Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN BEHIND THE MAN
Carter finally sat down.
Not because Hannah had asked him to.
Because his knees seemed to have forgotten how to hold him.
“Hannah handled some things,” he said.
“Some things?”
Brooke's voice had changed.
Hannah recognized that tone. It was the sound a woman made when the romantic version of a man began colliding with the factual one.
Carter leaned toward his wife.
“Whatever you think you know, we can discuss privately.”
“We had eight months for privacy.”
Hannah opened another section of the binder.
Brooke stared at her.
“Eight months?”
Carter's head snapped toward her.
“Brooke.”
“You told me six.”
Silence.
Hannah almost admired the efficiency of it.
One dinner.
Two lies exposed in less than ten minutes.
She reached beneath the table and placed a slim envelope beside Carter's plate.
He didn't touch it.
“What is that?”
“My resignation.”
“From what?”
Hannah looked at him for a long moment.
“From being the unpaid chief operating officer of your life.”
Carter gave an incredulous laugh.
“You're my wife.”
“Exactly.”
“You're making marriage sound like employment.”
“No. You did that. I just forgot to send invoices.”
Brooke looked away, perhaps hiding embarrassment.
Carter lowered his voice.
“Hannah, you're angry.”
“I was angry in April.”
She remembered the first hotel receipt.
A suite at the Whitmore.
Two breakfasts.
One room.
Carter had said the hospital booked it after a late donor event.
She had believed him.
“I was devastated in June.”
That was when she'd found Brooke's message.
I hate watching you go home to her.
“I was desperate in July.”
That was when Hannah had asked Carter whether they could take a weekend away before the baby came.
He had claimed he couldn't cancel surgeries.
He spent that Saturday in the Hamptons with Brooke.
“But tonight?”
Hannah closed the binder.
“Tonight I'm organized.”
Carter finally reached for the envelope.
He opened it.
His expression changed.
Divorce petition.
A temporary custody proposal regarding the unborn baby.
A financial disclosure request.
Notice that Hannah had retained counsel.
He flipped through the pages.
“You filed?”
“Yesterday.”
“You're divorcing me?”
Brooke closed her eyes.
Hannah almost laughed again.
Carter sounded genuinely surprised.
“You've been sleeping with another woman for eight months.”
“That doesn't mean I wanted our marriage to end.”
The sentence was so absurd that even Carter seemed to hear it after saying it.
Brooke pushed her chair back.
“I shouldn't be here.”
“Actually,” Hannah said, “there's something you should know before you leave.”
Brooke froze.
Hannah removed a second envelope.
This one was addressed to Brooke.
Carter's face hardened.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing to her.”
Hannah slid it across the table.
Brooke opened it cautiously.
Inside were photocopies of messages.
Not intimate ones.
Promises.
Carter telling Brooke he and Hannah had been emotionally separated for nearly a year.
Carter claiming they slept in different bedrooms.
Carter saying Hannah refused to let him leave because she depended financially on him.
Carter claiming the pregnancy had been an accident after a brief reconciliation.
Brooke's face drained.
“This isn't what you told me.”
Carter looked around the room as though there might be another door through which reality could escape.
“Hannah went through my phone.”
“No.”
Hannah shook her head.
“You synced your personal messages to the family iPad you gave Lily.”
That stopped him.
Hannah's voice softened.
“I found them before Lily did.”
For the first time that evening, Carter looked ashamed.
Not because he had betrayed Hannah.
Because his daughter could have discovered it.
Brooke stood.
“Were you ever separated?”
Carter didn't answer.
“Carter.”
“We were having problems.”
Hannah looked at her.
“We weren't.”
Brooke swallowed.
“He said you barely spoke.”
“We ate breakfast together every morning.”
“He said you hadn't been intimate in almost a year.”
Hannah's hand moved unconsciously toward her pregnant stomach.
Brooke shut her eyes.
“Right.”
The baby shifted beneath Hannah's palm.
A tiny movement.
A reminder that even after everything Carter had destroyed, something innocent remained.
Brooke grabbed her coat.
“Hannah, I…”
“Don't.”
Brooke stopped.
“I knew he was married. Whatever he told me, I knew that. I'm not going to insult you by pretending otherwise.”
That, at least, was honest.
Hannah nodded once.
Brooke turned toward Carter.
“You told me you were staying until after the baby because you were afraid Hannah couldn't cope alone.”
Carter said nothing.
Brooke gave a bitter laugh.
“Looks like you were the one who couldn't cope alone.”
She walked out.
The door closed.
Now there were only two people at the anniversary table.
Husband.
Wife.
And twelve years of history between them.
Carter stared at the divorce papers.
“You planned this.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Seventy-three days.”
He looked wounded by the precision.
“You've been pretending for seventy-three days?”
“No.”
Hannah looked straight into his eyes.
“I've been preparing.”
“For what?”
“To find out whether Hannah Sutton still exists when she stops living for everyone else.”
Carter's anger disappeared.
“Hannah.”
She stood.
He stood too.
“I'll end it with Brooke.”
Hannah picked up her coat.
“You still don't understand.”
“I love you.”
Her eyes burned.
Those were the words she had wanted.
In April.
In June.
In July.
At every lonely prenatal appointment he had missed.
Tonight they sounded like someone trying a key after the locks had already been changed.
“Maybe you do,” she whispered.
Carter reached for her.
She stepped away.
“But your love has required me to disappear.”
Then Hannah left him sitting beneath the chandelier with the anniversary gift still unopened.
Outside, Manhattan shimmered beneath the rain.
A black SUV waited at the curb.
Hannah climbed into the back seat.
Only after the door closed did she allow herself to cry.
Her phone vibrated.
She expected Carter.
Instead, the screen showed:
LILY
Hannah answered immediately.
“Sweetheart?”
For several seconds, there was only breathing.
May you like
Then her sixteen-year-old stepdaughter whispered:
“Please tell me you're not leaving me too.”
