“Then read it.”
Claire shook her head.
“Mark, don’t.”
“Read it.”
“I said it doesn’t matter.”
“Fine.”
I reached for my suitcase.
“Wait.”
I stopped.
Claire stared at the phone for another few seconds.
Then she said, “If I read it, you’re still leaving?”
“Yes.”
She closed her eyes.
“Okay.”
Her voice became barely audible.
“He said, ‘Did he believe tonight was the first time?’”
The kitchen became very quiet.
I stared.
Claire continued crying.
“There’s more.”
“Read it.”
She swallowed.
“He said, ‘If he did, don’t change the story now. We agreed on one night.’”
For a strange second, I felt nothing.
Not anger.
Not grief.
Just a kind of mental click.
Everything aligned.
The overnight bag.
The dramatic announcement.
The insistence that tonight was one night.
The confidence that I would still be waiting tomorrow.
“You planned this.”
Claire immediately shook her head.
“No.”
“You planned the story.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“What was it like?”
She looked at the phone.
“Evan and I knew you were getting suspicious.”
“How long?”
“Mark.”
“How long?”
“A while.”
“You decided to tell me you were sleeping with him once.”
“It was supposed to stop.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
She wiped her face.
“If you knew about one night, then if something ever surfaced later…”
She stopped.
I finished.
“You could say it came from tonight.”
Claire started sobbing harder.
“It sounded different when we talked about it.”
I almost laughed.
“Did it?”
“I know how bad it sounds.”
“It doesn’t sound bad.”
I looked toward the receipt.
“It sounds organized.”
She sat down.
“I was scared.”
“Of what?”
“Losing everything.”
“You mean losing me?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
She looked up.
“You were certain you wouldn’t lose me.”
Claire said nothing.
“You were scared I’d learn enough to make staying difficult.”
“That’s not fair.”
I felt the old impulse to defend myself disappear before it fully formed.
“You told another man I would still be here.”
Her face changed.
“I never said that.”
I looked toward the phone.
“Did you?”
She looked away.
I knew then there was more.
“How long?”
Claire stared at her hands.
“About a year.”
“The hotel is eight months old.”
“I know.”
“When did it start?”