CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 2 — THE WOMAN BESIDE HIM
Mark saw her when she was ten steps away.
His face changed so quickly it almost made Emily laugh.
Not because anything was funny.
Because guilt had a shape, and it looked exactly like her husband standing in an airport with lipstick on his mouth and her best friend’s hand in his.
Rachel noticed next.
Her confidence fell apart in pieces.
First the smile.
Then the shoulders.
Then the hand she tried to pull away from Mark as if Emily had not already seen everything.
“Emily,” Mark said.
She stopped in front of them.
Close enough to smell his cologne.
The same cologne she had packed into his suitcase twelve days earlier.
“Emily, I can explain.”
Her eyes moved from his face to Rachel’s.
Rachel looked terrified now, but Emily remembered all the nights she had sat at Emily’s kitchen island pretending to listen.
Are you sure he’s just busy?
Maybe you’re overthinking.
Men get distant when work gets stressful.
The whole time, Rachel had been helping him practice his lies.
Emily looked back at Mark.
“Don’t,” she said coldly. “You’ll only embarrass yourself twice.”
Mark swallowed.
Passengers nearby began to slow down.
Nobody wanted to stare, but everyone did.
Rachel whispered, “Em, please.”
Emily turned her head slightly.
“Don’t call me that.”
Mark reached for her hand.
That was the first mistake he made after being caught.
Emily stepped close and slapped him once.
Sharp.
Controlled.
Not wild. Not messy. Not enough to make a scene bigger than the betrayal already was.
His face turned to the side. His hand lifted slowly to his cheek.
He looked stunned.
As if the slap surprised him more than his own affair.
Emily lowered her hand back to her side.
Then, without a word, she turned to Rachel.
Rachel stepped back.
“Emily, I never meant to hurt you.”
Emily slapped her once too.
Quick.
Clean.
Final.
Rachel touched her cheek and stared at Emily with wet eyes.
Emily did not cry.
She had done that already.
In the shower.
In the laundry room.
At red lights.
Beside sleeping children who still believed their father was simply busy.
Now there was nothing left in her face but winter.
“Thank you, Rachel,” Emily said. “You carried the dirtiest part of my life away for me.”
Rachel’s mouth trembled.
Mark took one step forward.
“Emily, listen to me. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”
May you like
Emily looked at him.
“No. You wanted it to happen quietly.”
