The Private Serials Box Set(8)

Derrek picked up his briefcase, never putting the little girl down, and walked toward the door and the woman. When they met, he leaned into her and pressed a kiss to her mouth and lingered there, their kiss obviously deep and heated. Then, he bent down a little and pressed a kiss to the forehead of the small child she held. They all turned and went into the perfect house.

“Holy shit.” Sam’s voice was quiet and confounded. “Holy,” she said louder and turned to me. “Shit.”

“Sam, please drive away now,” I muttered.

“Holy shit!” she said as she put the car in drive and made a U-turn, taking us out of the neighborhood without driving past the house. “What in holy hell did we just see, Lena?”

“I think we just found the answer to our question, Sam. Derrek is definitely cheating on me.”

“Yeah, no shit.” She looked at me with worried eyes. “Sorry, Lena. That just came out. Are you okay?”

No. No, I wasn’t. I was currently longing for the orange, Cheeto-dust-filled laughter I’d had about an hour earlier, before I knew for sure my husband was cheating. Only, he wasn’t just cheating. No, what he was doing was so much more than cheating. He had a whole other life – a family – an hour outside the city.

Suddenly, I was questioning my own sanity. Questioning whether I had an accurate or firm grip on reality. I had spent the last seven years of my life married to Derrek, hadn’t I? We shared a house and a life and a history, right? How, if what I had seen minutes before was true, if he did in fact have a whole other life, hadn’t I noticed? How could I have not realized what was going on around me? How did you keep an entire family hidden?

“I’m so confused,” I whispered.

“No f*cking shit, Lena. What the hell is going on?” Sam sounded frantic, like her grip on reality was also in question.

“Derrek seems to be leading a double life,” I said, sounding astonishingly calmer than I was feeling. “Although, truth be told, in order to be leading a double life, both lives have to be real lives. Obviously, he’s focusing more on his other life than the one he’s leading with me.”

“Do you think those were his children?” Sam pondered.

“What other conclusion are we to jump to? What other plausible explanation can there be?”

“Does he have a sister? Could those be his nieces or something?”

“I think I’d rather him be leading a double life than think about him kissing his sister like that. Plus, no, he doesn’t have any siblings.” I took a deep breath in. I knew he was cheating; there was no other explanation. And I knew why the deception was taken to this level. I felt my stomach bottom out and saliva start to pool in my mouth. “Sam, pull over,” I cried, my hand coming to cover my mouth. Luckily, we were still in suburbia, so she was able to veer the car to the curb quickly. I opened the door, stumbled out, and I threw up onto the sidewalk. I retched and heaved until there was nothing left in my stomach, and I immediately regretted the neon orange Cheetos.

“Here,” Sam said as I climbed back into the car, handing me a bottle of water left over from our snack attack earlier.

“Thanks.” I took a sip.

“You all right?” she asked softly.

“Sam, do me a favor and don’t ask me dumb questions. I’m not okay. This is not okay.”

“Well, what are we going to do now?”

“Can you please just take me home?”



When we finally made it back to my house Sam was reluctant to leave me there alone, but I made her drive away, needing some time to myself.

“If he comes back tonight and you need someone, call me, Lena. Okay?”

“Sure,” I said, unconvincingly. Sam reached across the console and wrapped her arms around my shoulders, hugging me close.

“I’m so sorry, Lena. If I thought we were going to see him, see that, I wouldn’t have ever pushed you to do this.” Her voice was a quiet whisper, and I could hear the remorse and guilt lacing her words.

“It’s not your fault, Sam.” She didn’t respond, just squeezed me a little harder. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

When I entered the house, I pushed the door shut behind me and stood in the foyer, listening to the silence. The darkness wrapped around me, the quiet flooding the black space. I’d lived in this house for six years, but never had it felt this huge, empty, or cold.

I took a deep breath and made my way back to my bedroom, walking the entire way in the dark. I didn’t need any light. I knew the hallways well enough, and every once in a while I’d pass a room with windows and the moonlight granted me a little visibility. But I didn’t want to see the house. I didn’t want to see the pictures hanging on the wall. I didn’t want to see the couch in the living room Derrek and I made love on multiple times. I didn’t want to see his clothes still hanging in the closet.

I walked back to our bedroom and went to my side of the bed, trying to keep my eyes from wandering to his. I slid my shoes off my feet, leaving them to rest on the floor by my bedside table, then peeled off my ridiculous black outfit, and crawled into bed. The cool sheets felt good on my skin, overheated from the events of the evening, my blood running hot from what I’d seen. I rolled toward the window so I wasn’t facing Derrek’s side of the bed, and I placed my hands underneath my cheek, and gazed out into the darkness.