Chapter 4 - Laura Had Been Planning This Before MarkThere are sentences that end an argument.
There are others that end the version of a person you carried inside your head.
Laura's did the second.
Daniel stared at her across his home office.
"Nothing?"
Laura's expression remained hard.
"You know what I mean."
"No. Explain it."
"I helped you build this life."
"You didn't build the company."
"I built the home you came back to while you worked sixteen-hour days."
"I never said you contributed nothing."
"But the prenup does."
"No, it doesn't."
Daniel put the agreement down.
"It protected a company my father started before I even met you."
"And then that company tripled while we were married."
"So that's what this is about?"
"This is about years of being told everything important belonged to the Bennett family before I ever arrived."
Daniel stared at her.
Laura had never spoken this openly.
Maybe resentment had been there for years.
Maybe he'd missed it.
That realization hurt, but it didn't erase what she'd done.
"You could have told me."
"I tried."
"When?"
"Every time I asked you to come home earlier."
"That's not the same conversation."
"Every time I asked you to take fewer trips."
"Still not the same conversation."
"Every time you told me, 'After this quarter.'"
Daniel looked away.
That part was true.
He remembered those promises.
After this project.
After this acquisition.
After the refinancing.
Life could always begin after the next deadline.
Laura's voice softened.
"I was lonely."
Daniel turned back.
"And Mark was available."
"He listened."
"Because he wanted my wife."
"You don't know that."
"I know he was in my closet."
She flinched.
Daniel sat at the desk.
"When did you first speak to the lawyer?"
"January."
It was August now.
Seven months.
"When did you first cross the line with Mark?"
Laura hesitated.
"March."
"Define cross the line."
"Daniel."
"I don't need details. I need dates."
She inhaled.
"We kissed in March."
"And after?"
"It became an affair."
"Where?"
Laura closed her eyes.
"Don't."
"Was it here first?"
"No."
"Where?"
"His apartment."
Daniel nodded.
For reasons he couldn't explain, that hurt slightly less.
Then another memory surfaced.
March.
A Wednesday.
Laura had told him she was having dinner with her college friend Emily.
She'd returned around eleven, showered immediately, and crawled into bed beside him.
Daniel had kissed her shoulder.
She had said she was tired.
He now wondered if that had been the night.
"Was it March seventeenth?"
Laura's face changed.
Daniel felt sick.
"Jesus."
"How do you remember?"
"Because I came home early."
She stared.
"I brought you flowers."
Laura sat down.
Daniel remembered the bouquet.
White roses.
He had placed them in the kitchen because she wasn't home.
When Laura arrived, she had smiled, kissed him, and said they were beautiful.
Then she'd gone upstairs.
"What did you do with the flowers?"
"Daniel, please."
"You kept them on the nightstand for a week."
"Stop."
"You slept with my best friend and came home to flowers from me."
Laura began crying.
This time Daniel didn't enjoy seeing her hurt.
He simply felt tired.
"Why Mark?"
"I didn't choose him because he was your friend."
"That seems like an important detail to accidentally ignore."
"He knew what our marriage was like."
"He knew what I told him."
Daniel looked at her sharply.
Mark had heard Daniel complain about work stress.
Occasionally about Laura.
Never viciously.
Normal frustrations between married people.
Had Mark collected those pieces and carried them to Laura?
"What did he tell you about me?"
Laura wiped her face.
"That you weren't happy either."
"Based on what?"
"He said you talked about feeling trapped."
Daniel frowned.
"I never said that."
"He said you did."
"I didn't."
"He said you told him if Sophie weren't involved, you would've left years ago."
Daniel stood.
"That is a lie."
Laura studied him.
"He was very specific."
"Then he was specifically lying."
For the first time, doubt entered her face.
Daniel saw it.
"What else?"
"He said there was someone at work."
Daniel almost laughed from disbelief.
"What?"
"A woman."
"Who?"
"Rachel."
Rachel Kim was Daniel's forty-three-year-old CFO, married with three children and one of Laura's acquaintances.
"Mark told you I was sleeping with Rachel?"
"He implied it."
"And you believed him?"
"I asked if you were having an affair."
"When?"
"Last winter."
Daniel remembered.
Laura had once asked whether there was "someone else."
He had laughed because the idea seemed absurd.
He'd kissed her and said he barely had enough energy for one family.
He had thought he'd reassured her.
Instead, she'd apparently interpreted his reaction differently.
"Why didn't you ask Rachel?"
"I felt stupid."
"So you slept with Mark."
"I didn't plan it!"
"But you had already seen the attorney."
Laura covered her face.
Daniel suddenly understood something uglier.
Mark hadn't just taken advantage of a troubled marriage.
He might have actively worsened it.
He picked up his phone.
"What are you doing?"
"Calling him."
"Don't."
"Why?"
"Because he'll tell you whatever makes him look better."
Daniel gave her a cold smile.
"That's okay."
He selected Mark's number.
"Right now I have two liars. I'm interested in finding out which one lies first."
Mark answered on the fourth ring.
"Daniel?"
"Did you tell Laura I was sleeping with Rachel?"
Silence.
Daniel looked at his wife.
Mark finally said, "It's not that simple."
Daniel closed his eyes.
That phrase again.
Then Mark added quietly:
"Laura told me you already knew about us."
Daniel looked up.
May you like
Laura's face went white.
And suddenly neither betrayer seemed to know which secret was about to destroy the other.
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