Now, it was my turn to stare.
“You didn’t know?”
She sat down slowly.
Then she whispered, “I knew this was going to happen.”
“What was?”
“You finding out.”
“Finding out WHAT?”
She looked at me for a long moment.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From Daniel losing his job?”
“Because I thought this was about something else. I thought Daniel would tell you himself.”
“Tell me WHAT?”
She looked away.
“Three months ago, I saw my son with another woman.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“What woman?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where?”
“At a restaurant.”
I gripped the back of a chair.
“What were they doing?”
“Talking.”
“That’s it?”
“They were sitting close together. There were papers all over the table, and when I walked past, Daniel looked terrified.”
“Did he see you?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“That she was someone from work.”
My heart started pounding.
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“He came here afterward and begged me not to jump to conclusions.”
“But you just threw him a party.”
“Because two weeks ago, he told me he’d gotten promoted. I thought that restaurant encounter was something related to that.”
I could hardly believe what I was hearing.
“You thought your son might be seeing another woman, and when he told you he’d been promoted, you decided everything was fine?”
“I wanted to believe him.”
“So did I.”
Neither of us spoke for a moment.
Then something occurred to me.
“The papers.”
“What?”
“You said they had papers all over the table.”
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
“I don’t know. Contracts, maybe.”
That did not sound like a romantic lunch.
But Daniel had already lied about his job.
I could no longer give him the benefit of the doubt.
“Do you remember what she looked like?”
My mother-in-law described her.
She had dark hair, was about our age, and wore red glasses.
I went home and opened our laptop.
Daniel and I had never hidden our finances from each other, or at least I had believed we didn’t.
Our checking account looked normal.
Then I checked our savings.
I stared at the balance.
$28,000 was missing.
I refreshed the page.
The number did not change.
I checked the transaction history.
There had been three large transfers over the previous three months.
All of them had gone into a business account I did not recognize.
My hands started shaking.
Daniel had left his company.
He was spending his days somewhere else.
He had been meeting another woman.
And $28,000 of our savings was gone.
I called him.
He answered on the fourth ring.
“Hey. Everything okay?”
“Where are you?”
A pause followed.
“At work.”
“Which work?”
Silence.
“Celina…”
“Where are you, Daniel?”
“I’ll explain tonight.”
“No. Tell me where you are.”
“I can’t do this over the phone.”
“Then come home.”
“I can’t right now.”
I looked at the missing money on the screen.
“Does this have something to do with the woman your mother saw you with?”
Daniel went silent.
When he finally spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper.
“She told you?”
“Come home.”
I ended the call.
For the next 40 minutes, I sat at the kitchen table.
Then a car pulled into the driveway.
Daniel stepped out.
But he wasn’t alone.
A woman with dark hair and red glasses got out of the passenger side.
I was already at the front door when Daniel reached it.
The woman stopped several feet behind him.
“Celina, please let me explain.”
“Is that her?”
Daniel glanced back.
“Yes.”
The woman stepped forward.
“I’m Claire.”
I ignored her and looked at my husband.
“Did you leave your job for her?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Not the way you mean.”
“Then what way do I mean?”
Claire spoke carefully.
“Maybe I should go.”
“No,” I said. “Apparently, you’re one of the few people who knows what my husband has been doing for three months. You’re staying.”
Daniel looked exhausted.
He sat at the kitchen table.
Claire remained standing.
I opened my laptop and turned it toward him.
“Where is the $28,000?”
Daniel stared at the screen.
“I invested it.”
“In what?”
He looked at Claire.
That look almost made me lose control.
