Chapter Three
Sin
Enough
I booked a room at The Salamander because nearly all of them have a view of the Tidal Basin and a balcony. I sit in one of the chairs out there, phone in hand and heart hammering.
I had the cameras installed after someone broke into our apartment, ransacked my office, and stole my laptop.
I had the misfortune of coming home in the middle of the robbery and found myself staring at the barrel of a pistol. The masked man pointing it in my face shoved me to my knees and told me to close my eyes.
I begged him to take whatever he wanted and leave.
He told me to shut up and not look at him. I thought my life was over and all I could do was pray.
When I heard the door close behind him, the rush of relief nearly stopped my heart. But I was too scared to move.
I don’t know how long I sat there before I finally found the clarity to call the police.
By the time they arrived, the intruder was long gone and I was a useless witness who couldn’t describe anything but the gun he used. They took my statement, gave me a number to call to check on my case, and suggested I consider getting a personal firearm and installing security cameras.
After they left, I called Stephen to tell him what happened. He sent the call to voicemail. An hour later he texted me to let me know he was hopping on a flight for an impromptu basketball game in Houston and promised to call me when he landed.
In the aftermath of it all, I couldn’t bring myself to sleep in the apartment, so I checked into a hotel near my office. I called in sick for the next two days and used the time to apply for my federal firearms license and found someone to install the cameras.
The day I was supposed to go back to work, I woke up to an email from the editor in chief informing me that The Guardian had published an article that scooped mine.
He informed me that they wouldn’t run the article I’d just submitted for edits.
He also told me that they’d chosen someone else for the editor at large role. A role I’d been a shoo-in for.
It was the straw that broke my heart and my brain all at once. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew I couldn’t stay in this house, with that man, or at that paper another minute.
I replied to the email with my resignation, told my parents I was coming home for Easter early, and left a note on the fridge for Stephen.
When he finally called a week later, I’d already laid the foundation for my next act. And decided that he wouldn’t play a starring role in it.
It had taken another week for me to feel ready to tell him.
He may not be the love of my life, but he wasn’t always a terrible boyfriend, and I’d decided he deserved to hear it in person.
But if the video I glimpsed is what I suspect, what he really deserves might land me in handcuffs.
I steel myself and open the app with trembling fingers and press play.
They go from talking, to kissing, to fumbling with zippers in less than sixty seconds.
My stomach lurches as I watch them fuck on my desk.
It’s over as quickly as it started but they don’t leave. She sits in my chair, puts her feet up on my desk and laughs. I press the volume-up button a half dozen times before I realize the sound is connected to my earbuds.
I walk over to fish in my bag for them.
As soon as I find them though, I change my mind. I’ve taken enough L’s today.
Numb and reeling, I sit outside until the sun has set.
The phrase “To catch a sinner you’ve got to think like one” was something I used to say all the time. I never imagined I would apply it to the man I shared years of my life with.
But I can’t pretend I didn’t see him drilling his dick into the woman who just so happened to write an article lifted from my research days after my laptop was stolen.
I didn’t even know he knew her.
He must think I’m the world’s biggest fool.
Maybe he was right.
But my eyes are wide open now.
As for the woman, she may think she won, but the story she stole isn’t even the tip of the iceberg.
I text Leon. “Tell your friend I’ll talk to her about this Oz. Let’s nail him and everyone around him to the wall.”
I put my phone on DND, climb in the shower, and wait for the sadness to come. It doesn’t. When I climb out, I’m angry and resolved.
I’m not sure what this next chapter of my life will be but I’m sure that this one is over. It’s time to move on.