Chapter 3 - Amber Saw the Message Catherine Sent
Amber had been with Michael at the Carlisle Foundation gala.
That part I knew.
Michael had told me it was a mandatory donor dinner.
He had not told me Amber was attending with him.
I knew her name.
She worked with one of Michael’s largest clients and had appeared at enough dinners that I recognized her from photographs.
What I did not know was how much time she had been spending with my husband.
Amber looked toward Lily.
Then away.
“At 1:52, your name kept flashing on his phone.”
Michael interrupted.
“Stop.”
Amber ignored him.
“I asked why you were calling that late.”
“What did he say?”
Her eyes filled.
“That you were anxious about the pregnancy.”
My stomach twisted.
“You knew I was pregnant?”
“Yes.”
“How much did you know?”
“That you were due soon.”
Michael stared at the floor.
Amber continued.
“Then another message appeared on his screen.”
I remembered sending it.
Contractions four minutes apart. I’m going to the hospital. Please answer me.
Amber had read enough of the preview.
“She asked you to answer,” Amber said to Michael.
“I did answer.”
“You texted her twenty minutes later.”
I looked at Michael.
“You were still at the gala?”
“No.”
Amber answered for him.
“We had left.”
“Why?”
“Because I told him he needed to go to you.”
That surprised me.
Michael had brought Amber to the hospital because she insisted he come?
Amber continued.
“In the car, I asked him what was really happening between you two.”
Michael’s face hardened.
She looked at me.
“He told me your marriage was basically over.”
My chest tightened.
“How long had he been telling you that?”
Michael closed his eyes.
Amber answered.
“Four months.”
Lily was only minutes old in my arms, and suddenly I was calculating backward through my pregnancy.
Four months.
I had been carrying Michael’s daughter while he built another version of our marriage for another woman.
Amber looked ashamed.
“He said you were living like roommates.”
We had fought.
We had been distant.
But he still slept beside me.
Still kissed me before work most mornings.
Still attended two prenatal appointments.
Still discussed nursery furniture.
“We weren’t separated.”
“I know that now.”
Michael finally spoke.
“I never said we were legally separated.”
Amber laughed once, bitterly.
“You let me believe it.”
I looked at him.
“Were you sleeping with her?”
Silence.
That was enough.
Amber answered softly.
“Yes.”
Something inside me went very still.
Not because I had not guessed.
Because certainty removes the last place hope can hide.
Daniel stepped closer to my wheelchair.
“Catherine, your blood pressure—”
“I’m fine.”
I wasn’t.
But I needed one answer.
I looked at Amber.
“If you knew he was lying by the time you got here, why did you walk into my room with him this morning?”
Amber’s face changed.
“Because Michael told me you already knew.”
I stared.
“What?”
“He said he came upstairs after the birth.”
Michael looked suddenly terrified again.
Amber continued.
“He told me he confessed everything to you before sunrise.”
My eyes moved to Daniel.
May you like
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
And that was when I realized there was still another part of last night neither of them had told me.
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