I Was Lifting Our Heavy Mattress to Search for an Earring I Had Dropped Behind the Bed-frame.. I Expected to Find Some Dust, but What Was Carefully Taped Beneath His Side of the Mattress Made Me Sit Down on the Uncovered Floor

I didn’t, actually. But I’d nodded.

There were the monthly work trips, too. Always to the same small town. Always from Thursday to Sunday.

Also, whenever I asked about his father, whom he never spoke of, he’d give me a soft, « Another time, love. »

Another time never came.

I’d let it all slide because Ethan was my best friend.

Because I grew up in a house where my own father cheated with a woman none of us knew existed. And I promised myself I would never be that kind of wife.

The one who searched. The one who suspected.

So I didn’t.