Page 22 of The Liar's Wife

She nodded, taking another bite of her food and looking at Ty, who was looking at me.

“She thinks her husband could be cheating on her,” I said.

“Oh, no,” Dannika said, her voice low.

“Yeah, but, I mean, she doesn’t have a ton of money, but the money they do have is hers. It was hers before they met. A savings account and a few CDs. She doesn’t want to leave him if it will mean splitting everything.” I paused, watching his expression, which turned serious rather quickly.

“Well, as far as the marital estate, there’s not much that can be done unless there was a prenup in place. But, alimony…alimony can be affected by an affair, if there’s irrefutable proof an affair occurred. Does she have proof? You said she thinks he could be cheating… She doesn’t know for sure?”

I shook my head, letting what he’d said wash over me. If I were to leave Ben, half of what I’d worked for, sacrificed for my whole life, would legally belong to him. All because he’d cheated on me. I tried to keep the heartbreak from being too evident on my expression, though I doubted I was doing very well. “No, she doesn’t know for sure. She’s caught him with a woman, lying about where he was, but she still hasn’t found proof that anything happened between them. They met in public.”

He inhaled through his shimmery, white teeth. “See, that’s where she needs to start. Has she brought up the affair to him yet? Does he know she’s suspicious? If he lied to her about it, I guess so…”

“Well, no. He doesn’t know. At least, not as far as I know. She asked him where he was and he lied, but she didn’t confront him about it.”

He took another bite, chewing thoughtfully. “Your friend’s a smart girl. My advice would be, before she says or does anything, she needs to get proof. Cell phone records,bank records, photos, video…whatever she can get. The more evidence she could present to a judge, the better. Then, once she has what she thinks is enough, she should talk to a lawyer, make sure the case is solid, before she serves him with the papers. Did you give her my number?”

Dannika was watching me closely, and I felt my face warming under her scrutiny. “I haven’t yet. Do you have a business card?”

“Sure thing,” he said, pulling a business card carrier from his pocket on demand. He slid a card to me across the table. “Tell her to give me a call before she does anything rash. Even if I can just answer some questions.”

“Thank you,” I said, placing the card into my purse in the seat next to me. “You’re the best, Ty.”

He grinned. “I’m happy to help. Plus Dannika’d kill me if I didn’t.” He winked.

“No, I wouldn’t,” she said, her lips pressed together as sarcasm hung on her words. “I’d need you to get me off the murder trial.”

“I don’t do criminal trials, so you’d be out of luck, but fair enough,” Ty said as I giggled. They’d been married eighteen years, had three beautiful children and a lifetime of stories, and still, they were perfect. All I’d ever wanted was to have something like they did. When I’d met Ben, I was sure I’d found it. But apparently I’d been wrong.Again. I was starting to think I’d never have what they did. Maybe I wasn’t worthy of that forever kind of love after all. It seemed so few people were lucky enough to get it.

“You okay, Palmer?” Dannika asked, and I realized my vision had begun to blur with tears.

I dusted them away quickly, forcing a warm smile. “I’m fine. Just my allergies.”

She nodded, still watching me closely. It was uncomfortable the way she was locked into me, but I couldn’t blame her. She knew me better than anyone. Which meant, try as I might to deny it, she knew when I was lying.

Chapter Thirteen

The next day, the phone rang from the cupholder of my car, and I glanced down.The office.I knew who it was and why she was calling. Unlike Cumberland, and even Howie to some extent, Dannika wasn’t buying my lies about going to client meetings. She knew how I worked, and she knew something was up. But I couldn’t tell her. Couldn’t explain to her what was going on when I still had no idea myself.

I pressed the volume button, silencing it, and stared into the large, glass windows of the restaurant. It was raining outside, which I hoped would mean Ben would choose to stay home. Instead, just thirty minutes after I left the apartment, he departed from the building with Gray in his arms. This time, instead of walking toward the park, they walked around the building and, for a brief moment, I lost sight of them. Just as I started the car and made my way back down the street, his car pulled out. I froze, panicked that he’d see me, but he didn’t seem to. Instead, he pulled out like normal and headed in the opposite direction. I stayed a car or twobehind him, turning down separate streets and keeping a safe distance, but never losing sight of him completely.

He got on the interstate, headed toward Crestview, and I felt the last bit of hope collapse inside of me. I’d thought—hoped—he’d be going anywhere else, but he wasn’t. He was going to see her again. Finally, all my suspicions were confirmed. This was real. It was really happening.

He surprised me by taking an exit that was still a few miles shy of Crestview and pulling into a restaurant parking lot on the outskirts of Oceanside.

I pulled into a parking garage, inserting seven dollars in cash from my wallet, and took a spot near the edge. I climbed from the car and stepped in front of the hood, looking out over the waist-high concrete partition. I could see into the restaurant across the street, where Ben and Gray had taken a table near the window. He was holding Gray against his chest, my son sleeping in his arms, and he watched out the window. Watched for her.

Fifteen minutes after they arrived, Kat showed up. With each click of her heels across the concrete, inaudible from where I stood so many feet up, yet painful just the same, I felt my anger growing. Ben was smiling when she walked in the restaurant, and he turned his back to me as I watched her approach him.

She sat down in the booth next to him, their skin touching. It was killing me. My insides bubbled with anger and fear. How long would it take him to leave me? How long had he been seeing her in the first place? How dare she? How dare he? Would she tell him about seeing me at the salon? Did she even know me? She had to know he had a wife. He had a son, for crying out loud. Had he killed me off in some fantasy life with her?

I felt tears prick my eyes, but brushed them away, holding my phone up and snapping a picture of the two of them. I clicked on the lower left screen, pulling up the photo.

From this far away, the picture was blurry, misshapen, and dark from the glare on the glass. It would never work. I needed to get down to their level. Get closer. But I couldn’t chance them seeing me. The warning Ty had given rang through my head. I had to get proof before he found out I knew. I had to.

I stood, leaning against the concrete as I stared down at my husband, child, and the stranger, feeling sick. I wanted to walk away, I was no use to anyone standing there, but I couldn’t make myself move. I wanted to take my son away from him. How dare he bring him, the child I’d just had ripped from my womb, and share him with someone else? He was mine.Mine.

I snapped another, albeit blurry, photo of the three of them together, her practically hanging off his arm as she stared down at my son. One way or another, I was going to fix this. For me. For Gray.