Chapter 16 - THE KISSDerek told me about the kiss before discovery found it.
Maybe that mattered.
Maybe he knew discovery would find it anyway.
Chicago.
April 25.
After the dinner from the expense report.
Five weeks before his vasectomy.
More than two months before my positive test.
He and Jessica drank at the hotel bar.
Talked about our marriage.
My miscarriages.
His fear.
His decision not to have children.
Jessica said:
“Maybe you keep trying to fix a life you don’t actually want.”
Derek asked what that meant.
She kissed him.
He kissed her back.
How long?
He said seconds.
People always say seconds.
Could have been.
Then he stopped.
Went to his room alone.
He did not tell me.
He returned home.
Nine days later, he and I had sex.
Then again shortly before the vasectomy.
Jessica knew he had not ended our marriage after Chicago.
She knew he was still sleeping with me.
She knew the surgery was May 30.
And when I became pregnant, she saw an opportunity.
Not necessarily a plot designed months earlier.
An opportunity.
If the baby was another man’s, Derek could leave without being the husband who had emotionally betrayed a grieving wife.
He could become the injured party.
Jessica could become comfort rather than cause.
Derek could hate me instead of looking at himself.
May you like
That was a powerful story.
They both wanted it.
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