I ended the call and sat there with the engine off. Then I called Lenora. Could we get coffee tomorrow morning? I asked. Of course.
Is something wrong? Yes, I said. And I think you should hear it from me in person. She didn't ask for details over the phone. She named a cafe near the art center where she worked and said she'd be there at 9:00.
I went home and left the hinges on the counter. Belle came by that evening to pick up some clothes. We were standing in the hallway when I told her I was meeting Lenora. Her face went pale. Dad said you were going to wait.
I told him he didn't get to decide. He's scared she's going to leave him. I looked at her. Are you scared I'm going to leave you? She started crying.
Of course I am. Then why is his marriage the first thing you talk about? She said she didn't know. She said she was ashamed and didn't know how to fix anything. She didn't defend Saurin or her father this time.
She sat on the stairs and cried until she could speak again. "I can't answer that tonight," I said. She nodded. She left with her bag a few minutes later. I didn't tell her what I would say to Lenora.
It wasn't hers to manage anymore. The cafe was half full when I arrived Tuesday morning. Lenora was already at a table by the window. She had ordered tea and was looking at her phone. When she saw me, she smiled, then stopped smiling when she got a better look at my face.
"Sit down," she said. I sat. I told her Belle and I were separating for now. I told her Belle had admitted an affair with Saurin. I said I was sorry she had to hear it this way.
Lenora didn't move for several seconds. Are you certain? She asked. Yes. Both of them told me.
She looked down at her hands. Then she asked when it had started. July according to them. She swallowed and asked whether Gideon knew. Yes.
How long? Almost 8 weeks. Since the end of September. She looked up sharply. Since September.
I explained that Gideon had confronted them at an inn and later helped Belle cover where she'd been. I showed Lenora the messages I'd photographed. I showed her the messages where Gideon claimed Belle had been at his house. He told me he was helping Belle with a work problem that week. She said I didn't know that.
It was another lie I hadn't needed to discover. She asked whether Gideon had told me not to speak to her before Thanksgiving. I said yes. Lenora took a sip of tea and put the cup down untouched. My first husband lied about money, she said.
Not another woman. Money. He would tell me everything was fine while he was opening accounts I didn't know about. Gideon knows how much that did to me. I told her I was sorry.
She shook her head. You didn't do it. Finally, she asked, "What do you need from me?" "Nothing," I said. "I didn't want you to find out at dinner or from somebody else later." She nodded. "I appreciate that." Then she said she needed to go home and talk to her husband.
I didn't hear from her again that day. Around 5, Gideon called. I let it go to voicemail. He called twice more and sent a text saying, "Please answer." Lenora wants me to leave. I didn't answer that either.
Later, Belle called. I picked up because we still had practical things to arrange. Dad says, "You told her everything." She said, "I told her what I knew. She's making him stay with a friend. That's between them.
He's 62 Alden. He's not helpless. Belle. He has friends in a truck and a retirement check. Lenora has to go home to a house where every family dinner now means something different.
I said, "And you're worried about where he sleeps tonight?" He called me right after she told him to leave. Belle said. He said he couldn't sleep. I waited. He said he thought you'd keep this between us.
There it was. Even after Lenora knew, Gideon was angry that the arrangement had stopped working. I told Belle I couldn't help him with that. She went quiet, then said, "You didn't have to do it right before Thanksgiving." I asked whether she'd preferred I wait until after Christmas. She said that wasn't fair.
I almost said something cruel. Instead, I asked her to stop making Lenora's pain about the timing. She didn't answer. Belle asked whether we were still married in any meaningful sense. I told her I didn't know what she wanted that question to accomplish.
She said she wanted to know whether she should keep hoping. I'm not asking you to wait for me. I said, "I don't know what I'll feel a month from now, but you need to plan as if we're separating because we are." She started to say that 8 years deserved more than a phone call. I told her 8 years had deserved the truth. I heard her breathe into the receiver for a while.
Then we agreed to talk about the house on Friday and I ended the call. Thanksgiving was quiet. I didn't go to Gideon and Lenoras. Tamson invited me to her place where she and her partner had made enough food for 10 people even though only five were coming. I helped peel potatoes and watched a football game I barely followed.
Lenora canceled the big family meal. She told me herself in a brief message the next afternoon. She said her sister was coming to stay with her and thanked me for speaking to her privately. Gideon stayed at a friend's house. Saurin had planned to show up at his mother's anyway, but she told him not to.
He ended up spending Thanksgiving by himself. According to Belle, I didn't call to verify it. Lenora had spent four years trying to make the two sides of the family feel like one. Now she couldn't bear to have her own son at the table. On Friday, Belle came to the house with a list of things she wanted to take.
We went room by room. It was awkward and slow. She took a lamp her mother had given us. We left the dining table for later. She stopped in the kitchen and touched one of the blue cabinet doors.
I thought we'd be here forever, she said. I wanted to ask what she thought would happen when she let Saurin sleep here. I could see how exhausted she was, and I didn't have it in me to start another fight over a lamp and a dining table. I thought so, too, I said. She asked if counseling was still an option.
I said I would go if it helped us separate without tearing each other apart, but I couldn't promise we would stay married. She looked at the kitchen floor and said she understood. I felt sad for her. I felt worse for the version of us that had once planned this room together. For days after Thanksgiving, I still looked for Belle's car when I turned onto our street.
When it wasn't there, I felt relieved, then embarrassed by the relief. By December, Belle had rented an apartment. I stayed in the house while our lawyers worked through the finances. We agreed in writing how to pay the bills. A few days after Christmas, Saurin called from outside my house.