"You thought I was sleeping at my mother's house, so you brought her here. To our house. To our bedroom?"
Vanessa turned sharply toward Ethan. "You said we were just stopping here before going back out." Claire looked at her. Ethan's panic deepened. "We were."
"Were we?" Vanessa asked. "Yes." "Because you told me you had wine upstairs."
Brooke made a quiet sound of disgust. Claire went very still. For one dangerous second, Mason moved toward Ethan. Thomas caught his shoulder before he got more than two steps.
"Don't," Thomas said. Mason jerked his arm away. "He brought her into Claire's house." "I know what he did. Don't make this about something else."
Ethan looked at Claire. "Nothing happened here tonight." "Tonight," Claire repeated. The room quieted just enough for the word to land.
"How long?" she asked again. This time Ethan answered. "Six months."
Claire did not move. Margaret whispered his name as if it hurt to say it. Natalie sat down abruptly on the edge of the sofa. Claire's voice became very soft. "Six months."
"It wasn't constant." "Do you think that's a better number?" "I'm not trying to make it better." "Then what are you trying to do?"
He had no answer.
Claire thought backward six months. She could see the calendar in her mind, then specific days. Their anniversary. The weekend they visited Margaret after surgery. The morning Ethan held Claire while she cried on the third anniversary of their miscarriage.
The barbecue at Mason's apartment. The evening Ethan came home with flowers for no reason and Claire felt guilty for doubting him. "Were you with her on our anniversary trip?" she asked.
Ethan's face answered before his mouth did. Claire took a step back. "No," he said too late. "Not during the trip."
"But around then." "Claire." "Were you texting her while we were there?" Silence.
Claire pressed a hand against her stomach. Vanessa stared at Ethan. "You told me you were in Vermont with your brother." Mason laughed once in disbelief. "He doesn't have a brother."
Vanessa looked at him, then at Ethan.
Something in her expression changed completely. Until that moment she had been the other woman, embarrassed but defensive, still believing herself to be someone Ethan had confided in. Now she understood that even the intimacy of betrayal had been built from lies.
"You told me your brother was going through a divorce," she said. Ethan rubbed the back of his neck. "I didn't want to tell you I was with Claire." "So you invented a brother?"