Chapter 4 - The Children's Legos
After the kids were asleep that night, I sat down on the playroom floor and just looked at the room.
It looked so ordinary.
A Lego brick was wedged under the couch where the two of them had been kneeling.
A stuffed rabbit was face-down on the rug.
Everything looked the same, but nothing felt the same.
My sister Janelle called me around nine, and I told her everything I had seen and heard that afternoon.
She listened without interrupting, and then she said something that stuck with me.
"Claire, don't let that woman disappear into a rumor.
If she's real, she's got answers you need."
I thought about it for a long time.
I didn't want to talk to Rebecca.
I wanted to erase her from my house and from my memory.
But Janelle was right.
If I let her fade away, Daniel would control the whole story.
So the next morning, I found Rebecca's number in Daniel's phone — I had made him unlock it in front of me the day before — and I sent her a short message.
"This is Claire.
I need to talk to you.
Coffee.
Tomorrow.
One hour."
She agreed within ten minutes.
We met at a small coffee shop near the river, far from my neighborhood, because I couldn't stand the idea of someone I knew seeing us together.
Rebecca was already there when I walked in.
She was tall, with red hair pulled back and a gray coat, and she looked tired rather than guilty.
I sat down across from her and didn't order anything.
"How old are you?"
I asked her.
"Thirty-four," she said.
"How do you know my husband?"
She folded her hands on the table.
"I do freelance design.
I met him about eight months ago through a project at his company."
Eight months.
I felt my stomach drop.
"And what did he tell you about me?"
Rebecca looked down for a second, and then she looked right at me.
"He told me you two were separated.
He said the playroom was where you two were sorting out a divorce."
I had to grip the edge of the table so I wouldn't scream in public.
Divorce.
Daniel and I had never even used that word.
"He told me you were never around," she went on.
"He said you were always at your father's, and that the marriage was basically over."
My father had fallen in April and I had spent weeks helping him recover.
That was the time Daniel was using as his cover.
I couldn't speak for a moment.
"Did you ever come to my house?"
I asked.
She nodded slowly.
"A few times.
He said it was easier than hotels."
I wanted to throw my coffee in her face, and I also wanted to cry, and I did neither.
Because the worst part was that Rebecca didn't look like a home-wrecker.
She looked like someone who had been told a story and believed it.
"I didn't know you had children," she said quietly.
"I swear to you, I didn't know about the kids until I saw the toys."
I don't know if that made it better or worse.
We sat in silence for a long time.
Then I asked the question I had been holding in my chest all night.
"Did he ever say he loved you?"
Rebecca hesitated.
"Yes," she said.
"But now I don't know what he meant by it."
I stood up and left without finishing my coffee.
I didn't thank her.
I didn't forgive her.
But on the drive home, I realized something I hadn't expected.
Daniel hadn't just betrayed me.
He had built a whole fake life and sold it to both of us.
