Chapter 3 - The Second Phone
Tom came over after the children were asleep.
He looked ten years older than he had the night before.
I put coffee on the table.
Neither of us touched it.
He placed the second phone between us.
“I shouldn't have taken it,” he said. “But once I saw the messages, I couldn't pretend.”
“Does Rachel know you have it?”
“She knows it's missing.”
The phone was locked.
Tom entered a six-digit code.
“How did you know it?”
“Our anniversary.”
That felt cruel in a way I couldn't explain.
The messages went back eight months.
Flirting.
Photos.
Inside jokes.
Then something worse.
Rachel: When are you actually leaving her?
Michael: After the promotion. I can't blow up my life before then.
Rachel: You said spring.
Michael: I know.
Rachel: Tom is getting suspicious.
Michael: Then stop being obvious.
I pushed the phone away.
Tom looked at me.
“Keep reading.”
“I don't want to.”
“You need to.”
I hated him for being right.
A month later:
Michael: She thinks we're trying for another baby.
Rachel: That's disgusting.
Michael: It keeps her calm.
I stood so fast the chair scraped against the floor.
Tom's face twisted.
“What?”
I covered my mouth.
Three weeks earlier, Michael and I had sat in our bedroom discussing whether to have a third child.
He had held my hand.
He had kissed my forehead.
He had told me he wanted to “build something bigger with me.”
I had believed every word.
My phone rang.
Michael.
I declined it.
Again.
Declined.
Then a text appeared.
Please don't listen to Tom. He's trying to destroy both marriages.
Tom read it over my shoulder.
He gave a humorless smile.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“He sent Rachel almost the exact same thing about you.”
He turned his phone toward me.
Don't listen to Sarah. She's emotional and she'll twist everything.
I stared at the screen.
Michael wasn't trying to save our marriage.
He was trying to control the story.
Then another message came through.
From my bank.
TRANSFER ALERT: $42,000 WITHDRAWN FROM JOINT SAVINGS.
I looked at Tom.
May you like
“That was our emergency fund.”
And I knew exactly who had moved it.
