Chapter 2
Richard wasn't always like this.
For the first two years of our marriage, he was actually pretty decent.
He wasn't exactly the most caring guy, but at least he played by the rules.
He came home for dinner every night, went grocery shopping with me on weekends, and took me back to his hometown for the holidays.
I always prepared the money for his mom, and he'd just hand it over. She'd be happy, and so would he.
Back then, his company was just starting out, and he was pretty much broke.
He rented just half a floor in an office building, and the whole company was only eleven people, counting him.
I never talked to him about my family.
My dad told me to keep quiet about it.
"Susie, when you marry him, just live your life with him. You don't need to tell him anything about our family.
"If he turns out to be a good man, our family will help him when the time comes. If he's not, you can always come back home," my dad told me.
I remembered that.
So Richard only knew that my parents were back in our hometown, running a small business and just getting by.
He had no idea Caleb moved to Norland when he was just eighteen.
He had no clue what my dad was really up to in his younger days.
And he had no idea that before I married him, Caleb made a special trip back just to meet him; they sat together in the hotel lobby for twenty minutes, and when he got home, he told my dad, "He'll do."
By the third year of our marriage, things started to change.
Richard's company suddenly landed a huge deal.
He was over the moon. That night, he came home, picked me up, and spun me around, grinning from ear to ear. "Honey, your husband's about to hit it big!"
I just smiled.
I never told him how that deal actually came about.
Caleb had a business partner in Norland, and that partner had a branch here in the country. The head of that branch was in the same industry as Richard.
Caleb made a single call, and just like that, the deal landed in Richard's lap.
Richard thought it was all because his proposal was so good.
He started working overtime.
He started going out for work socials and networking events.
He started coming home late.
I got it. When one ran a business, being busy was just how it went.
By the fourth year, he took over an entire floor for his office.
His staff grew from eleven to over sixty.
He was on business trips so often, and he was gone half the month.
I was home alone, cooking, cleaning, paying the utilities, and calling his mom to see how she was doing.
Once, when Richard got back from a business trip, I spotted a lipstick mark on his shirt collar.
I didn't ask him anything.
She tossed the shirt in the sink with some detergent, got rid of the stain, and hung it up to dry on the balcony.
He wore it the next day, totally clueless.
Monica said I was being naive.
"You're not even going to ask him about it? That lipstick on his collar, are you just going to pretend you didn't see it?" she asked.
"What's the point? He'll just say it was from a business dinner. Am I supposed to go check the security cameras or something?" I replied.
"So you're just going to put up with it?" Monica asked.
"I'm not just tolerating it. I'm waiting for something," I said.
"Waiting for what?" Monica pressed.
I stayed silent.
I was just waiting for him to slip up.
By the fifth year, he finally got caught red-handed.
And it wasn't me who busted him; it was his mom Eleanor.
Eleanor'd been staying with us for a month, and one night, Richard's phone rang. He stepped out onto the balcony to take the call.
Eleanor got up to use the bathroom, walked past the balcony, and overheard Richard whisper, "Baby, don't make a scene. My mom's here. I'll come see you in a couple of days."
Eleanor left the next day.
Before she left, she held my hand and said, "Susie, I can't do anything about him. If you ever feel you can't go on, I won't hold you back."
I replied, "Eleanor, it's okay. I've got it handled."
After Eleanor left, I called Caleb.
"Caleb, Richard's cheating on me," I said.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"His mom overheard it herself," I replied.
There was a long pause on the other end.
"Susie, are you thinking about divorcing him?" he asked.
"Not yet," I replied.
"So what do you want?" he asked.
"I want to know who that woman is," I said.
Three days later, Caleb sent me a file.
Name: Amanda Lawrence.
Age: 27, four years younger than me.
A photo was tacked on at the end.
I recognized her.
She'd been to my place before.
Last Christmas, Richard brought a few of his employees over for dinner, and she was one of them.
She sat right across from me and called me "Mrs. Warren."
She put food on my plate twice.
When she was leaving, she said, "Mrs. Warren, your braised beef is so good! You'll have to teach me your recipe someday."
I just laughed and said, "Sure, anytime."