“Maya.”
I stopped.
Rachel remained nearby.
Simone looked exhausted.
“There’s something I should tell you.”
My guard rose.
“What?”
“Darius and I never had a physical relationship.”
I said nothing.
“But?”
Her eyes dropped.
“There were moments when I think he imagined one.”
My stomach tightened.
“He talked about what life could have been if the clinic had never made the mistake.”
“With you?”
“With Leah.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Simone looked ashamed.
“He once said maybe fate had spent seven years correcting itself.”
I nearly laughed.
“Fate?”
“I told him not to talk like that.”
“Did he kiss you?”
“No.”
“Did he try?”
A pause.
“That long?”
“He leaned toward me once.”
“And?”
“I stopped him.”
I looked away.
There it was.
Not adultery in the technical sense.
Something worse, perhaps.
My husband had stood beside another woman and imagined that genetics had created a replacement family for him.
