Chapter 3 - The Messages Nolan Had Deleted
Nolan handed Ava his phone voluntarily.
That surprised her.
“Look through whatever you want.”
She almost refused.
Then she remembered the church floor.
Sabrina standing above her.
Nolan freezing after the accusation.
Ava took the phone.
There were no current messages from Sabrina.
No call history.
No photographs.
Nothing.
Too little.
Ava looked at him.
“You deleted her.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Months ago.”
“Before or after you slept with her?”
“After.”
Ava opened the blocked contacts.
Sabrina’s number was there.
Blocked six weeks earlier.
Not months.
Nolan saw her face.
“I blocked her again.”
“Again?”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
Sabrina had contacted him in July.
Ava had been six months pregnant.
“She said she was having a hard time.”
“And you answered.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I felt guilty.”
That answer hurt differently.
Guilt implied history.
Responsibility.
Something unfinished.
Nolan admitted meeting Sabrina twice for coffee.
No sex.
No kissing.
According to him, Sabrina wanted closure.
The second meeting ended badly when Nolan told her Ava was pregnant and he was not leaving his marriage.
Ava asked why he had never told her.
“Because I knew how it would sound.”
“It sounds worse now.”
“I know.”
Then Ava found something Nolan had overlooked.
His phone automatically archived notification history through a linked tablet they shared at home.
There were fragments.
Not full deleted conversations.
Enough.
One from Sabrina six weeks earlier:
You promised you wouldn't make me carry this alone.
Another:
Tell Ava before I do.
Ava looked up.
“What were you supposed to tell me?”
Nolan’s face lost color.
He claimed he did not know exactly what Sabrina meant.
Ava did not believe him.
“You expect me to believe you met her twice, blocked her six weeks ago, and she told you to confess something—but you have no idea what?”
“She says things when she’s angry.”
“That isn't an answer.”
Nolan finally admitted Sabrina believed he owed her money.
Ava blinked.
“Money?”
He nodded.
Years earlier, before Ava met him, Nolan and Sabrina had planned to open a boutique event business together.
Sabrina contributed most of the startup cash.
The company failed.
Nolan believed the debt had been settled informally.
Sabrina did not.
Ava had never heard any of this.
“How much?”
“About forty thousand originally.”
“And now?”
“I don't know.”
“You met her while I was pregnant because an ex you cheated with says you owe her tens of thousands of dollars?”
Nolan nodded.
Ava handed the phone back.
The affair was no longer the only betrayal.
May you like
Nolan had not simply hidden Sabrina.
He had hidden an entire unfinished relationship with money attached to it.
