“I used some of it.”
“For what?”
“Jess… please, it’s not important.”
“Not important?” My voice rose for the first time all night. “That money was MINE too.”
He closed his eyes, bracing himself the way you brace before stepping into cold water.
“Mara needed help with an apartment.”
I stared at him, and for a long moment I genuinely could not make my mouth form words.
“You took the money we set aside for our daughter’s daycare,” I finally said, “and you gave it to your girlfriend.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“What was it like, then?”
“She was short on the deposit.”
I laughed. It came out ugly and involuntary. “So you canceled our newborn’s daycare spot to help your mistress rent an apartment.”
“I was going to replace it.”
“With what?”
“My bonus. Next quarter.”
“And what were you planning to do about our daughter’s care in the meantime? While you waited on a bonus that might not even come?”
He didn’t answer that one either.
PART 6
And there it was. The whole architecture of the lie, finally standing in front of me in full daylight.
His mother hadn’t simply known he’d canceled our daycare. She’d known exactly why. Which meant every offer she’d made to watch Lily for free hadn’t been generosity at all.
It had been cover.
“You asked your mother to take Lily,” I said slowly, “so I would never notice where our money actually went.”
“She offered.”
“And you let her offer, knowing full well what it was really covering for.”
“She told me to end it. Months ago.”
“But she still helped you hide it from me anyway.”
Caleb sank into the kitchen chair like his legs had finally given out completely. “I told her it was over before the baby came.”
“But it wasn’t.”
“No.”
“And tonight? On the phone?”
He looked down at the phone still gripped in his hand. “That was Mara.”
Something in me wanted to scream loud enough to bring the ceiling down. Instead, I felt myself go strangely, dangerously calm — the kind of calm that only shows up after the part of you capable of panic has already burned out.
“Call your mother,” I said.
He blinked. “What?”
“Call her. Right now.”
“Jess—”
“Now, Caleb.”
His hands shook as he unlocked the phone. It rang three times before Diane picked up.
