Page 69 of Absolution

I guess today’s the day I decide which kind mine’s going to be.

Driving home, I think about my own family. I still haven’t forgiven Cory.

Marianne asked me the other day what Iwould’vedone if he’d told me back then, told me that Kyle had been at a hotel probably with another woman the night I went into early labour, and not at the office like he claimed.

The truth is, I don’t know what I would’ve done or could have done. But Idoknow I would’ve liked the choice.

That’s what it comes down to. Choice. Being robbed of the truth is one thing. Being robbed of theoptionto decide how to move forward? That’s a different kind of betrayal. Cory didn’t just protect Kyle; he took something fromme.

And Kyle…

If I’m correct, the hotel charges to the corporate card started in May 2021. If I’m remembering right, that’s around the time lockdown lifted and he started going back to the office. The return of long nights. Overnight meetings. Strategic silence.

I’d been too busy making up for the time I’d left, too busy overcompensating, trying to prove I was still a good mother, a present wife. I didn’t even question the lies. Not then.

I have a folder full of proof. Pages and pages of it. Hotel receipts, the vasectomy, doctor’s appointments he missed, the ‘I have a meeting’ replies to my requests for him to pick up the kids from school. They say paper cuts hurt because they’re small but deep.

No photos, though. No smoking gun.

I tried. I really did. But his latest rendezvous is always at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday and I can’t afford to skip the skills class Ineedto graduate, especially since the professor already doesn’t like me.

I chose my future; besides I already have enough leverage. I don’t need to catch him in the act. I already have the story. And the proof.

Now I just have to talk to Kyle. I need to look him in the eye and say,I know.

And then I need to find out who I am, on the other side of that moment.

Chapter Twenty

Jackie

I come home, bone-tired. This week has been brutal. I’ve never been so happy for a weekend before. Still have a stack of NDAs to go through, but tonight? I just need a fucking break.

Kicking off my shoes, I loosen my tie and grab a beer from the fridge. The house is quiet, for a Saturday night, so I assume they’re already passed out upstairs.

Which is why I damn near jump out of my skin when I step into the living room and see Jackie sitting on the couch. No lights on, just the faint glow from the hallway.

“Jesus,” I mutter, heart still racing. “You scared the hell out of me.”

“Sorry,” she says softly.

I blink, taking her in. She’s calm. Sitting in the dark like she’s been waiting.

“Late night,” she says, tilting her head.

“Yeah,” I say on autopilot, then pause. My usual line is some bullshit about a stubborn client or an unexpected delay. But I stop myself.

I promised myself, promisedNina, I’d stop lying by omission.

“One of my big clients lost his goddamn mind,” I say, exhaling as I drop into the armchair across from her. “Instead of quietly making the CEO step down like we all hoped, the board decided to give him enough rope to hang himself. And he’s taking full advantage. There are... an astounding number of sexual harassment allegations stacking up. I’m not sure if I’m representing a man or a bonafide liability disaster at this point.”

She stares at me, surprised. Not by the story, by the honesty.

“Wow,” she says. “And they’re keeping him on?”

“For now. Optics matter apparently.” I take a long sip of my beer, suddenly wishing it was something stronger.

“The kids in bed?” I ask when she doesn’t say anything.

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