I called Rachel the next morning.<\/p>\n
I didn't tell Duane first.<\/p>\n
I didn't ask Dolores whether she thought it was a good idea.<\/p>\n
And I didn't ask Megan to help me decide what to say.<\/p>\n
I sat with the phone records in front of me.<\/p>\n
The number was circled.<\/p>\n
I looked at it for a long time.<\/p>\n
Then I picked up my phone.<\/p>\n
My hands were steadier than I expected.<\/p>\n
That surprised me.<\/p>\n
I had been shaking when I drove to Megan's apartment.<\/p>\n
I had nearly dropped my keys.<\/p>\n
I had felt sick when I saw the notification on Duane's phone.<\/p>\n
But now I had a name.<\/p>\n
And a number.<\/p>\n
I wasn't guessing anymore.<\/p>\n
I entered the digits.<\/p>\n
Then I pressed the call button.<\/p>\n
The phone rang.<\/p>\n
Once.<\/p>\n
Twice.<\/p>\n
Three times.<\/p>\n
A woman answered.<\/p>\n
"Hello?"<\/p>\n
Her voice was ordinary.<\/p>\n
That was the first thing I noticed.<\/p>\n
Not cruel.<\/p>\n
Not sweet.<\/p>\n
Not especially young.<\/p>\n
Just a woman's voice.<\/p>\n
I swallowed.<\/p>\n
"Am I speaking to Rachel?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
I looked at my notebook.<\/p>\n
I had written nothing to say.<\/p>\n
For once, I was going to speak without a plan.<\/p>\n
"My name is Carlotta."<\/p>\n
There was silence.<\/p>\n
I could hear her breathing.<\/p>\n
Then she spoke quietly.<\/p>\n
"Duane's wife?"<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
She knew.<\/p>\n
She knew who I was.<\/p>\n
She knew enough to recognize my name.<\/p>\n
That told me Duane had spoken about me.<\/p>\n
The question was what he had said.<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
She didn't answer.<\/p>\n
I waited.<\/p>\n
Finally, she spoke.<\/p>\n
"What can I do for you?"<\/p>\n
I almost laughed.<\/p>\n
There were too many possible answers.<\/p>\n
She could tell me the truth.<\/p>\n
She could explain why my husband had been calling her for months.<\/p>\n
She could tell me whether he had been spending money on her while I worked.<\/p>\n
She could tell me whether she knew about Ava.<\/p>\n
Instead, I kept it simple.<\/p>\n
"I'd like to talk in person."<\/p>\n
She took a breath.<\/p>\n
"I don't know if that would help."<\/p>\n
I looked at the papers.<\/p>\n
"I need to understand what you've been told."<\/p>\n
She was quiet.<\/p>\n
Then she said something that surprised me.<\/p>\n
"I don't think I knew everything."<\/p>\n
I sat back.<\/p>\n
There it was.<\/p>\n
A small admission from a woman I had never met.<\/p>\n
More than Duane had offered before being confronted with pages of records.<\/p>\n
I asked where we could meet.<\/p>\n
She hesitated.<\/p>\n
Then she mentioned a coffee shop on Pine.<\/p>\n
Noon.<\/p>\n
I agreed.<\/p>\n
When the call ended, I stayed seated.<\/p>\n
I looked at the phone.<\/p>\n
I had imagined this conversation so many ways.<\/p>\n
I had imagined shouting.<\/p>\n
Accusing her.<\/p>\n
Asking how she could do this to another woman.<\/p>\n
But her voice hadn't sounded like someone who was proud of what had happened.<\/p>\n
She had sounded frightened.<\/p>\n
I didn't know what that meant yet.<\/p>\n
I wasn't going to excuse anything simply because she sounded nervous.<\/p>\n
But I was willing to listen.<\/p>\n
At noon, I arrived at the coffee shop.<\/p>\n
I recognized her before she introduced herself.<\/p>\n
She stood beside a small table.<\/p>\n
She was younger than me.<\/p>\n
Around twenty-nine, I guessed.<\/p>\n
She wore no wedding ring.<\/p>\n
Her hands kept moving around the strap of her purse.<\/p>\n
She looked toward the door when I entered.<\/p>\n
Then she stood.<\/p>\n
"Carlotta?"<\/p>\n
I nodded.<\/p>\n
She swallowed.<\/p>\n
"I'm Rachel."<\/p>\n
I sat down.<\/p>\n
She followed.<\/p>\n
For a moment, we looked at each other.<\/p>\n
I wondered what she saw.<\/p>\n
An angry wife?<\/p>\n
An older woman?<\/p>\n
Somebody she had been told was already leaving her marriage?<\/p>\n
I didn't know.<\/p>\n
I only knew I was tired of being described by people who hadn't asked me what was true.<\/p>\n
Rachel spoke first.<\/p>\n
"I'm sorry."<\/p>\n
I looked at her.<\/p>\n
"Tell me what you know before you apologize."<\/p>\n
She nodded.<\/p>\n
I placed my purse beside the chair.<\/p>\n
I didn't take out the phone records immediately.<\/p>\n
I wanted to hear her explanation without showing her what I had found.<\/p>\n
She looked down at her hands.<\/p>\n
"Duane told me you weren't together anymore."<\/p>\n
