“He asked whether you knew Prescott.”
“I didn’t.”
“I told him that.”
“And?”
“And Sam didn’t believe me.”
A sound came from the crib.
I turned.
Lily shifted beneath her blanket but remained asleep.
“What does Sam have to do with my marriage?” I whispered.
“That’s complicated.”
“Try.”
Ethan was silent for so long I thought the call had dropped.
Then he said, “The woman in the pictures.”
Every muscle in my body went still.
“What woman?”
“The pictures you saw online. The ones of me.”
My mouth went dry.
The photographs that had ended our marriage.
Ethan at a restaurant with a beautiful dark-haired woman.
Ethan leaving a hotel lobby with his hand at her back.
Ethan sitting beside her at a rooftop bar.
He had never denied knowing her.
He had only refused to explain.
“What about her?”
“She’s Sam’s sister.”
I stared into the dark window.
“My God.”
“Elena—”
“You cheated on me with your best friend’s sister?”
“No.”
“You expect me to believe that now?”
“I never touched her.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You stayed at a hotel with her.”
“I met her in the lobby.”
“You were photographed going upstairs.”
“Because we had a meeting in a conference room.”
“At eleven thirty at night?”
“Yes.”
“That is absurd.”
“I know how it looks.”
“You knew how it looked when you refused to explain it!”
“I couldn’t explain it.”
“Why?”
“Because Rebecca was trying to help me.”
“With what?”
“Northbridge.”
I stopped pacing.
The room suddenly felt very cold.
“Rebecca?”
“That’s her name.”
I remembered comments under the photographs.
Mystery brunette.
New romance.
Dallas socialite.
Not once had I seen her actual name.
“What was she helping you find?”
“Proof.”
“Of what?”
“I’m not discussing this over the phone.”
I almost screamed.
“You called me!”
“Because seeing you beside Adrian Prescott changed things.”
“How?”
“Because Sam has been asking about Prescott for months.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Stop saying that!”
“I don’t know everything, Elena!”
For the first time, his voice cracked.
Not with anger.
Fear.
Genuine fear.
I had heard Ethan worried.
Frustrated.
Exhausted.
I could not remember hearing him afraid.
He lowered his voice.
“I found discrepancies in Northbridge’s records almost three years ago. Medical supplies paid for but never delivered. Orders changed after approval. Inventory numbers altered.”
“What does that have to do with you?”
