Chapter 4
I didn't confront Adrian the moment I found the photograph.
I waited until that evening.
The camera sat on the coffee table between us. I pulled up the picture and turned the screen toward him.
9:17 p.m.
He looked at it once, surprise quickly hardening into defensiveness.
"You told me you were in a meeting that night."
"We went out for a while after the event."
"With Sophie?"
"There were other people."
I looked at him.
He reached for his water but didn't drink.
I didn't ask whether he liked Sophie.
That wasn't the question that mattered anymore.
"You knew I was waiting at the hospital."
His fingers tightened around the glass.
"I know."
"You could have told me you weren't coming," I said. "Instead, you lied."
The room went quiet.
The clock on the wall clicked forward.
Adrian set his glass down harder than necessary.
"You're making this more complicated than it is. She was new to the core team. Someone needed to help her fit in."
"Did helping her require deleting messages?"
His expression darkened.
"Did it require telling me you were at work while you were out taking pictures with her?" I continued. "I'm not angry because you helped her. I'm angry because you started hiding things from me."
Adrian leaned back, his patience visibly thinning.
"Weren't you the one who asked me to help her in the first place?"
For several seconds, I said nothing.
I remembered the crushed paper cup in Sophie's hands at the anniversary party.
Yes, I had helped her.
But for the first time, I understood that Adrian was using my kindness as evidence that I had no right to object to anything that came afterward.
"I asked you to give her a fair chance," I said slowly. "I didn't ask you to lie to me for her."
He was silent for a moment.
Then he reached across the space between us and covered my hand with his.
"Fine. From now on, if it isn't work, I won't have unnecessary contact with her."
His palm still felt familiar.
For once, that familiarity didn't reassure me.
Later that night, while Adrian showered, I noticed a printed itinerary on the dining table.
It was for the business trip beginning the next morning.
He had told me only that he would be gone for two days.
I picked up the pages.
The first listed flights and the hotel.
The second listed the travelers.
There were only two names.
Adrian Reed.
Sophie Carter.
I stood there until I heard the bathroom door open, then returned the itinerary exactly where I had found it.
The next morning, Adrian got up before me.
From the bedroom, I heard the study cabinet open.
Then the zipper of his camera bag.
By the time I walked into the bathroom, he had already left.
The camera was gone.
His wedding ring wasn't.
It lay beside the sink, a silver circle surrounded by tiny drops of water.
I stared at it for a long time.
It didn't look like something he had forgotten.
It looked like something he had chosen to leave behind.