Two pairs of pants.
Underwear.
Medication.
A photograph of Daniel as a baby.
My mother’s necklace.
And the folder from the back of our filing cabinet.
Insurance policies.
Bank statements.
Mortgage documents.
Retirement accounts.
Marriage certificate.
I don’t know why I grabbed them.
Instinct, perhaps.
Or
my father’s voice again.
Protect yourself before emotion makes you stupid.
When I came downstairs, the shared tablet was still on the kitchen counter.
I opened it.
Mark’s messages had disappeared.
All of them.
My heart accelerated.
He had deleted the conversation remotely.
So he knew something.
Or he was cleaning up.
I checked his email.
Password required.
Then cloud storage.
Password required.
Everything had changed.
Except one thing.
The tablet’s browser history.
Mark had forgotten about that.
I scrolled.
Restaurants.
Sports.
News.
Then—
Fairfield Inn reservation confirmation.
My pulse jumped.
I tapped it.
The page had expired, but the browser had cached part of the reservation.
Room 214.
I took a photograph.
Then another entry caught my attention.
A jewelry store.
Evelyn & Hart.
I opened it.
The history showed visits to a product page.
A diamond pendant.
$4,800.
My stomach turned.
Mark had not bought me jewelry
in six years.
There was more.
A search.
Apartments downtown.
Luxury rentals.
One-bedroom.
Six-month lease.
I sat very still.
This wasn’t an affair that existed only in hotel rooms.
Someone was planning something.
I photographed everything.
At 9:23, I heard the garage door.
Mark.
I moved quickly.
My suitcase was already hidden in the guest-room closet.
I placed the tablet exactly where I had found it and walked into the kitchen.
The door opened.
Mark entered carrying his coat over one arm.
He looked normal.
Completely normal.
“Hey,” he said.
I stared at the man I had slept beside for thirty-one years.
He had kissed our son’s wife less than ninety minutes earlier.
And he smiled at me.
“You’re home early,” I said.
He shrugged.
“Meeting ended.”
Meeting.
I almost admired the ease of it.
“How was it?”
“Boring.”
He opened the refrigerator.
“Anything for dinner?”
