Chapter 3 - The Woman Before MeI had spent six days preparing myself to learn that my husband had a mistress.
I had not prepared myself to learn that I might have been the other woman in my own marriage.
"What does that mean?"
Margaret looked miserable.
"Vanessa and Liam dated for almost five years."
I turned toward him.
"You told me your longest relationship before me lasted eight months."
"Because it was over."
"Was it?"
He looked away.
That answered enough.
Margaret continued.
"They were engaged."
The word landed harder than I expected.
Engaged.
I remembered choosing my wedding dress.
Liam telling me he had never imagined marriage until me.
I remembered him saying I was the first woman who made permanence feel possible.
Another lie.
"Why didn't they marry?"
Robert asked.
Even he apparently didn't know the entire story.
Margaret hesitated.
"Vanessa left him."
"For another man," Liam snapped.
Margaret shook her head.
"That's what you told everyone."
He glared at her.
"What actually happened?" I asked.
Margaret looked at me.
"Liam cheated on her."
Nobody spoke.
I almost laughed.
There was something brutally symmetrical about it.
The woman helping my husband betray me had once been betrayed by him.
"So she came back?"
"About a year ago," Margaret said.
Liam shoved his chair away.
"I'm done with this."
"No," Robert said.
His voice was quiet but powerful.
"For once, you're going to sit down and answer a question."
Liam stared at his father.
Then at me.
Then he sat.
"What is Northline Strategies?" Robert asked.
"My company."
My stomach dropped.
"What?"
"I created it."
"In Vanessa's name?" I asked.
"For privacy."
"From whom?"
No answer.
"Me?"
He rubbed his forehead.
"Claire, I was going to replace the money."
"You stole forty-seven thousand dollars from our joint account."
"I didn't steal it."
"Did I agree to those transfers?"
"No."
"Then what would you call it?"
He had nothing.
My father stepped closer.
"What did you spend it on?"
Liam looked trapped.
Eventually he muttered, "An apartment."
I stared at him.
"An apartment."
"For Vanessa."
Margaret whispered his name in disgust.
The affair suddenly acquired rooms.
A kitchen.
A bed.
A key in my husband's pocket.
While I had been waking every two hours to feed our daughter, Liam had been furnishing another woman's apartment with money from our savings.
My anger became something colder.
"How long?"
"Claire—"
"How long have you been sleeping with her?"
"Eight months."
Hailey was ten weeks old.
I did the math.
"You started while I was pregnant."
He lowered his eyes.
I remembered my seventh month.
Swollen ankles.
Heartburn.
Liam suddenly working Saturdays.
Me assembling Hailey's crib alone because he had an emergency meeting.
I had sent him a picture when I finished.
Look what Mommy built.
He replied three hours later with a thumbs-up.
I wondered now where he had been when he sent it.
I didn't cry.
Not then.
Perhaps there are betrayals so large tears become temporarily inadequate.
I simply nodded.
"Okay."
Liam looked startled.
"Okay?"
"Yes."
I took Hailey from my mother.
My daughter settled against me almost immediately.
"I'm leaving tonight."
"This is your house too."
"Exactly. Which is why my attorney will deal with it."
"You can't take my daughter."
I looked at him.
"Would you like to feed her before I go?"
He blinked.
"What?"
"When did she last eat?"
Silence.
"What formula does she use?"
Nothing.
"What time does she usually wake?"
He stared at me.
"Who is her pediatrician?"
"Claire, stop."
"What size diapers does your daughter wear?"
"Stop!"
Hailey startled.
I stepped back.
My father moved between us.
"Lower your voice."
Liam looked around and realized everyone had witnessed it.
I kissed Hailey's forehead.
"You keep saying I'm taking your daughter away. But you don't know anything about her."
"I work."
"So did I before maternity leave. And somehow I know my child."
He looked ashamed for perhaps three seconds.
Then his expression hardened.
"You think you're going to destroy me with this little performance?"
"No."
I picked up Hailey's diaper bag.
"You did that yourself."
My parents followed me outside.
The October air was cold.
I strapped Hailey into her car seat with shaking hands.
Only once the door closed did I finally cry.
My mother hugged me.
"I'm sorry."
"I feel stupid."
"No."
"I believed him."
"Believing your husband isn't stupidity."
My father placed my suitcase in his trunk.
"We'll figure out tomorrow."
But tomorrow arrived sooner than expected.
At 6:13 the next morning, my attorney called.
"Claire, don't speak to Liam."
I sat up in my childhood bedroom.
Hailey slept in the bassinet beside me.
"What happened?"
"Northline Strategies."
My stomach tightened.
"What about it?"
"It isn't just paying for Vanessa's apartment."
"What else?"
"There are transfers from another account."
"Whose?"
She hesitated.
"Liam's employer."
I stopped breathing.
My husband worked as finance director for Archer Medical Systems, a regional company preparing for acquisition.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying Northline received nearly three hundred thousand dollars from vendors connected to contracts Liam approved."
I stared into the darkness.
An affair was one thing.
This sounded like fraud.
"Does his company know?"
"Not yet."
"Could I be liable?"
"That's what I'm trying to determine."
Hailey stirred.
I looked at my daughter and felt real fear for the first time.
Then my phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number.
There was a photograph attached.
Vanessa.
I recognized her from the corporate website.
She was standing beside Liam.
Below it were six words.
Your husband lied to both of us.
May you like
A second message arrived.
And you need to know why.
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