“Yes.”
“Then you know why I came back.”
“Not nearly enough.”
Victoria said she’d meet me somewhere public, without the children.
We chose a cafe near the library that afternoon.
She arrived carrying a canvas folder.
She was about 40, with short black hair and a tired face.
“Emily and I met in college,” she said.
I had never heard of her.
“We shared an apartment before she married Marcus,” she added.
“Why didn’t I know you?”
“I moved away for work. We stayed close, but I wasn’t at every family event.”
She slid several photographs across the table.
Emily and her at graduation.
Emily holding a newborn Lily.
Emily and Victoria laughing beside a kitchen counter.
“When did you learn about the affair?” I asked.
“About two months before the accident. She called me crying from a grocery store parking lot.”
Emily had found messages on a shared tablet.
Marcus had been meeting a coworker named Andrea, telling her he was unhappy at home.
