Chapter 12 #2
“I’m sorry, I think I dialed the wrong number.” Mandy hung up quickly and looked back at the bill. There were several calls to Margie in the first two weeks of the month. She took a deep breath and dialed the next unfamiliar number.
This time, the call went to voicemail. “You’ve reached Sharon Jones, and I’m sorry I missed your call. Leave a message.”
Sharon was mostly in the second half of the month. And in the last week, there was one more number. She dialed it and waited. It rang four times, and she thought it was about to go to voicemail when a breathless voice answered.
“Hello?”
Mandy froze for a moment. “I’m not sure I have the right number. Is this Nancy Smith?”
“No, it’s Anna Davis.”
“I’m so sorry.” Mandy hung up and sat down on the bed to catch her breath. She was out of tears. She’d cried enough so far, and now she was mad. She grabbed a piece of paper and jotted down their names so she wouldn’t forget.
It was a quarter to ten by the time she heard Cory’s Uber pull into the driveway.
The house was quiet, as the kids were in bed.
Mandy had curled up in the living room, watching a movie and sipping a glass of chardonnay.
She was trying to stay calm, but since nine, she’d been watching the clock and jumping every time she heard a car outside.
She was dreading the conversation with Cory.
Mandy had never enjoyed conflict or arguments of any kind.
She liked everyone to be happy and get along.
The front door opened, and Cory walked in with his travel bag slung over his shoulder. He looked tired and smiled when he saw her.
“I wasn’t sure you’d still be up. I thought I’d be home earlier.”
Mandy looked at him carefully. “How was your trip? Did you have a good time?”
He grinned. “We did. Vegas was a blast. I can’t believe I waited so long to go there.”
“Your conference was good too?” She had no idea what it was about or who he was with.
“It was fantastic. A great exchange of ideas and good networking.”
“Who else did you say went?”
“Jim and John from the Boston office and Daisy. It was a good group.”
“Daisy went?” Cory hadn’t even asked her if she wanted to go. Not that she did, but she was surprised to hear that Daisy went with them.
“Didn’t I tell you? She’s working in the Boston office now too, training to be an analyst. She loves the business.”
“No, you didn’t mention that. I had no idea about Daisy. I thought she liked not working and doing her charity stuff.”
“I think she got a little bored with all that and was looking for something more challenging.”
“Well, I can certainly relate to that.” Mandy couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of her voice, and Cory just nodded.
“I’m going to head upstairs and unpack. I’ll be back down in a bit.”
She watched him go, waited a few minutes, and went up after him. He was just about finished unpacking when she walked in the room. And he hadn’t noticed the bill on the bureau yet. He looked up and smiled when he saw her. Mandy went to the bureau, picked up the bill, and handed it to him.
“This fell out of your gym bag when I was emptying it to do laundry.”
He looked surprised but just took the bill and stuffed it in his briefcase.
“Thanks.”
“So who is Scott Lawson?”
There was a long, uncomfortable silence. Mandy waited with her arms crossed. Cory looked down, and she could sense his wheels turning, trying to come up with an explanation. Finally, he laughed.
“Yeah, it’s a funny story. I thought I’d lost my cell phone, but I was also pretty sure it was going to turn up so I didn’t want to get a new phone with the same name and number.
This way, I figured I’d just have a backup phone.
And I was right. Turned out I left my phone in the Boston office.
Patrick overnighted it to me the next day.
But in the meantime, I couldn’t be without a phone. You know how that is.”
“What’s funny is if that is true, you never mentioned it to me.”
Cory just stared at her, saying nothing. Did he really expect her to buy that ridiculous story?
“Who are Margie, Sharon Jones, and Anna Davis?” Mandy glared at him.
A look of shock flashed across his face. But he quickly recovered and tried again.
“They’re new high-net-worth clients.” But he didn’t look her in the eye. He just stared at the floor, saying nothing.
