Those facts existed together, and neither canceled the other.
When morning arrived, I would have to face both.
CHAPTER 8: THE MORNING AFTER
The next morning I found Natalie sitting at the dining table with her wedding ring beside a cup of untouched tea.
She said she had not slept.
I told her I had not either.
She wanted to know whether I had already decided to leave her.
I answered that the decision about our marriage was separate from the decision to help Evelyn.
Natalie looked relieved by the distinction, but it was not a promise.
I asked for a written timeline of every contact she had had with Graham outside work.
She resisted until I explained that I would no longer live inside stories that changed whenever I asked a difficult question.
She began with a conference in Philadelphia eight months earlier.
Graham had told her his marriage existed only on paper.
He had offered to sponsor her promotion, introduced her to clients, and sent flowers after she helped recover a missing contract.
She admitted their affair began during a weekend he described as a business retreat.
I remembered that weekend because I had driven to a hardware store to buy paint for the nursery we hoped we might someday need.
Natalie had told me she was too exhausted to help with the house.
Now she sat across from me trying to remember which hotel they had used.
I asked her to stop before she gave me details that would live in my head forever.
I wanted facts relevant to the money, the documents, and the choices she had made.
Her shame did not give her a right to turn me into her confessor.
She explained that Graham had begun using the affair to keep her close when she questioned Lucy’s files.
He would alternate gifts with warnings about what he could tell me.
I asked why she had not simply confessed to me.
She said she feared I would leave and that Graham would destroy her career.
“You let the fear of losing me become the reason you kept lying to me,” I said.
Natalie cried quietly, but she did not disagree.
When the doorbell rang, neither of us moved immediately.
It was a courier with a certified letter addressed to her.
The sender was Ellis Development’s outside counsel.
The letter placed her on administrative leave and demanded the immediate return of all company property.
It also warned her against sharing confidential information with third parties.
