Hours passed.<\/p>\n
Employees streamed out.<\/p>\n
Executives in suits.<\/p>\n
Women in heels.<\/p>\n
Delivery drivers.<\/p>\n
People talking into headsets and cell phones.<\/p>\n
At five-thirty in the afternoon, Sophia appeared.<\/p>\n
She wasn’t alone.<\/p>\n
A man stepped out beside her.<\/p>\n
Tall. Dark jacket. Baseball cap.<\/p>\n
My stomach dropped.<\/p>\n
For a moment, I thought it was Edward.<\/p>\n
But it wasn’t.<\/p>\n
Not even close.<\/p>\n
The man looked younger.<\/p>\n
Maybe thirty-five.<\/p>\n
They laughed about something as they walked toward a compact gray sedan.<\/p>\n
I quickly started my car and followed at a distance.<\/p>\n
Traffic carried us away from downtown and into an older neighborhood on the northwest side of the city.<\/p>\n
The buildings became smaller.<\/p>\n
The streets narrower.<\/p>\n
Eventually, Sophia parked in front of a modest three-story apartment building.<\/p>\n
Not exactly the place I expected for someone supposedly living off an executive’s affair.<\/p>\n
I watched from across the street.<\/p>\n
The man got out first.<\/p>\n
Then Sophia.<\/p>\n
He opened her door.<\/p>\n
Carefully.<\/p>\n
Protectively.<\/p>\n
Like someone worried about her.<\/p>\n
My chest tightened.<\/p>\n
I waited until they disappeared inside before crossing the street.<\/p>\n
I don’t know what I planned to do.<\/p>\n
Maybe knock.<\/p>\n
Maybe just look at the mailbox.<\/p>\n
Maybe prove to myself that I wasn’t crazy.<\/p>\n
The hallway smelled faintly of laundry detergent and old paint.<\/p>\n
Apartment 3B.<\/p>\n
I stood outside the door.<\/p>\n
Then knocked.<\/p>\n
Immediately, I regretted it.<\/p>\n
What was I doing?<\/p>\n
What would I even say?<\/p>\n
The door opened.<\/p>\n
Sophia stared at me.<\/p>\n
Her eyes widened.<\/p>\n
\u201cMrs. Mitchell?\u201d<\/p>\n
For several seconds neither of us moved.<\/p>\n
Then she looked behind her.<\/p>\n
The man appeared in the hallway.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything okay?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Sophia nodded uncertainly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think so.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked from one to the other.<\/p>\n
Then at the framed photos on the wall behind them.<\/p>\n
Pictures of vacations.<\/p>\n
Birthday parties.<\/p>\n
Christmas mornings.<\/p>\n
The same man appeared in every single photo.<\/p>\n
Not Edward.<\/p>\n
Never Edward.<\/p>\n
Sophia’s expression changed.<\/p>\n
Slowly.<\/p>\n
As if she suddenly understood why I was there.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh,\u201d she said quietly.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh no.\u201d<\/p>\n
My throat felt dry.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’re pregnant.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you work with my husband.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man stepped closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is your husband?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEdward Mitchell.\u201d<\/p>\n
The confusion on his face was immediate.<\/p>\n
Then Sophia covered her mouth.<\/p>\n
Not to hide a smile.<\/p>\n
To hide shock.<\/p>\n
\u201cWait,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think Edward is the father?\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody answered.<\/p>\n
Because I didn’t need to.<\/p>\n
The truth was written all over my face.<\/p>\n
Sophia slowly shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cMrs. Mitchell, this is my husband.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at the man.<\/p>\n
\u201cHusband?\u201d<\/p>\n
He held up his left hand.<\/p>\n
Wedding ring.<\/p>\n
Worn and scratched.<\/p>\n
Not new.<\/p>\n
Not decorative.<\/p>\n
Real.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve been married six years,\u201d he said gently.<\/p>\n
I felt the floor shift beneath me.<\/p>\n
Sophia looked horrified.<\/p>\n
Then she invited me inside.<\/p>\n
Twenty minutes later, I was sitting on their couch holding a mug of tea I couldn’t drink.<\/p>\n
Photos covered the room.<\/p>\n
Wedding photos.<\/p>\n
Family gatherings.<\/p>\n
A framed ultrasound picture.<\/p>\n
A picture of Sophia and her husband standing in front of a lake two years earlier.<\/p>\n
Everything looked real.<\/p>\n
Because it was.<\/p>\n
Finally, Sophia asked the question.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did you think Edward and I were together?\u201d<\/p>\n
I laughed.<\/p>\n
A short, broken laugh.<\/p>\n
Then I told her.<\/p>\n
The pills.<\/p>\n
The late nights.<\/p>\n
The messages.<\/p>\n
The maternity leave.<\/p>\n
Everything.<\/p>\n
By the time I finished, neither of them looked offended.<\/p>\n
They looked concerned.<\/p>\n
Sophia exchanged a glance with her husband.<\/p>\n
Then she said something that made my heart stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cClaire… those pills weren’t mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey weren’t mine.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room went silent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t take birth control,\u201d she continued. \u201cI haven’t for over a year. We were trying to have a baby.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her husband nodded.<\/p>\n
My pulse started racing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they weren’t yours…\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n
Sophia swallowed.<\/p>\n
Then she spoke carefully.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s someone else at the office.\u201d<\/p>\n
The blood drained from my face.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n
She hesitated.<\/p>\n
Not because she didn’t know.<\/p>\n
Because she clearly wished she didn’t.<\/p>\n
Finally, she answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new marketing director.\u201d<\/p>\n
I remembered the name instantly.<\/p>\n
Amanda.<\/p>\n
Twenty-eight.<\/p>\n
Recently hired.<\/p>\n
The woman Edward mentioned constantly.<\/p>\n
The woman I had never worried about because he always described her as annoying.<\/p>\n
Too loud.<\/p>\n
Too ambitious.<\/p>\n
Too young.<\/p>\n
The woman he talked about just a little too much.<\/p>\n
Sophia looked at me with genuine sympathy.<\/p>\n
\u201cClaire… everyone at the office thinks they’re having an affair.\u201d<\/p>\n
I couldn’t breathe.<\/p>\n
All those months.<\/p>\n
All that suspicion.<\/p>\n
Pointed at the wrong person.<\/p>\n
I set the untouched tea on the table.<\/p>\n
Outside, evening shadows stretched across the apartment windows.<\/p>\n
My marriage hadn’t fallen apart in that moment.<\/p>\n
The truth was, it had probably started falling apart long before.<\/p>\n
The difference was that now I finally knew where to look.<\/p>\n
And for the first time in months, I wasn’t chasing a guess.<\/p>\n
I was holding the beginning of the truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hours passed. Employees streamed out. Executives in suits. Women in heels. Delivery drivers. People talking into headsets and cell phones. At five-thirty in the afternoon, Sophia appeared. She wasn’t alone. A man stepped out beside her. Tall. Dark jacket. Baseball cap. My stomach dropped. For a moment, I thought it was Edward. But it wasn’t. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6518"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6519,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6518\/revisions\/6519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}