“Rachel, please don’t say that. He’s my husband.”
She waved dismissively. “Oh, relax. You know I’m joking.”
The conversation moved on, but I couldn’t. Rachel kept finding excuses to sit beside Michael or lean across the table to talk to him.
When Tom asked about their anniversary plans, she answered distractedly before turning back to ask Michael where he and I liked to travel.
On the drive to our hotel, I waited until the children were asleep before confronting him.
“Why did you let her talk to you like that?”
Michael reached for my hand. “I love you, sweetheart. I’ll talk to her.”
I wanted that answer to reassure me. I squeezed his fingers and told myself things would be different tomorrow, but his calm response stayed in my mind long after he’d fallen asleep.
The next afternoon, the house filled with relatives, paper plates, and the smell of grilled food. Rachel moved among the guests, laughing especially loudly whenever Michael spoke.
I watched her closely.
“Could you help me bring out the salad?” Tom asked.
I followed him into the kitchen and picked up a serving dish. We were heading toward the back door when voices suddenly rose outside.
“Hey!” someone shouted.
I hurried through the doorway with the dish in my hands and stopped so abruptly that Tom almost walked into me.
Rachel was kissing Michael.
My parents stood only a few feet away. Conversations around the yard stopped mid-sentence. Michael pulled away when he noticed me, all color leaving his face.
“It was a dare,” he said.
Rachel stepped back with a smile as if nothing serious had happened.
“Sorry, sis, but he kisses better than Tom. I might not give him back! Just a joke.”
The dish suddenly felt too heavy. I placed it on the nearest table before I dropped it.
Heat climbed up my neck. Part of me wanted to cross the yard and make Rachel take back every word, but I was still trying to understand how Michael had allowed this to happen.
Then Tom laughed quietly behind me.
Rachel’s smile disappeared.
Michael went pale.
They both turned toward Tom as though they’d suddenly realized he knew something they hadn’t expected him to know.
Tom stepped beside me. His face was calm, but his eyes looked different from the night before.
“Actually, I have a special gift for you. I’ve been waiting for the right moment.”
Nobody answered. Mom glanced between Tom and Rachel while Michael swallowed hard.
Tom walked to the chair where he’d left his jacket, removed a small envelope, and pulled out several glossy photographs.
He handed them to Rachel and Michael.
“These were taken at the estate,” he said.
Michael examined them.
One showed Rachel standing beside him on a stone terrace. Another showed her laughing while he leaned close to say something. In another, they sat shoulder to shoulder on a bench with a wide lawn stretching behind them.
Mom reached toward the first photograph, then stopped.
Nobody spoke.
Rachel lowered her gaze while Michael turned the pictures over as though their blank backs might give him an explanation.
“I took Rachel there because I was looking for a gift for Sadie,” he said. “I thought she might like the place. A family home.”
He looked at me expectantly.
His explanation sounded polished enough to have been prepared, but I didn’t challenge him.
Not there.
Not in front of our parents and half the family.
I placed a hand on Michael’s arm.
“I trust my husband. Those pictures don’t prove anything, and the kiss was a prank.”
His shoulders relaxed.
Rachel looked up, relief replacing the embarrassment on her face.
Then I turned toward Tom. “If you have questions about your relationship with Rachel, maybe we should take it outside.”
I deliberately emphasized the final words.
Tom met my eyes. For a moment, I wasn’t sure he’d understood.
Then something shifted in his expression, and he nodded.
“Yeah, talk some sense into him!” Michael called after us.
Tom and I headed toward the back door. Behind us, the family’s silence dissolved into whispers.
I kept my expression calm until we were away from everyone, though my thoughts were racing.
Had Tom understood why I’d defended Michael, or had I only made things more difficult?
Tom didn’t wait for the door to close.
“Have you lost your mind?” he hissed. “You stood there and defended him.”
“I know what I said.”
“Michael and Rachel have been talking about eloping,” he said. “They want to start a new life together at that estate.”
I stared at him. “How do you know?”
Tom lowered his voice. “I followed them last week. Rachel told me she was visiting a friend. They spent nearly an hour on the terrace, laughing and touching where anyone might see them.”
I covered my mouth to hold back a gasp.
Tom continued. “I took those pictures from my car. When I walked closer, the doors were open. I heard them talking about leaving together, but by the time I raised my phone, they’d gone back inside.”
The photographs proved they’d been together at the estate, but not what they were planning.
If Rachel and Michael denied everything, a few pictures of them sitting together might not be enough to protect Tom or me in a divorce.
And now they knew Tom had seen the estate.
They wouldn’t return there.
