“We need to ask him.”
“No.”
“Mom—”
“We need facts.”
“How?”
I looked at him.
“Tomorrow morning, you’re going home.”
His mouth opened.
“
And you’re going to behave exactly like a husband who trusts his wife.”
His face hardened.
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“Why?”
“Because guilty people make mistakes when they think they’re safe.”
Daniel looked away.
Then nodded.
“What about you?”
“I’m going back too.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You can’t sleep next to him.”
“I didn’t say I would.”
“What if he asks where you were?”
“I’ll tell him I had a migraine and went for a drive.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“So is sleeping with your son’s wife.”
Daniel almost smiled.
Almost.
At 2:30 in the morning, we made the pact.
Seven days.
For seven days, neither of us would confront them.
We would document.
Observe.
Protect our finances.
And wait.
But we didn’t need seven days.
We needed two.
Friday passed like a nightmare performed on a stage.
Daniel ate breakfast with Jenna.
She kissed his cheek.
She asked about his shift.
She complained that she’d barely slept.
Meanwhile Mark brought me coffee and suggested we go out Saturday.
“Just us,” he said.
I almost laughed.
Instead I said, “That sounds nice.”
Saturday morning changed everything.
Mark was showering when his phone rang downstairs.
He had started carrying it everywhere, but that morning he had forgotten it on the kitchen table.
I looked at the screen.
No name.
Just a number.
I ignored it.
Then a voicemail notification appeared.
Mark came downstairs ten minutes later and grabbed the phone.
He didn’t see me standing in the laundry room doorway.
He played the voicemail quietly.
I couldn’t hear everything.
Only fragments.
“Mr. Reynolds…”
“paperwork…”
“beneficiary…”
“Monday…”
Mark noticed me.
His face changed.
Just slightly.
But I saw it.
“Who was that?” I asked.
“Work.”
Another lie.
He walked upstairs.
I waited thirty seconds.
Then wrote down the number from the call log.
Later
that morning, I searched it online.
It belonged to a law office.
Henderson, Cole & Price.
Estate planning.
My hands went cold.
I called.
A receptionist answered.
“Henderson, Cole & Price. How may I direct your call?”
I almost hung up.
Then I said, “This is Carol Reynolds. I’m returning a call regarding paperwork.”
