Her silence stretched.
Then she said, “I was trying to help.”
My husband stared at her.
“With what?”
“You were overwhelmed.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
She finally looked at me.
“She was going to make everything difficult.”
My chest tightened.
Not from the contraction this time.
From the realization that she had known exactly what was happening.
“She was going to make what difficult?” I asked.
She hesitated.
“The room.”
I looked at my husband.
Then at her.
“So you decided I should be gone before she arrived.”
Nobody corrected me.
The consultant stepped toward the door.
“We are done with this conversation for now. She needs rest.”
My husband started to object.
The security officer stopped him with one glance.
He and his mother left.
The door closed.
The nurse adjusted my monitors again.
I watched the four lines moving across the screen.
For months, I had imagined the moment when I would finally have to confront my husband’s affair.