I stared at her.<\/p>\n
"We're married."<\/p>\n
She nodded quickly.<\/p>\n
"I know that now."<\/p>\n
"We live in the same house."<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
"We have a daughter."<\/p>\n
She swallowed.<\/p>\n
"He told me about her."<\/p>\n
I felt my chest tighten.<\/p>\n
"What did he tell you?"<\/p>\n
Rachel looked uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
"That you stayed in the same house because of her."<\/p>\n
I sat still.<\/p>\n
That was the first lie.<\/p>\n
A complete story built around something real.<\/p>\n
We did have a daughter.<\/p>\n
We did live together.<\/p>\n
But we were not separated.<\/p>\n
I had gone to work.<\/p>\n
Come home.<\/p>\n
Shared meals.<\/p>\n
Planned our future.<\/p>\n
I had believed I was married to a man who was still my husband in every sense of the word.<\/p>\n
Rachel had been told a different version.<\/p>\n
I looked at her.<\/p>\n
"Did he say we were getting divorced?"<\/p>\n
She nodded.<\/p>\n
"He made it sound like everything had already been decided."<\/p>\n
I stared at the table.<\/p>\n
The coffee shop smelled of roasted beans and warm milk.<\/p>\n
People were talking nearby.<\/p>\n
A spoon tapped against a cup.<\/p>\n
I focused on the sound.<\/p>\n
I needed something ordinary.<\/p>\n
Something that didn't depend on whether my husband had lied.<\/p>\n
Rachel continued.<\/p>\n
"He said it was complicated because of your daughter."<\/p>\n
I looked up.<\/p>\n
"Everything seems to become complicated when he needs an excuse."<\/p>\n
She lowered her eyes.<\/p>\n
"I understand why you're angry."<\/p>\n
I shook my head.<\/p>\n
"I don't think you do yet."<\/p>\n
She nodded.<\/p>\n
"Probably not."<\/p>\n
I waited.<\/p>\n
She took a breath.<\/p>\n
"He told me there were money problems from alimony."<\/p>\n
I stared at her.<\/p>\n
"Alimony?"<\/p>\n
She nodded.<\/p>\n
"He said he was paying it."<\/p>\n
I felt my face grow warm.<\/p>\n
I had been married to Duane for eleven years.<\/p>\n
I was still living with him.<\/p>\n
There was no alimony.<\/p>\n
There had never been a separation.<\/p>\n
I thought about my tips.<\/p>\n
The money disappearing.<\/p>\n
The careful notes.<\/p>\n
The way Duane had told me we needed to watch expenses.<\/p>\n
And somewhere else, he had been explaining our finances to another woman through a divorce that did not exist.<\/p>\n
I looked at Rachel.<\/p>\n
"That's another lie."<\/p>\n
She closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
I could hear the shame in her voice.<\/p>\n
But I still needed answers.<\/p>\n
"Did he tell you about the lottery prize?"<\/p>\n
She looked confused.<\/p>\n
"The scratch ticket?"<\/p>\n
I nodded.<\/p>\n
"He mentioned something about winning money."<\/p>\n
I leaned forward.<\/p>\n
"What did he say?"<\/p>\n
She rubbed her forehead.<\/p>\n
"That people at work joked about it."<\/p>\n
I stared at her.<\/p>\n
"He won four thousand dollars."<\/p>\n
Her eyes widened.<\/p>\n
"I didn't know it was that much."<\/p>\n
I watched her reaction.<\/p>\n
She seemed genuinely surprised.<\/p>\n
I had spent the previous day trying to connect the missing money to the affair.<\/p>\n
Now I was hearing that Duane had told another version of the same story.<\/p>\n
At home, he had hidden the prize.<\/p>\n
With Megan, he had acted like someone with extra wages.<\/p>\n
With Rachel, it had been something amusing from work.<\/p>\n
Three different women.<\/p>\n
Three different stories.<\/p>\n
One man.<\/p>\n
I felt embarrassed that I had believed him for so long.<\/p>\n
Then I looked at Rachel.<\/p>\n
She was staring at her hands.<\/p>\n
I realized she was probably asking herself the same question.<\/p>\n
How had she believed him?<\/p>\n
She spoke quietly.<\/p>\n
"I thought he was being honest with me."<\/p>\n
I didn't answer.<\/p>\n
I knew exactly how that felt.<\/p>\n
She looked up.<\/p>\n
"He was convincing."<\/p>\n
I nodded once.<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
It was the first thing we had agreed on.<\/p>\n
I didn't like that.<\/p>\n
But it was true.<\/p>\n
I asked how they had met.<\/p>\n
She told me they knew each other through the plant.<\/p>\n
That matched what Duane had admitted.<\/p>\n
I asked how long they had been involved.<\/p>\n
"About eight months."<\/p>\n
Another fact matched.<\/p>\n
I felt relieved.<\/p>\n
Not because eight months was acceptable.<\/p>\n
Because I finally had something solid.<\/p>\n
The same answer from two people.<\/p>\n
