Chapter 7: The Morning He Came Back With Answers
Daniel knocked at 8:15 the next morning.
I had been up since six.
The folder was in my bag.
My coffee was half-finished on the counter.
I was dressed and had my keys in my hand when I heard the knock.
I opened the door.
He looked like he hadn't slept.
His shirt was the same one from the night before.
There were shadows under his eyes and something in his posture that I had never seen in three years of marriage — a kind of deflation, like a man who had spent the night rehearsing something and arrived at the door no longer sure it would work.
"Can I come in?" he asked.
I stepped back.
He came into the kitchen and looked at the table.
The folder was gone.
The papers were gone.
The room looked ordinary.
"I want to tell you everything," he said.
"I have a meeting at nine."
"I know.
I just need twenty minutes."
I sat down.
He sat across from me.
"Renee and I ended things before I met you," he said.
"That part was true.
But I didn't end the financial arrangement.
I told myself it was for Ava.
And some of it was.
But some of it was —" He stopped.
"Some of it was guilt.
She gave up a lot when we split.
She had been building her life around mine for six years and I walked away.
The money was how I managed that."
"And the business?"
"She asked me to help her get stable.
I did.
I kept my name on the LLC because she asked me to.
She said it helped her get credit." He looked at his hands.
"I know how it looks."
"Do you?"
"I know it looks like I never fully left her."
"Did you?"
He met my eyes.
"Yes.
I swear to you.
There's nothing between us now except Ava and the money."
"She texted me last night," I said.
His face changed.
"What?"
"At 11:47.
She told me not to do this.
She said you're all Ava has." I watched him.
"You gave her my number."
"That was — that was years ago.
In case of an emergency with Ava."
"Ava also texted me.
At midnight.
She asked me not to leave you."
He closed his eyes.
"Who was in the room with her when she sent that, Daniel?"
"I don't know."
"Were you with Renee last night?"
"I stayed at my brother's."
"Then how did Ava know to text me at midnight?"
He opened his eyes.
He didn't have an answer.
"I'm going to ask you one question," I said.
"And I need you to tell me the truth.
Not the version that keeps everything intact.
The truth."
He nodded.
"Is the money you've been sending Renee coming from our joint account?"
The pause was exactly long enough.
"Some of it," he said.
I picked up my bag and stood up.
"Then we're not talking about guilt money for an ex-girlfriend," I said.
"We're talking about you taking money from our marriage and giving it to another woman for four years.
Including the months before we got married."
"I was going to tell you —"
"When?"
He had no answer.
"I have to go," I said.
"Please don't file anything yet.
Give me a chance to fix this."
I looked at him standing in my kitchen.
In our kitchen.
The man I had married in good faith.
The man whose daughter I had driven to volleyball practice and whose braces I had helped pay for and whose silence I had accepted as grief when it was actually something much colder.
May you like
"You had four years to fix it," I said.
I walked out.
