Before She Knew Him(76)

Hen didn’t have Joanna’s cell phone number, of course, and she almost considered calling Lloyd and demanding he give it to her, but even if he did give her the number he’d probably manage to call Joanna up first, or at least text her, and warn her about the impending phone call. Hen wanted the element of surprise.

She called Rob, who picked up almost instantly.

“You couldn’t open them?” he said into the phone.

“What?” she said, figuring he thought she was someone else.

“The pictures I sent you. I realized after I sent them that maybe I should have reformatted them.”

“Oh, the bonfire pictures,” Hen said. “I haven’t even gotten them yet, but I’m calling for another reason.”

“You haven’t gotten them yet? I sent them right after we talked.”

“Maybe it went to spam, Rob. Listen, I’m calling because I need Joanna’s phone number, and I thought you’d probably have it.”

“Sure,” he said. “It’s her phone number from a year ago, but I doubt it’s changed. What do you need it for?”

“I just need to talk with her. It’s important.” Hen hoped that the truth, however vague, would be enough.

“Let me get it for you,” Rob said, his voice already faint, Hen realizing that he was probably scrolling through his phone right now. “Okay, ready?”

He read her the number while she wrote it down in her sketchbook with a pencil.

“Thanks, Rob, you’re awesome,” Hen said.

“Not a problem, but I’m confused. Why do you want to talk with her?”

“She’s been having an affair with Lloyd for a year and I wanted to hear her side of the story.”

Rob laughed, more of a snorting sound, then said, “Really?”

“Really.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Thanks for the number.”

Hen didn’t think that Rob would call up Joanna to warn her, but just in case, she instantly dialed the number she’d written down in her sketchbook. After two rings, Joanna’s voice, deeper than she remembered, said a tentative “Hello?”

“Joanna, it’s Henrietta Mazur . . . Lloyd’s wife.”

There was about a two-second pause, long enough for Hen to think that Joanna had quietly ended the call, but then came Joanna’s voice, saying, “Hi, Hen.”

“Joanna, I don’t know if Lloyd’s talked to you, but I’m guessing he has. I know everything. He told me everything.” Even as she said the words, she knew they were untrue. No one knows everything.

“Hen, I just want to say that I am so, so sorry. I don’t expect you to ever forgive me. I don’t deserve it, I know, but please understand—”

“Joanna, it’s okay. I’m not calling to yell at you. I’m just calling . . . I don’t know why I’m calling. I guess I want to hear your side of the story and not just Lloyd’s.”

“Okay,” Joanna said, and took a long, audible breath. “When did . . . What did Lloyd tell you?”

“You haven’t talked with him yet?”

“Um . . . briefly. He’d told me that for a while he’d been planning on finally letting you know about . . . what had happened.”

“He didn’t let me know, actually. I figured it out, and then he confessed to it.”

“Oh.”

Hen could tell Joanna hadn’t been told about these recent developments and that she was trying to catch up, trying to figure out what she should and should not say.

“He hasn’t talked with you, has he?” Hen asked.

“I think I should go.”

“Joanna, he told me you two were over, that you broke up over the last weekend you were together.”

“He told you that?”

“Yes.”

Hen heard what sounded like an exasperated sigh. “Can I ask you something, Hen?”

“Okay.”

“Have the two of you been talking about getting a divorce?”

“What do you mean? Like recently, now that I know about you and Lloyd?”

“No, I mean before. Like for the past six months.”

“We just bought a fucking house together. No, we haven’t been talking about divorce. Is that what he’s been telling you?”

“Maybe he’s implied—”

“Implied that we were going to get divorced?”

“Is that not happening?” Joanna actually laughed. “He told me you were both unhappy, that things weren’t going well, that you bought the house to try and save the marriage.”

“None of that is remotely true. I mean, maybe it was true in his own mind, but we never had a conversation about any of that. He’s never told me he’s unhappy. It was a total shock for me that he was having an affair.”

Silence again. Then Joanna said, “I’m sorry. I never would have—”

“You can stop saying you’re sorry. Did you think . . . Are you planning on being with Lloyd?”

“I hadn’t planned anything, exactly, but I did think that you and him were breaking up. And I did think that it might work out between us. Jesus, have I been a total idiot?”

“Well, if you’ve been an idiot, then so have I.”