I looked at her.<\/p>\n
"Did you know about Megan?"<\/p>\n
She frowned.<\/p>\n
"Who's Megan?"<\/p>\n
"My sister."<\/p>\n
She shook her head.<\/p>\n
"Not really."<\/p>\n
I explained the money.<\/p>\n
The old nickname.<\/p>\n
The way Duane had been sending cash after Megan's divorce.<\/p>\n
Rachel listened.<\/p>\n
Her expression became increasingly troubled.<\/p>\n
"He told me he had family responsibilities," she said.<\/p>\n
I stared at her.<\/p>\n
"He was very generous when he wanted someone to notice."<\/p>\n
She looked down.<\/p>\n
I regretted the sharpness of my voice for a moment.<\/p>\n
Then I remembered the notebooks.<\/p>\n
I wasn't there to make her comfortable.<\/p>\n
I was there to find out what my husband had done.<\/p>\n
Rachel reached for her purse.<\/p>\n
"There's something I brought."<\/p>\n
I watched her carefully.<\/p>\n
She opened it.<\/p>\n
Then she took out a small box covered in dark velvet.<\/p>\n
She placed it between us.<\/p>\n
I stared at it.<\/p>\n
It was the kind of box that came from a jewelry store.<\/p>\n
I knew that immediately.<\/p>\n
I had served enough anniversary dinners to recognize one.<\/p>\n
My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
"What is that?"<\/p>\n
She pushed it toward me.<\/p>\n
"You should see it."<\/p>\n
I didn't touch it at first.<\/p>\n
I looked at her.<\/p>\n
She seemed close to tears.<\/p>\n
Finally, I opened the box.<\/p>\n
Inside was a diamond necklace.<\/p>\n
Small.<\/p>\n
Delicate.<\/p>\n
Beautiful.<\/p>\n
The kind of gift I had never expected Duane to buy without discussing the cost.<\/p>\n
I stared at the stones.<\/p>\n
I imagined the price.<\/p>\n
Then I remembered the prize.<\/p>\n
Four thousand dollars.<\/p>\n
I looked at Rachel.<\/p>\n
"When did he give you this?"<\/p>\n
She lowered her eyes.<\/p>\n
"June."<\/p>\n
I closed the box.<\/p>\n
June.<\/p>\n
The same month he had won the prize.<\/p>\n
The same month I had been trying to understand where our money had gone.<\/p>\n
I placed the box on the table.<\/p>\n
"Did he tell you where the money came from?"<\/p>\n
She shook her head.<\/p>\n
"I didn't ask."<\/p>\n
I looked at her.<\/p>\n
She seemed ashamed.<\/p>\n
"I told him it was too much."<\/p>\n
I waited.<\/p>\n
"I told him I couldn't keep something like that."<\/p>\n
I looked down at the box.<\/p>\n
I had spent years counting tips.<\/p>\n
Sometimes customers left me five dollars after keeping me at their table for two hours.<\/p>\n
Sometimes they left nothing.<\/p>\n
And there was my husband, buying diamonds for a woman who believed he was separated.<\/p>\n
I didn't know whether the necklace had been purchased with the prize money.<\/p>\n
I couldn't prove it.<\/p>\n
But the timing made my stomach twist.<\/p>\n
I looked at Rachel.<\/p>\n
"Why did you bring it?"<\/p>\n
She rubbed her hands together.<\/p>\n
"Because I don't want it."<\/p>\n
I stared at her.<\/p>\n
She looked directly at me.<\/p>\n
"And because I think you deserve to know what he was doing."<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes for a moment.<\/p>\n
I had come prepared to meet the woman who helped destroy my marriage.<\/p>\n
Instead, I was sitting across from someone who had been given a different set of lies.<\/p>\n
That didn't erase the affair.<\/p>\n
It didn't make the pain smaller.<\/p>\n
But it changed how I understood the person in front of me.<\/p>\n
Rachel took a breath.<\/p>\n
"There's something else."<\/p>\n
I opened my eyes.<\/p>\n
She looked frightened.<\/p>\n
"I stopped seeing him last week."<\/p>\n
I stared at her.<\/p>\n
"What?"<\/p>\n
She nodded.<\/p>\n
"I ended it."<\/p>\n
I looked at the necklace.<\/p>\n
Then at her.<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
Her face tightened.<\/p>\n
"Because I started asking questions he didn't want to answer."<\/p>\n
I knew that feeling.<\/p>\n
Too well.<\/p>\n
She looked down at her purse.<\/p>\n
"I brought something else that may help explain."<\/p>\n
I waited.<\/p>\n
She reached inside.<\/p>\n
Then she pulled out an envelope.<\/p>\n
I called Rachel the next morning. I didn't tell Duane first. I didn't ask Dolores whether she thought it was a good idea. And I didn't ask Megan to help … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama-sory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17983,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17967\/revisions\/17983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}