Chương 7
I expected excuses.
I expected explanations about helping him.
Instead, she accepted it.
And somehow that made me even more unsettled.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I thought I was helping him find proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“That you were hiding something.”
I laughed quietly.
“Hiding something.”
The phrase sounded ridiculous.
Almost insulting.
“Did you find something?”
Elise looked at the envelope.
“Yes.”
My heartbeat changed.
“What?”
She took a breath.
“Your medical records showed a pregnancy date that didn’t match the date Rowan calculated.”
I stared at her.
Then I felt something cold move through me.
Not fear.
Confusion.
Because I knew that already.
“I told Rowan the dates.”
“He didn’t believe you.”
“He didn’t ask my doctor.”
“No.”
“Then why did he think he knew better?”
Elise looked away.
“Because I gave him a reason to.”
The words landed softly.
But they hurt.
“What reason?”
She was quiet for a moment.
Then she said, “I told him about the night you left.”
My face tightened.
“What night?”
“The night after your company holiday party.”
I searched my memory.
That night.
The one Rowan had mentioned months ago.
The one I barely remembered because I had been exhausted and upset.
“What about it?”
Elise’s fingers tightened around her coffee cup.
“You told me you were going to meet someone.”
I stared at her.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I never said that.”
“You did.”
“When?”
“Outside the office.”
My mind went back.
The office parking garage.
The rain.
Elise carrying a stack of files.
Me crying.
Not because of another man.
Because of Rowan.
Because we had fought that morning.
Because he had forgotten another appointment.
Because I had started wondering if I was the only person still trying to hold our marriage together.
“I told you I was meeting someone?”
“You said you needed to talk to someone who knew what you were going through.”
I looked at her.
“That is not the same thing.”
“No.”
Her voice became quieter.
“It wasn’t.”
The anger in me paused.
Because suddenly I remembered.
I had told her something.
Not everything.
But something.
I had been lonely.
I had been frustrated.
I had admitted that sometimes I wondered if Rowan and I were becoming strangers.
And Elise had taken those words.
Carried them back to him.
Turned pain into suspicion.
“Who did you think I was meeting?”
She did not answer.
I already knew.
“Another man.”
Her silence confirmed it.
I leaned back.
The baby moved.
A small reminder that this conversation was not just about my marriage anymore.
It was about the story my child would one day hear.
“Did Rowan ask you to investigate me?”
“Yes.”
“Did he ask you because he already suspected something?”
“Yes.”
“Or because you gave him something to suspect?”
Elise looked like she wanted to argue.
Then stopped.
“I think both.”
That honesty was the first thing she had given me that felt real.
“Why?”
She looked confused.
“Why what?”
“Why did you tell him?”
Her eyes moved toward the window.
“I was angry.”
“At me?”
“No.”
The answer came quickly.
“At him.”
I waited.
Elise rubbed her thumb against the edge of the cup.
“Rowan had been different for months.”
I said nothing.
“He was distracted.”
I almost smiled.
“Funny.”
She looked at me.
“What?”
“That’s exactly what I thought.”
A sad expression crossed her face.
“We both thought we were losing him.”
The sentence was not comforting.
It was worse.
Because it meant two women had been standing on opposite sides of the same problem while Rowan avoided admitting there was one.
“Were you in love with him?”
Elise did not answer immediately.
That told me enough.
“I cared about him.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
She looked down.
“Yes.”
The word was quiet.
Simple.
Honest.
I felt something inside me go still.
Not because I was surprised.
Because some part of me had known.
“I never wanted to hurt you.”
I looked at her.
“But you did.”
“Yes.”
No defense.
No excuse.
Just agreement.
That made it harder.
“I was lonely too,” she said.
I almost walked away.
Not because she was wrong.
Because I did not want to feel sympathy for her.
She had been part of destroying my life.
But people were rarely just villains.
That was the most inconvenient truth about them.
“What is in the envelope?”
Elise pushed it closer.
“Open it.”
I looked at her.
“Why didn’t you give this to Rowan?”
“Because after I saw what he was planning, I realized he wasn’t looking for the truth.”
“What was he looking for?”
“A reason.”
The answer settled heavily.
“He wanted a reason to leave.”
I looked away.
Because that was the thing I had been avoiding.
Maybe the paternity accusation was not the beginning.
Maybe it was the final step.
I opened the envelope.
Inside was a photocopy of a medical document.
My name.
My doctor’s name.
The date.
I read the first line.
Then the second.
Then the third.
My hands started shaking.
Because I remembered.
Not the appointment.
Not the pregnancy.
Something before that.
Something I had buried.
The document was not about another man.
It was not about cheating.
It was about the pregnancy loss three years earlier.
I looked at Elise.
“Why does Rowan have this?”
Her expression changed.
“I don’t know.”
I looked back at the paper.
A note had been attached.
A handwritten note.
Not from my doctor.
From me.
My own handwriting.
A sentence I had completely forgotten writing.
I felt the blood leave my face.
Because suddenly I remembered the night after the miscarriage.
The hospital.
The fear.
The conversation I never finished with Rowan.
The thing I had never told him.
Elise watched me carefully.
“What is it?”
I folded the paper.
“I need to go.”
“Nora.”
“I need to talk to Rowan.”
She stood.
“About what?”
May you like
I looked at the envelope in my hand.
About the secret I had been carrying long before he accused me of having one.
