Want to Know a Secret? (50)

What to do? As far as I can tell, there are two options. He can stay with his wife, or he can leave me for the woman over ten years younger who’s pregnant with his baby.

Elliot hangs his head. “Do you want me to stay at a hotel tonight?”

Well, I don’t want him in my bed. I can barely even look at him right now. But at the same time, I have a bad feeling that if I tell him to leave, he’ll go straight to her. And I don’t want that right now. I don’t want her to be the good guy, while I’m the bad guy. Because the truth of the matter is that as angry as I am, I don’t want my family to fall apart. Not like this.

“You can sleep on the sofa,” I say.

“Thank you.” He pushes his hand against the cushion of our leather sofa. It’s a very comfortable sofa. “I just need a pillow and a blanket…”

“Wait,” I say.

He raises his eyebrows.

“I don’t want you to sleep on the sofa,” I say. “I want you to sleep on the floor.”

Elliot looks doubtfully at the hardwood floor. “Well, that’s fine. I’ll just lie on the carpet.”

“No. Not the carpet. The floor.”

He’s quiet for a moment. “Okay. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“Damn right.” Except it’s not enough. Not even close.

Elliot chews on his lower lip. “I’m so sorry, April. I know I messed up. But I love you, and I promise, this is going to be okay. I’m going to fix it.”

How? How on earth is this going to be okay? I can’t even imagine it. But there’s no point in arguing. “Good night, Elliot.”

I head up the stairs, but there’s no chance of being able to sleep. I know Elliot claims he’s going to fix this, but I can’t figure out a way he could possibly do it.





Chapter 30


When I wake up the next morning, I get the surprise of my life: Elliot is cooking breakfast.

He’s scrambling some eggs in a frying pan. I didn’t know he was capable of such a thing. The other surprise is that Bobby is fully dressed and sitting at the kitchen table, eating the eggs. I feel like I’ve walked into an alternate dimension.

“Hi, honey.” Elliot lifts his spatula and waves at me. “I figured you might need to sleep in, so I got Bobby up and made breakfast.”

I get what he’s doing. He’s on his best behavior because he’s trying to get me to forgive him for what he did. Yeah, right.

“Well, thank you,” I say stiffly. I look over at the pan, where the eggs have turned slightly brown. But that’s okay. I think I might faint from shock if he cooked them perfectly.

“Also,” he adds, “I’m going to work from home today, so I’ll be around to watch Bobby when you go to your book club tonight.”

My book club. I forgot it was tonight, although I do have the date posted on the refrigerator. I even read the book for a change. But I can’t possibly go, given the circumstances.

Although…

I got an email yesterday about a meeting between the administration and the PTA leaders. The meeting is supposed to be tonight. That means Julie won’t be at the book club. Which means I’ll be there without her and have a chance to tell people my side of the story.

“Okay,” I say stiffly. “I appreciate that.”

He looks like he’s going to lean in to try to kiss me, but then he thinks better of it. Smart boy.

I do the drive-through drop off again with Bobby. I can’t even contemplate getting out of my car and standing by the entrance when Julie and Maria will be there. I can’t face either of them. So instead, I pull up beside the school, and say to Bobby, “Okay, time to get out.”

“How come you don’t walk me to the door anymore?” he asks.

The teacher facilitating the drop off is giving me a dirty look. “I think you’re old enough to do the drop off now.”

Bobby considers this for a moment. “How come Dad slept in the living room last night?”

Somebody leans into their horn behind me. For God’s sake…

“Bobby, we’ll talk about this later, okay?”

Thank God he accepts that and gets out of the damn car. I speed away before the person behind me can honk again.

As I drive back home, I tick off all the reasons to try to keep my family together right now. But the reason I keep coming back to is Bobby. When I was growing up, it was just me and my mother. I want something better for Bobby. A mother and father in the same house. If I throw Elliot out, I’m taking that away from him.

I’ve got to find a way to make this work.

Tonight after book club, I’m going to sit down with Elliot and we’re going to figure out what to do next. We’ve got a really big problem, but there’s got to be a way out. We just have to figure it out.

But as I pull into our driveway, I get the surprise of my life.

It’s Brianna.

On my street.

And she just came out of Maria’s house.





Chapter 31


For a moment, all I can do is stare.

What the hell is Brianna doing here? Did she come to see Elliot? That makes some sort of sense, but why was she at Maria’s house? That part doesn’t make sense at all.

She looks great too. Her blond hair is long and glossy, her legs look long and sleek in her skinny pants, and her face is glowing. She’s got a pregnancy glow. A pregnancy glow from my husband’s baby.