little while?
Take Mason with you."
Mason looked at his mother once.
She didn't look back at him.
He took Lily's hand and walked her down the hall without a word.
That nine-year-old boy had more composure in that moment than most adults I knew.
When I heard the bedroom door close, I stood up.
"I'm going to ask you one more time," I said.
"And I need you to understand that I have already seen the recordings.
I already know what kind of person you are in this house when I'm not here.
So lying to me right now is not going to help you.
It is only going to make this worse."
Vanessa's chin lifted slightly.
An old reflex.
Defiance dressed up as dignity.
"I want you to tell me what you meant," I said.
"You were never supposed to come home today.
What was supposed to happen instead?"
She was quiet for a long moment.
Then she said, "I want to call my lawyer."
The room went very still.
I hadn't mentioned divorce.
I hadn't mentioned lawyers.
I hadn't mentioned anything legal at all.
She had.
I picked the tablet back up off the table.
May you like
"Recording number three," I said.
"Let's keep going."
