No movement.
“The upstairs hallway.”
Jessica’s face changed.
Not all at once.
Confusion.
Recognition.
Fear.
Calculation.
Then something Chuck never expected.
Defiance.
She leaned against the doorframe.
“Who sent you that?”
Chuck almost laughed.
“That’s your question?”
“Chuck.”
“Was it Ryan?”
“No.”
“Tyler?”
“No.”
“Then what happened?”
Jessica looked down.
“Nothing you want to hear.”
Chuck stood.
His knees felt weak.
He gripped the desk.
“Try me.”
Jessica’s voice dropped.
“I was angry.”
“So?”
“You were never there.”
“So?”
“Ryan and Tyler were listening.”
Chuck stared.
“They were my best friends.”
“I know.”
“No.”
“You know that as a sentence.”
“I’m asking whether you understand what you did.”
Jessica’s eyes filled.
“You became impossible to reach.”
Chuck flinched.
She continued.
“You think paying bills is the same as being married.”
“You think planning vacations five years from now means something when we barely talk today.”
Chuck wanted to defend himself.
The worst part was that some of what she said was true.
He had withdrawn.
He had worked too much.
He had treated stability like intimacy.
But the truth inside her criticism did not excuse everything around it.
“So you slept with them.”
Jessica looked away.
The confirmation came through silence.
“Both?”
She nodded once.
Chuck felt something inside him go strangely still.
“How long?”
“It wasn’t…”
“How long?”
Jessica started crying.
“Almost a year.”
Chuck sat.
A year.
For nearly a year, he had cooked dinner with men who were sleeping with his wife.
Prepared taxes for one.
Loaned money to the other.
Golfed.
Texted.
Celebrated birthdays.
A year.
Jessica stepped closer.
“I never meant for this to happen.”
Chuck looked at her.
“You walked upstairs.”
She stopped.
“What?”
“That night.”
“You walked through the door.”
“Don’t say it just happened.”
Jessica covered her face.
“I was lonely.”
“So was I.”
That silenced her.
Chuck stood again.
“I was lonely in the same marriage.”
She stared.
“I didn’t do this.”
Jessica whispered:
“I’m sorry.”
Chuck walked past her.
He entered the kitchen.
Filled a glass with water.
Sat at the table.
Jessica followed.
“We can fix it.”
Chuck looked at the water.
“I don’t know.”
“I love you.”
He almost asked which version of him she loved.
The provider?
The husband?