“I’m not an idiot, Cory. You didn’t call anyone else. I don’t know who they are, but they’re not new clients. What’s really going on?”
Finally, he sighed. “Okay, I messed up. I’m sorry. I used that phone and my middle name for a discreet dating site. Nantucket is a small place, so I had to be careful.”
Of all the things she imagined him saying, going on a dating site wasn’t it.
“A discreet dating site? You were online dating?”
“Well, not exactly dating. It was no secret that I was married. That’s why it’s called discreet.”
“So you were hooking up with random strangers? Why?” Mandy stepped back and wondered who this person was that she was married to.
“None of it meant anything. It has nothing to do with you. It was just something I needed to do. It’s hard to explain.”
“Well, try. I’d love to know why my husband thought it was a good idea to find other women to sleep with online.”
“It was just a release. And the thrill of doing something forbidden. I’m not proud to admit that, but it’s true. I didn’t care about any of those women. I love you. I won’t do it again, I promise.”
Mandy’s jaw dropped. “You’re serious? You expect me to forgive that and act as though it never happened?”
A panicky look crossed Cory’s face. He wasn’t used to people saying no. “I swear I’ll make it up to you. I don’t want to lose you.”
“You should have thought of that before you got your second phone and placed that ad. I think you should leave.”
“Now?”
Mandy sighed. It was after ten. “No. You can stay here tonight. But tomorrow, you need to go. I can’t forgive this, Cory.
It’s too big.” She sniffed and looked around for a tissue.
She tried to keep the tears back, but they fell hard.
Cory took a step toward her and looked like he wanted to hug her.
She sidestepped him and walked toward the door.
“I’m so sorry, Mandy. I never intended to hurt you.” He did sound sorry, but she knew he was probably more sorry that he got caught than anything else.
“I’m going to sleep in the guest bedroom tonight,” she said.
“You don’t have to. I’m happy to sleep there,” he offered.
But Mandy didn’t want to sleep in their bedroom tonight. There was too much Cory in that room, and she wanted to be far away.
“No, you have it. Enjoy your last night in our bed, alone.”
The next morning, Mandy was in the kitchen making a cup of coffee when Cory walked up to her and looked like he’d been crying too. She was surprised to see it, but it didn’t change anything. She’d cried more last night than she’d thought possible until she finally fell asleep.
“Can we talk about this? What can I do to make it up to you? I’ll do anything.” He flashed the smile that used to melt her heart. It only made her want to cry again, and she’d told herself she was done crying.
“There’s really nothing to talk about. I’m not going to change my mind. It’s over.”
He sighed. “I thought maybe you’d think more about it and want to try to save our marriage. I’d even be willing to go to counseling.”
“I don’t see how counseling can fix this, Cory. How can I trust you again? And what kind of example would I be setting for our children?”
He was silent for a moment before saying, “They’d never need to know. We could pretend this never happened.”
“Maybe you could, but I couldn’t. You should call a Realtor and see about getting yourself a rental or buying something, whatever you prefer.
In the meantime, there are plenty of hotels and bed-and-breakfasts for you to choose from.
Just let us know where you decide to stay, and we can figure out some kind of visitation for the kids. ”
He nodded. “Okay. I’ll go pack a suitcase. I can get the rest of my stuff this weekend, maybe?”
“That’s fine.”
“Maybe we could just separate for a while, take a break, and then maybe revisit things?” His tone was hopeful, but Mandy shook her head.
“I don’t think I’m going to change my mind, Cory. I’ll let you know if I do. Right now, I just can’t be around you.”
He nodded. “Okay, we don’t need to rush into anything. But whatever you want to do, I’ll support. Again, I’m really sorry, Mandy.”
Mandy felt the tears threaten again, and she tried to channel her anger to keep them at bay. She did not want to cry again in front of Cory. He wasn’t worth crying about. She picked up her coffee cup and turned to head into the sunroom.
“Bye, Cory. Let me know when you get settled somewhere.”