I found a folder of tax records in our home office. Several payments to Juniper & Co. were categorized as consulting expenses for a side business Michael had formed. I had never heard of that business either.
The most painful part was not the money. It was remembering Jessica asking me whether I wanted to help decorate a fundraiser, smiling across my dining room while Michael told me she was just a colleague.
That night I sat on the nursery floor, a room we had used for storage because we’d stopped talking about children. I placed the ultrasound photograph on an empty shelf. Two heartbeats. Two reasons to demand the truth without allowing the truth to consume me.
CHAPTER 7: A DOOR LEFT OPEN
Michael arrived at the house without warning on Saturday afternoon. I saw his car from the window and called Leah, who stayed on the phone. When he used his key, I stood in the hallway and told him that all future visits had to be arranged through counsel.
