Page 35 of Every Now and Then
Annabelle
Then
16 Months Earlier
Ispent the day cleaning out the girls’ closets, sorting through the clothes they’ve outgrown and making room for new ones. Some went into grocery bags for donation, while my favorite pieces went into plastic tubs to keep. It’s probably silly to hold on to them, but I’m sentimental.
With hands on my hips, I survey the storage shelves that line the rear wall of the garage. I’m going to have to do some rearranging to accommodate thenew bins.
Though it’s only mid-afternoon, the sky is growing dark, and the wind is picking up, signaling the approach of a summer storm.
Eager to get this chore completed before it starts raining, I rearrange bins, shoving them into tighter spaces and stacking them on top of one another. I tug one out that Kyle has labeledChristmas Lights – Exterior,but when I lift the bin, it’s incredibly light, as if it’s empty.
Giving the tub a shake, I hear something rattling around inside it.
I lift the lid on the container and pull out an unlabeled manila envelope.What on earth is this?Curious,I open it, to find receipts, a card, and an iPhone.
What are these things? Why did Kyle hide them?
I turn on the phone, and while I wait for it to power up, I flip through the receipts. There are some from restaurants and bars and even a couple from hotels. I look at the dates for the hotel stays and my heart sinks. From what I can remember, they align with dates when Kyle said he was out of town on business, but the hotels are all in or around Nashville.
At the bottom of the box is a small square stationery card, like the kind that accompanies a floral arrangement. With shaking fingers, I withdraw the card from its envelope, and my heart breaks upon reading the typed message.
Kyle,
Happy birthday! I live for the way you look at me and the way you love me. There’s nowhere I feel more at home than in your arms. I often wish we had met under different circumstances, in a world where loving you was simple. But even so, I’m endlessly grateful we found each other. You’re the best part of my life.
XOXO,
G
My mind freezes, the card slipping through my fingers, before my thoughts go into a free fall. I gnaw on my lip, and tears spill down my cheeks. I’m frozen with indecision and shock. The world as I knew it has shifted, toppling off its axis. In a split second, everything changed, and nothing will ever be the same.
Kyle is having an affair.
What the hell am I going to do?
What do I tell the girls?
Do I stick it out and make it work with Kyle?
Does he even want to save our marriage, or is he ready to leave me?To leave us?
Realizing that I need more information, I turn to the phone. The screen lights up and prompts me for a passcode.
Three tries. That’s all I get before it locks me out.
I stare at the screen, unsure what numbers to enter. The passcode for his regular phone is our anniversary, but I doubt he’d use that on his burner phone. The one he uses to talk to his mistress.
His mistress.
My husband is having an affair. The information hits me anew, swift and sudden, like a punch to the gut. My husband is having sex with another woman.How the fuck did it come to this?
Stupidly, I punch in the numbers of our anniversary.
Wrong.
Next, I enter Kyle’s birthday.
