I remember steadying myself with both hands on the counter so that I didn’t fall off the bar stool.
Was I losing my mind? Had my husband’s mistress just told me that my husband loved me? I had had to hear that from her? That bitch!
And what did she mean by “just one of those things”? Something inevitable? Chemical? Ordained?
And Joe.
How could he have lied to me, cheated on me, made a fool of me and our marriage and everything I felt for him?
Who was he? Who was this man I had married?
Joe had said to me last night, Do we ever really know anyone?
What was I going to do?
What the hell was I going to do? I had a baby on the way. Our baby.
Joe’s phone rang in front of me again.
I stared at June’s name, picked up the phone, clicked to connect, then disconnected instantly. I didn’t want to talk to her and I didn’t want her to leave a message for Joe.
I grabbed the phone, went to the half bath off the kitchen, lifted the lid off the toilet tank, and dropped the phone into the water. I stared at it. It was ringing again.
And then it stopped.
What was I going to do?
As if a message had floated up from the inky depths of a Magic 8 Ball, I knew.
Chapter 65
I TURNED THE doorknob and, using my hip and shoulder as a battering ram, shoved the door open. The racket startled Joe out of his sound sleep.
I’d wanted to scare him, but I hadn’t thought he would go for his gun. His hand shot under the bed and he was bringing it up when he saw that the intruder was me, a version of me he’d rarely seen. I was so angry.
“Lindsay. What’s wrong?”
The shouting began.
“What’s wrong is you and June Freundorfer. How could you do this to me, Joe?”
He was sitting up in bed now, looking at me with stark bewilderment.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t bother to lie. She told me everything.”
“Told you what? Lindsay, we went to a benefit. I didn’t get a chance to tell you about it, but I wasn’t keeping it from you.”
“A benefit. Isn’t that what it’s called these days? A friend with benefits?”
“I don’t understand why she called you.”
“She called you.”
“I see. So you intercepted the call.”
I said, “Joe, how could you do this to us?”