Not:
Are you hurt?
Not:
Call the police.
Not:
Get away from my wife.
What were you thinking?
Vanessa’s face changed.
She began crying.
“I did it for us.”
Us.
One word.
There are moments when months of suspicion become unnecessary.
That was mine.
I looked at Adrian.
His expression told me everything.
Not surprise at us.
Fear that I had heard it.
I walked past him.
“Claire.”
I ignored him.
“Please.”
I kept walking.
Down the executive corridor.
Past employees pretending not to stare.
Into the elevator.
Out of Blackwood Logistics.
Into my car.
I locked the doors.
Then I looked at myself in the rearview mirror.
For seventeen years, I had imagined that if Adrian ever betrayed me, I would scream.
Cry.
